Two care sector investors have stepped in to take over a Greenock-based service provider that went into liquidation, Scottish Business Insider can reveal.
Scott Christie and Craig Hendry are directors of Glasgow-based CSN Care Group, which has taken on the business of Inverclyde & North Ayrshire Care Services (INACS). It served 500 people on behalf of local authorities and some private sector firms under the Carewatch brand.
Edinburgh-based Christie and Hendry, from Glasgow, are also directors of Carewatch, the Milton Keynes firm for whom Inverclyde worked as a franchisee. Another Carewatch director, Kevin Nutt, is managing director of CSN Care Group.
Anna Houston was the only listed director of INACS, which also had an office in Irvine and traded under the names Carewatch Inverclyde, Carewatch Ayrshire, Carewatch Dunbartonshire and Carewatch Argyll.
Begbies Traynor in Glasgow was appointed as provisional liquidator "following a period of adverse trading and a deteriorating financial position". It said all 200 staff had been retained and that continuity of care had been secured for the care provider's customers.
Joint provisional liquidator Ken Pattullo said: “While it is very sad to see the demise of INACS, it is good news that CSN Care Group has been able to take over its operations, securing the jobs of 200 employees and the continued care of hundreds of vulnerable people across the region.”
Christie is a former Coopers & Lybrand accountant who is a former chief operating officer of Macdonald Hotels and executive chair if Motherwell-based home care provider ILS. Hendry also started his career as an accountant at Coopers & Lybrand and was finance director at ILS and Mears Group's care division.
