Not quite as easy as it looks is it?

Posted on July 11, 2019 by Alun Rees

Portsmouth

Colosseum Dental Press release via “Curious PR” 16th March 2018: LINK

“One of the pillars of Colosseum’s recipe for success in the UK will be embedding each practice as a “good neighbour” in its local community….each practice will retain its connection as an integral part of its community.”

454 days later

GDPUK report, 13th June 2019: LINK

“Portsmouth is once more in the news, with the closure of three dental practices leaving ‘thousands without access to NHS treatment’. Colosseum Dental Group, which is owned by an investment company based in Switzerland, is closing the practices next month…

According to a report in The Times, up to 20,000 residents of Portsmouth will be without a dentist when a chain of practices closes its doors next month. With no surgeries accepting adult NHS patients, the nearest practices are in Gosport, which is a ferry-ride away, or Havant, a half-hour drive away.”

Blackpool

Blackpool’s Centre for Dentistry to close by end of August due to ‘high costs’ LINK

“…We understand that travel to Preston may not be for everybody, but it’s just half an hour down the road.…”

….The company also plans to close its Cardiff surgery by the end of August, and merge its two London practices into one.

When I visited Sainsbury’s store in Cardiff a couple of days ago the practice was still promoting itself and its “deals”. There was no mention that there would be no continuity of the membership plan or that the closest SFD practice is nearly 40 miles away on the other side of the Severn Bridge.

At least the London practices are in the same city and both north of the river.

SFD’s spokesperson said, “The costs of staying in Blackpool are very high. The rates in Sainsbury’s are much more expensive than they would be on the high street.”

You have to wonder what their projections were like in the first place; we’re all optimistic when drawing up business plans – if we weren’t nobody would ever raise any finance at all.

This is just the tip of the iceberg with several larger groups or “corporates” clearly unable to make the figures work and therefore closing or off-loading practices over the past 2 – 3 years.

I take no joy in seeing this happen. I once had to close one of my practices due to pressure from the bank. At that time I didn’t have the strength, fortitude and experience that I have now. They (the bank) clearly had no understanding of the business of dentistry, the potential professional consequences and little patience with, or confidence in, their client. The fact that the businesses had already turned the corner meant nothing. 

The experience was hard but enables me to help my clients better these days. The worst thing was leaving some patients, who were unable to move to the other site, in the lurch.

Ultimately it is the patients that suffer, followed closely by any laid off team members and the reputation of the profession. In my case it could possibly have led to bankruptcy which would have left me permanently scarred. With corporates? Who knows?

One of the mantras for success is, “Same Place, Same Face”, when that trust goes so does the customer.

But that’s the market for you.

 

 

 

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What to do when…..a Corporate Opens Nearby – Part 2

Posted on January 4, 2019 by Alun Rees

What to do when a corporate opens nearby. First Published in Private Dentistry…2 of 2

6 Expand your offering.

What is the corporate doing that you could be doing – and be doing better? Now is the time to take those course that you have been postponing. Invest in yourself, your skills and those of everyone in the practice. Where are your “blind spots”? What skills are you, your associates and support team lacking? Get out there and get refreshed, it will do everybody good.

 

7 Up your business game.

Get out of any business comfort zone you may have been enjoying. Set personal and business goals. Make sure your financial controls and monitoring are as good as they can be. Brush up your sales process by ensuring everybody understands the importance of every stage of the patient journey. Refresh your internal marketing.

8 Ride with, and learn to avoid, the punches.

People will leave, the unexpected ones, the ones that you have moved heaven and earth to help. That will hurt; you’re a human being, of course it will hurt. There is a possibility that there will be a fall in new patients calling. Accept it, use it as a chance to look backwards at patients who you haven’t seen for a couple of years and reactivate them.

Beware of getting dragged into a price war with the new business who will be using loss leaders and offers to attract new patients. There’s no such thing as a “free” examination, just a consultation with someone who isn’t qualified to give a full opinion. A price war is a race to the bottom, keep your eyes upwards, make quality your mantra in everything that you do.

9 Wave goodbye / Welcome back

Let patients “leave” with your blessing, they’ll be back. Be understanding, be helpful, offer to share notes and radiographs. Keep them on your database (with permission) so that they get the regular newsletter, the news of the people, the offers, the inside track.

In my experience the best way to drive business to a private practice is an NHS corporate opening across the road. When they come back, and if they don’t return you really do need to take a long hard look at yourself, welcome them, listen to what their experiences have been and what they have learned. Then learn from them. Delight in their return, welcome them home.

 

10 Celebrate your independent success on your terms.

The patients who attend are coming to see you and your colleagues. The help you give is what you think is appropriate not set down and governed by a spreadsheet. The targets you set are your targets, flexible enough to be realistic for your patients.

The history of post-war Britain is for successful small firms to be swallowed up by large ones and for the intrepid owners to move on and start again. You cannot take on the “big boys” on their terms so don’t try to do it. Discover your niche, work at it, celebrate it.

Look at the big picture, you aren’t competing with the corporate you’re competing for the discretionary spend with holidays, cars, gym membership and consumer goods. Put health and individuals at the heart of your business, be honest with yourself, your team and your patients and you will resist this and other challenges.

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Pass the parcel Part 94, now it’s Portman’s turn.

Posted on May 31, 2018 by Alun Rees

Swiss firm joins £300m race for Cheltenham winner’s dental chain

Jacobs Holding is among the suitors trying to get in the saddle with Cheltenham-winning jockey Sam Waley-Cohen, Sky News learns.

