Rangeford Villages strengthens executive team

CGI of Siddington development

Rangeford Villages has strengthened its executive team with the recruitment of Sarah Burgess to the role of group sales and marketing director.

Burgess, who joined this month, will be tasked with growing the wider marketing, communications, sales, brand and PR strategy. Angela McKimmie, sales director, will continue to drive sales.

Sarah Burgess

Burgess brings over 30 years’ experience in property sales and marketing, with more than two decades in the later living sector. She spent 15 years as a director for Retirement Villages Group and more recently has been running her own later living consultancy.

‘Sarah has proven experience and expertise in the sector and I know will integrate well into the established team and be part of the successful growth phase of our business plan,’ said Rangeford Villages chief executive officer Howard Nankivell. ‘With recent exciting additions to the portfolio, this is the ideal time to further boost our capacity in this critical area.’

Rangeford has developed three integrated retirement communities across the UK: Wadswick Green in Wiltshire, Mickle Hill in North Yorkshire and Siddington Park in the Cotswolds, which is due to open later this year. It plans to build Homewood Grove in Surrey and has acquired of a site in Stapleford, Cambridgeshire.

It operates 370 units, with the schemes in various stages of development offering a further 378.

Rangeford Holdings Ltd sits in the healthcare division of Fern Trading Ltd. Fern is the parent company of almost 300 subsidiaries and operates across four areas: energy, healthcare, fibre broadband and lending.

Its healthcare business, which also includes One Healthcare Partners Ltd, saw a £14m rise in revenue in the year ending 30 June 2021. Healthcare contributed £42m (2020: £28m) to group revenues of £425m.

The rise in healthcare revenues was helped by a NHS contract awarded to provide support and services to NHS patients during the pandemic. The group anticipates this to be a ‘one-off upside’ that ‘partially offset’ decreased revenue in Rangeford.

Fern’s financial report said: ‘Sales of apartments at the retirement villages have been impacted by the government lockdowns, however we have seen interest and sales gradually pick up as the restrictions ease.’

It said both businesses in the healthcare division were continuing to focus on improved performance, which resulted in an improved EBITDA profit of £900,000, a £4.3m uplift on the prior year loss of £3.3m.