Robert Kilgour's Renaissance Care among rescuers of three care homes put on sale due after operator folds

Scottish entrepreneur Robert Kilgour is among those lined up as a buyer after three care homes with a collective 165 staff were put on sale due to their operator folding.

The administration of Craigard Care, headquartered in Aboyne, Aberdeenshire, is being attributed to “very high” operating and agency costs leading to unsustainable cash flow problems. The move has led to a search for buyers, by administrators Graham Smith and Tom MacLennan of FRP Advisory, for the homes that collectively have capacity for 111 private rooms with ensuite facilities and provide services including specialist nursing, dementia, respite, and palliative care.

All four head office staff are to ultimately be made redundant, but the 165 other staff will be transferred to the new owners when the ink dries on sale paperwork later this year. In the interim, the proposed buyers will manage the care homes on behalf of the administrators.

The transactions are expected to complete when the Care Inspectorate concludes the re-registration process required with a change in ownership. At that point, Weston View Care Home in Keith and Wakefield House Care Home in Cullen will be sold to Parklands Care, which operates a further ten care homes across Moray and the Highlands. Riverside Care Home in Aberdeen will be sold to Mr Kilgour’s business Renaissance Care, which operates a further 16 care homes across Scotland.

Robert Kilgour, founder and executive chairman of Renaissance Care, said: '[Buying] Riverside Care Home is a strategic decision for [us]." Picture: Nick Mailer.

The businessman, founder and executive chairman of the latter group, said: “Riverside Care Home is a strategic decision for the Renaissance Care Group and will, in time, add to our existing portfolio of homes which are built on the foundations of providing high quality, industry-leading care.”