Dan Freshwater explains how he managed the sale of six practices during the Covid-19 crisis.
The Social Care in Action Group is a charity that provides social care, counselling, wellbeing and other community-related services. We got into dentistry at a time when it was difficult for people from disadvantaged areas to access NHS dental care. For the last 15 years, this has been part of the various services we provide. However, we decided to sell our six dental practices in order to restructure and refocus on other health and wellbeing services.
Once we decided to sell, we researched potential agencies to help and Dental Elite was one of many that we spoke to. From the get go, we were really impressed by Luke Moore’s approach, which made it an easy decision to work with Dental Elite to find the right buyer for our practices. As a charity, it was really important that the buyer aligned with our values. We wanted to be sure that our practice staff were going to be looked after moving forward with the support of a buyer we had faith in. We were introduced to potential buyers and in the end agreed a deal with Smile Dental Care.
There were a number of challenges we had to overcome. For example, it took longer to reach completion than we had originally anticipated, particularly due to Covid-19 and the fact we were selling six practices simultaneously. Our business is structured in such a way that we have charitable vehicles known as registered societies, which cannot be sold. Therefore, we had to establish a company vehicle that could be sold and shift all of our NHS contracts to that vehicle. Although this was a long process, Dental Elite supported us and provided advice on the best way to achieve what we set out to do, despite the situation.
The sale of a practice can be a lengthy and complicated process, but thankfully Luke knew the buyer, lenders and legal team well, so he was able to ensure a really smooth transaction. I spoke to the buyer recently and we both remarked what a pleasure it had been doing business with each other.
For anyone else looking at selling multiple practices in the future I would tell them to be prepared for a substantial amount of due diligence and to work with a good agency. We originally considered leading the sale ourselves, but in such a tense and stressful time it was invaluable having a team there that we could discuss any concerns with. From the off our goal was to find a home for our practice staff with a buyer we had confidence in; thankfully we were able to do this and the sale was a success.