Care group takes next Stepping Stones on growth journey

Supported living at Stepping Stones

Acquisitive care group Optimo has bought Greater Manchester operator Stepping Stones as the next stride forward with its growth plans.

The Barnsley-headquartered group delivers more than 18,000 hours of care per week, employing over 900 people, operating across the North of England.

The addition of Stepping Stones follows on from Optimo’s recent acquisitions of Mayday Homecare, Safehands Support, and My Life Choice in 2022.

Ben Hales, head of M&A at Optimo said: “This deal further develops and supports our current growth strategy in supported living and complex care services.

“We have made a number of recent appointments into our senior management team during the winter period and the group is now positioned to continue our growth on the back of last year’s performance.”

Rochdale-based Stepping Stones is a supported living provider which was established in 2011 by Arzoo Mahmood who has grown and developed the business into one of the leading providers in the Greater Manchester region.

It operates across Bury, Oldham and Rochdale and currently has 100 staff delivering around 3,300 care hours per week.

Ryan Brummitt, managing director for supported living and specialist services at Optimo Care Group, added: “This is a very exciting acquisition for the Group and we are looking forward to working with Katie and the team.

“Stepping Stones, over a number of years, has embedded itself as a Specialist Supported Living service with a great reputation for delivering truly high quality support and outcomes for those individuals supported across Greater Manchester.

“With a values base aligned to Optimo, I look forward to working together to plan the next stages of development and growth for the service across the North West.”

Optimo Care Group was co-founded by Mark Hales and Richard Walker in 2010 with the vision to create high quality, progressive and a well reputed family of care services across the North of England.

Optimo was advised by Oxygen Enterprise Partners (M&A), Shoosmiths LLP (legal), and Hazlewoods LLP (financial and tax). Stepping Stones was advised by Addelshaw Goddard (legal) and N.J Grindrod & Co (tax).

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