The voice of business in the Tees region | 37
TAKING CARE
We care - Prestige Care
Group managing director Raj
Singh with Lyndsay Sargent,
manager of the new Auguste
Communities care centre.
£25m investment drives
Prestige expansion
By Dave Allan
R
aj Singh has spoken with pride about
his plans to further expand his Prestige
Care Group, which now employs nearly 500
professional staff across five high-quality
Tees Valley care centres following a £25m
investment in the business.
The Ingleby Barwick-headquartered care
group has launched three new care centres
over the past 12 months – with plans for
two more over the next six months.
With further investment pending, Raj has
now set his sights on offering beds to more
than 1,000 local people by the end of 2020.
But, he says, it is the quality, not the
quantity, where Prestige are focused, with
the group raising the bar to unprecedented
new heights within the care industry.
An 84-bed specialist care facility was
described as “sitting at the top tier
of dementia care” when it opened in
Middleton St George, near Teesside
International Airport, recently following
a £750,000 refurbishment. The unit
spearheads Prestige’s ‘brand within a brand’
launch of Auguste Communities.
Combining high-quality care with state-
of-the-art technology, Prestige has become
one of the North-East’s first care centres to
invest in Tovertafel - an innovation dubbed
“the magic table” - and Snoezelen multi-
sensory rooms and portable wagons,
Dutch technology designed to reach hearts
and minds sometimes assumed ‘lost’ to
dementia.
Auguste Communities is the first of
a new generation of care homes being
developed by Prestige, combining high-
quality person-centred nursing care
within research-based environments and
incorporating ‘activity lifestyles’ and state-
of-the-art technology.
Prestige now runs five Tees Valley
care centres – two in Redcar, one in
Middlesbrough, one in Ingleby Barwick
and the latest at Middleton St George.
Occupancy is running at around 90% across
their 434 beds, with each centre supporting
a mix of residential and nursing provision
and day placement through to end-of-life
care.
A new 94-bed care facility in Hartlepool
will soon take them beyond 500 beds,
planning permission is in place for a third
Redcar centre, whilst the Prestige team is
currently in negotiations to purchase further
facilities.
Last year’s £25m investment from
London-based Real Estate Investment Trust
was, according to Raj, “the game changer”.
“That investment has made a real
impact,” he says. “The group is now in
a very healthy position. We bought the
Redcar centre and we’re in negotiations for
a couple more that we hope to complete in
the near future.
“But we’re ambitious for further growth,
so we have an ongoing dialogue with other
funders and potential investors. We’re
actively looking for a further investment to
allow further expansion.”
Despite the rapid recent expansion after
25 years in the care business, Raj insists all
growth plans are being carefully drawn in a
way that minimises any financial risks.
“We’re not getting ahead of ourselves,”
he says. “We’re growing steadily and
everything we do is built on the solid
foundations of the past 25 years. We’ve
had opportunities to take on another two or
three homes but I didn’t want us to spread
ourselves too thin.
“If you’re an entrepreneur, you have to be
a risk taker but it’s about taking calculated
risks.”
Raj gives much of the credit for the
group’s strong standing to his fellow
directors, Paul Smith and Andy Johnson,
with Paul putting standards and systems in
place while Andy takes care of the finances.
He says: “We’ve invested heavily in
ensuring the very best systems are in place
- and responsibility for that lays with Paul,
who has huge experience and knowledge
of the care industry, while we’re always
on the look-out for high quality registered
managers.”
For Raj, it’s all a far cry from the small
Redcar newsagents that saw him start out
in business.
“I do have to pinch myself sometimes,”
he admits. “It’s been a long journey but very
rewarding too. I still get that thrill of doing
a deal or creating a successful new care
home. I suppose it’s in the blood.”
While growth plans may see Prestige
invest beyond the Tees Valley, Raj promises
the group’s roots will stay firmly embedded
in the Tees region.
“I grew up in Middlesbrough and that
local attachment is still there. Like Steve
Gibson and others, I want to give back to
the community I feel part of. When I think
about the local jobs I’ve created, that gives
me more satisfaction than anything else.”