EOT for care provider

Everycare (Central Hants) Ltd sell to Employee Ownership Trust

Website
https://www.everycarehants.co.uk/care/

Employee Ownership Trust sale for care provider, Everycare (Central Hants) Ltd

What does the business do?

Everycare (Central, Hants) provides live-in care and domiciliary support to individuals in their own homes in the Winchester area.

How did you get started as a care provider?

Everycare (Central, Hants) is part of the Everycare UK franchise and was taken on in the Winchester area by Mike Frizzell in March 2010. Mike had enjoyed a successful career as a finance director in various roles yet he’d also been made redundant more than once. Facing this again in his mid 50s, he made the decision to run his own business.

For him, a franchise business was a common sense choice. He wanted to use his financial know-how, and didn’t have his own ‘big business idea’. He was joined by a friend initially and together they employed a care manager from the outset to bring a knowledge of the care sector into the business.

Initially, prior to being registered with the CQC (Care Quality Commission), Mike, his business partner and care manager supplied staff to work shifts within care homes. Later they were able to become a care provider once they were registered by the CQC – a requirement of a care provider supplying personal care.

Today the business has five members of staff to run operations and employs around 50 carers providing care out in the community.

Why was change needed? (in the words of Mike Frizzell)

“There were two main reasons why I made the decision to start to step back from the business. One was my age, as I’m now 66. The other was change of government. With a new Labour government, I felt the time was right to plan my exit. It’s highly likely there will be more costs for employers and it was time, for me, to hand over responsibility for such changes to someone else.

I wanted to start to move away and spend time doing other things that I enjoy. I’m a very practical and active person. I enjoy orienteering and already take part in that hobby on a weekly basis and would like to do more of it. I enjoy gardening and have designed and landscaped my own garden but I need to catch up on those important tasks in the garden.

Also next year, I want to free up time to support my daughter. She’s building her own business as a qualified nutritional therapist, supporting many of her clients online. I plan to support her with her digital marketing strategy as well as keeping a handle on the finances.”

Why did Employee Ownership seem right for your care provision business?

“I heard about it through another company with expertise in this area, and I attended a couple of webinars about it. For me, it felt this could be a great and neat option for me. As a franchisee, I’d seen other franchisees struggle to pass on the business or sell it to a third party without incurring costs imposed from the franchisor. It’s not a straightforward situation when you run a franchise.

This option appeared better for the team, tax efficient for me personally and also the franchise owner was on board with the idea too. There was another reason, and that was that it didn’t require disclosure of sensitive information about my company to third parties who wanted to buy the company or were simply fishing for information about how we conducted our business.

It was a solution which also supported our clients. They wouldn’t be aware of any changes in the everyday operation of the business. Hence no anxiety or worry for them.”

Why did you choose Go EO?

“When I did my research I found that Go EO was half the price of the other options I explored. That was a key factor, there’s no getting away from it.

When I spoke to founder Chris Maslin, he was straightforward and he’d been through the process himself. They’re keen to keep things simple, and I didn’t want anything exceptional or different. I simply wanted to get the job done.

In fact, Chris did explain that we could have gone through the process even more quickly than we did. I kept the timeline a little longer to allow for any unforeseen delays.

The reality was that it was all done smoothly and all happened on the day I planned.”

What was it like working with Go EO?

“Working with Chris and his team was easy and efficient. Chris was very good and mindful of taking the team through the process too. He was happy to have a Zoom call with the team, allowing them to ask as many questions. He’s also offered a follow up with them now it’s all gone through.

In other news, I’ve now been asked to talk about this type of exit strategy with other franchisees who may see it as a possible solution should they decide to retire or exit their own businesses.”

Mike – what will you do now within the business?

“I’m still a director and I will offer any help and support as needed. I’ll gradually reduce the time I’m in the office and I’ll be less hands on operationally. I only live four miles away so I will be on hand if needed.

I’ll continue to keep an eye on business finances, as that’s been such an important part of the company. I have always done our accounts on a monthly basis so that we have up-to-date and ongoing data to monitor our growth and the financial health of the business.”

Go EO’s comments

“Care provision has featured a lot in the news over the last decade. Often in an unfortunate way, that it’s relatively low paid work. Changing to an EOT won’t suddenly change that, but it will mean the carers there will enjoy a share of future profits made by the company.

It also helps Mike extract himself from the company financially, without any of the team having to put their hands in their pockets. We’re delighted to have helped!”

If you are interested in finding out more about transitioning to an EOT, get in touch with us at Go EO to see how we can help.