Renaissance Care Group has announced plans to more than double in size in the next five years.

As the company marks 20 years in business, executive chairman Robert Kilgour said the care sector is “in need of a new type of consolidation”.

He announced a five-year plan that will take the company from its current annual turnover of £46 million to over £100 million, and increase the number of care homes it operates across Scotland from 17 to over 30 by 2029.

The group has also announced the imminent acquisition of its 18th care home, together with plans to open two specialist care units for patients with serious head injuries and Huntington’s Disease.

Kilgour, who also founded Four Seasons Health Care 36 years ago, said: “For two decades, we have built up an impressive track record of improving the quality standards of the homes we bring into our portfolio.

“The skills and experience of our amazing and hard-working staff have underpinned this successful strategy and we are hugely excited about this next, major expansion phase.

“When we started out, the UK’s 10 largest care home operators ran 27% of all care home beds but that figure has now reduced to around 18% as several large, UK-wide operators such as Southern Cross (854 care homes) have gone into administration and been broken up. I firmly believe that the positive future for elderly care in the UK lies in strong but smaller regional care home operators.

“Care homes continue to struggle in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing cost-of-living and energy crisis. However, acquisition strategies like ours can provide an attractive and meaningful lifeline for many smaller operators as strong regional groups of between 30 to 60 care homes can achieve better economies of scale while still maintaining a personal care approach for both residents and staff which larger operators simply can’t deliver.

“I firmly believe the sector is ready for a new type of regional consolidation and our expansion plans will therefore focus on acquiring homes to join the Renaissance Care family, providing more quality, individual care to hundreds more residents across Scotland.”

Starting with just two care homes with 90 employees and a turnover of £2 million in 2004, Renaissance Care now employs 1,300 people caring for 800 residents across its 17 care homes throughout Scotland, with an annual turnover of £46 million.

Read more about Kilgour’s work campaigning in the care sector below: