£111m acquisition sees Mitie expand in home care sector

The outsourcing group hopes to benefit from the UK’s ageing population and cost pressures forcing a shift from hospitals and residential care homes towards greater care in the community.

The provision of this care was increasingly being outsourced by councils and health authorities to private firms, it said.

“We’ve come to the conclusion over the last two years that we needed to do something which gave us the platform for more growth and the home care market is a very good place to start,” chief executive Ruby McGregor-Smith said.

“We have a rapidly ageing UK population and the care market is highly fragmented. We think the opportunities coming out will get much bigger in scale in the next few years with maybe some adjacent services, for example looking after community care as a whole for a local authority.”

According to healthcare market intelligence firm Laing & Buisson, the domiciliary care market is worth around £8bn and is continuing to grow.

Enara is the UK’s fourth largest provider of home care services based mainly in southern England, with its northern-most branches in Boston and Grantham

It is expected to have revenue of £93m for the year to March 31, 2013. The group made a small loss before tax in its last fiscal year.

Dr Andy Dun, managing director, said: “Enara has been providing high-quality home care in the UK since 1996 and we are very proud of our excellent reputation. We look forward to developing the business and working as part of MITIE.”

Mitie employs 14,000 people in the North of England.