Barchester's Irish owners see profits surge at UK nursing home group

The group is co-owned by three of Ireland's best-known and most successful businessmen, (left to right) John Magnier, Dermot Desmond, and JP McManus. File picture: Matt Browne/Sportsfile

Pre-tax profits at the UK nursing home group owned by three of Ireland’s best-known businessmen last year increased by 44% to £54.8m (€63.18m).

New consolidated accounts filed by Barchester Healthcare Ltd show that the business recorded a sharp rise in pre-tax profits as revenues increased by £95.8m or 11% from £871.04m to £966.8m.

The group is co-owned by three of Ireland's best-known and most successful businessmen, JP McManus, John Magnier and Dermot Desmond.

Barchester is the UK’s second largest nursing home operator and provides 14,849 registered beds, spread across its portfolio of 232 registered services, with the largest proportion located within London and the South East.

Numbers employed at the group increased by 950 from 16,250 to 17,200.

In his report, group chairman, John Coleman said: “Barchester performed strongly from both care quality and commercial perspectives during 2024.”

He said: “Enquiries for places in our care homes and hospitals remained strong and translated into occupancy levels that were consistently higher in 2024 than in 2023. Improvements were also seen in our fee rates and the private resident mix.

“In addition to enhancing our existing estate, we continued our new-build programme, opening eight brand new, purpose-built, premium care homes in 2024.” 

Mr Coleman said the business has continued its commitment to pay above the National Living Wage and "encouragingly, the need for the use of agency staff in our care homes and hospitals more than halved for the second consecutive year".

The group’s earnings before interest tax depreciation amortisation and rent (EBITDAR) last year increased from £262.2m to £294m.

The directors state that the rise was driven by an increase in occupancy, fee rate inflation and a reduction in agency usage, offset by increases to labour pay rates and other home and central costs.

The group’s operating profits increased by 26% to £94.03m and net interest charges of £39.18m reduced profits to a pre-tax profit of £54.84m.

The group last year recorded post-tax profits of £35.2m after incurring a corporation tax charge of £19.63m. Directors’ pay decreased from £4.12m to £2.62m. Pay to the highest paid director last year decreased from £1.98m to £1.07m.