Entrepreneur takes hold of Safehands

Safehands Group, which employs 250 staff across the UK, has been acquired by Simon Rigby, the former chief executive of Leeds-based Spice, for an undisclosed sum.

Safehands Network and Safehands Greenstart Nurseries have been sold by the majority shareholders Stephanie and Gary Farrer, who established the business 14 years ago from a bedroom in their Blackpool home.

It has grown into a £5m care business, which includes seven nurseries, and babysitting and crèche services.

It also provides care services in people’s homes.

Mr Rigby is the founder and former chief executive of FTSE 250-listed Spice. He netted a £22m windfall when the utility services group was sold to private equity investors Cinven for £251m last year. Spice has since changed its name to EnServe Group and has become one of the UK’s biggest providers of infrastructure support services to the utility and energy sectors.

Mr Rigby said the care sector was highly regulated which is “a good thing because you’ve got responsible people operating in this area”.

He added: “I expect to see the business (Safehands Group) double in size over the next three years. It’s got a fantastic platform for growth.”

Mr Rigby said he also planned to expand the care services group’s operations in Yorkshire. Mr Rigby is also a director of Farmgen, a green energy specialist which plans to create the biggest ‘energy farming’ programme in Britain.

Farmgen uses anaerobic digestion (AD) technology, which mimics the working of a cow’s stomach to produce methane-rich gas, known as biogas.