A Swiss family office whose investment firepower was partly generated by an international chocolate producer has joined the £300m race to buy the dental chain run by a former Cheltenham Gold Cup-winning jockey.

Sky News has learnt that Jacobs Holding, which last year snapped up Southern Dental, a group of NHS and private dental practices, is among the bidders for Portman Dental Care.

Full piece here.

Addendum June 7th 2018.

It appears that I was misled, the Portman group are re-financing and not getting out of dentistry – yet. Happy to make that clear. My apologies for any confusion.

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For Movies read Health (including Dentistry)

Posted on January 2, 2018 by Alun Rees

One of my favourite podcasts is “Here’s the thing” which is introduced by the actor Alec Baldwin. It has a simple format, Alec talks to someone who interests him. On a recent episode his guest was veteran actor and activist James Cromwell, their discussion took in some of the big problems with the (Hollywood) movie industry.

With the news this week that £3.1 billion of NHS contracts have gone to private companies (including £1bn to Virgin) and the march of venture capitalists in dentistry their conversation struck a chord and could easily be applied to healthcare.

Alec Baldwin: “The business is completely taken over by non-creative people, it’s non-creative people from top to bottom. It’s marketing people and finance people. They don’t even like movies! These people are “in the movie business”.

James Cromwell: “Yeah, these people would just like to do the money part, the producing part and then have no product at all, and then go on to the next thing, raising money for the next one.”

Alec Baldwin:  “If they could be doing something else (*to make money) they would.” 

(*my words)

 

 

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Oasis. BUPA. Round and round until the music stops….

Posted on November 18, 2016 by Alun Rees

(Apologies for mixed metaphors)

I remember a staple of children’s parties was a game called pass the parcel. In this a present was wrapped in many layers of paper and passed from child to child who were seated in a circle. When the music stopped whoever had the parcel removed a layer of wrapping paper. As the game wore on it became more exciting as to who would be holding the parcel when the last sheet of wrapping was removed.

The present wasn’t always what you wanted. Some parents would wrap cabbages or other vegetables.

The news that Bridgepoint is selling Oasis to BUPA has been rumoured for a couple of months. The price is apparently £835 million. They paid £185 million when they bought it in 2013. They have made serious acquisitions and expansions (including using the fact that they also owned Smiles to further expand into Ireland).

They (BUPA) already have a number of practices which I believe are all private, taking on the conglomerate that is Oasis with lots of NHS practices will be a challenge. I have heard stories of associate dentists having to buy their own materials  and other less than thrilling tales of the pursuit of the UDA target that made me feel it was a “buy, build, expand and sell exercise”. That’s what venture capitalists do.

BUPA is a name that one readily associates with private health care and i wonder if this is the first step into their creating an alternative very large private dental chain. In which case they will have to set about developing a culture of customer service, communication and patient care that many of Oasis practices are sadly lacking at the moment.

That’s a very big ticket for them to repay. As with all these takeovers about which I seem to write 3 or 4 times a year I wish them success because the workforce of dentists and DCPs deserve good management and appreciation and the patients should be able to expect and receive the very best treatment.

It is a myth that any business is too big to fail. I am concerned that this parcel may well reveal itself to have a balloon at its centre. In which case be careful how you tear the paper and sellotape, because, to use a line which I seem to write every couple of weeks at the moment, there’s nothing sadder than a burst balloon. My memory of a lot of children’s parties is them ending with the someone in tears.

This time the balloon could be very big indeed….

images

 

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You pays your money and you takes your choice.

Posted on June 28, 2016 by Alun Rees

Lancaster city centre.

IMG_1286

IMG_1285

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Bidders Asked To Swallow Oasis Dental Chain. When will the balloon burst?

Posted on April 19, 2016 by Alun Rees

cartoon illustration of a small fish swimming happily inside the mouth of big fish

Bidders Asked To Swallow Oasis Dental Chain

From SkyNews.
Bridgepoint is preparing to hire bankers to oversee a sale of Oasis, Britain’s second-biggest dentistry provider.The dentistry chain chaired by Lord Rose, the man spearheading the campaign for the UK to remain in the European Union, is preparing to put itself up for sale.
Sky News understands that the owner of Oasis Healthcare, which owns more than 300 practices across the UK, is about to kick off talks with prospective advisers about a formal auction of the business.
A sale will value the business at several hundred million pounds, and is expected to generate a decent return to Bridgepoint, its owner since 2013.
The timing of a process has not yet been finalised, but it is likely to coincide with – or come shortly after – an auction of Southern Dental, a smaller rival to Oasis.
Southern, which was founded by Dr Mazdak Eyrumlu a decade ago has retained Catalyst Corporate Finance, an advisory firm, to sell itself less than two years after an earlier auction was abandoned.
MyDentist, a larger competitor owned by buyout firm Carlyle, has also been exploring a sale or flotation, although it is unclear whether it is likely to change hands this year.
Oasis has been chaired by Lord Rose since shortly after Bridgepoint acquired it for £185m, since when it has announced a number of further bolt-on acquisitions to bolster its size.
In May 2014, it bought Smiles Dental and Apex Dental Care in deals which added more than 110 practices.
Accounts filed at Companies House for the year ended March 31, 2015 showed a 63% rise in turnover to £234m, with pre-tax profit up more than half to £30m.

In his foreword to the accounts, Lord Rose described Oasis as “the only branded group offering a sizeable mix of both NHS and private treatment”.
In addition to Oasis and his role at Britain Stronger in Europe, Lord Rose chairs Ocado, the online grocer, and FatFace, the fashion retailer.
Bridgepoint declined to comment on Monday.Glithead fishe skeleton in the plate from above

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