Healthcare business gets market-ready thanks to investment

A Skipton-based company is ensuring its business is ready to adapt to a growing healthcare market, thanks to an investment from Finance Yorkshire.

Healthcare House provides information and advice on a wide range of healthcare issues as well as supplying medical consumables and equipment across the UK.

It is the parent company to three other businesses – Deliver Net, which delivers supplies to hospitals, care homes and businesses, Click Healthcare an online advice portal and Clickcare Solutions which is aimed at charities and online shops with a requirement for healthcare products and services.

Now, thanks to a Business Loan from Finance Yorkshire, Managing Director Tim Lockett is looking to develop the Healthcare House brand further and build brand equality across the businesses.

Tim said: “We will be building up the Healthcare House brand by investing in content, design and our software programmes to maximise the experience for our customers and ensure our systems are as easy to use as possible.

“The money will also help us to put in place the infrastructure and brand we need to deliver an interface that can also be used by professionals as we are looking to develop a diagnostic tool for them, as well. We now have the team in place, and the funding, to take the business where we want to be.

“Our market share is between 20 and 25 per cent. But I see a big change in the provision of healthcare, both in the UK and globally, in the next ten to 15 years and I want us to be a prominent supplier in the delivery of healthcare products, services and advice to the most vulnerable in society.”

Finance Yorkshire was introduced to Healthcare House by Tom Evans of Barclays Corporate Banking in Bradford and has gone on to invest £100,000 of the company’s £300,000 requirement to build its expanding offering.

Finance Yorkshire Investment Manager Jonathan Craig said: “Barclays had provided additional support to the business and felt Finance Yorkshire was a good fit to help Healthcare House with its growth plans.

“We’re very pleased we were able to help out with the gap funding as Healthcare House are a great example of a forward-thinking and growing Yorkshire business and Tim is clearly a creative director with a strong vision of future markets - and how to get his business ready for them.”

Added Tim: “Excluding the Government and the NHS, the market for healthcare equipment in the UK is half a billion pounds but I can see that doubling in the next decade.

“That forecast, combined with the Government’s desire to see procurement decisions taken out of hands of a public body and increasingly given over to the customer, suggest a growing market which we hope to gain a considerable share of.”

Finance Yorkshire provides seedcorn, loan and equity linked investments, ranging from £15,000 to £2m to help a range of small and medium sized businesses to meet their funding requirements for growth and development.

The project is supported financially by the European Union. It has attracted £30million investment from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of Europe’s support for the region’s economic development through the Yorkshire and Humber ERDF Programme, £15million from Yorkshire Forward’s Single Programme, and £45million match funding from the European Investment Bank.

For more information about Finance Yorkshire, please visit www.finance-yorkshire.com or ring 0845 649 0000.

Note: this news article is from Finance Yorkshire’s previous fund. Read more about Finance Yorkshire