What it really takes to scale a UK care business
Lessons from building GHS Group Holdings from a standing start into a multi-company group employing 60+ people.
The UK care sector is one of the hardest places to build a quality business — and one of the most needed. Here is what I’ve learned scaling GHS from nothing into a group with care, clinical staffing and cleaning arms.
People are the product
In care, there is no separating the service from the person delivering it. Recruitment, training and retention aren’t HR functions — they are the entire business model. Get them right and quality, compliance and growth all follow.
Respect the regulator, design for the family
Compliance is the floor, not the goal. The providers who win design for the experience of the family choosing care for someone they love. Build for that and inspections take care of themselves.
Sister companies should share a spine
GHS Medical Supplies and GHS Clinical didn’t come from a whiteboard strategy session — they came from real, adjacent needs we could already serve with the team and standards we’d built. Diversification works when it shares your operating spine.
Building or scaling in care? Let’s talk.
Barney Kavai — entrepreneur, investor and Group CEO of GHS Group Holdings. Read his story →
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