NW care providers snapped up

TWO North West homecare providers have been bought by rival company Carewatch, for an undisclosed sum.

Always There Homecare, based in Crewe, and Burnley-based Four Seasons Homecare have both been acquired by the £34m turnover domiciliary care services business.

These latest acquisitions provide Brighton-based Carewatch with eight new owned branches across the North West, Midlands and North Wales.

Carewatch was bought by private equity firm Lyceum Capital in October 2008 for £37m and the deals take the number of Lyceum-funded bolt-ons to eight, totalling an investment of around £17m.

David Lyon, joint managing director of Carewatch, said: “The purchase of Always There Homecare and Four Seasons [Homecare] strengthens our already comprehensive reach and is further evidence of our strategy of acquiring high-quality local businesses who can benefit and flourish by being part of a national network backed up by a strong infrastructure.”

Carewatch has a 147-strong branch network, of which 115 are operated by franchisees.