Senior Helpers has 380 locations in 44 states, Canada and Australia.
When Advocate Health told him they were putting his in-home senior service franchise on the market two years ago, Senior Helpers CEO Peter Ross admitted he was surprised.
Since co-founding Senior Helpers with Tony Bonacuse in 2004 and launching their franchise business in 2005, Ross had already seen his Townson, Maryland-based company change hands three times. When Advocate Health’s investment arm, Advocate Aurora Enterprises, acquired Senior Helpers in 2021, Ross thought that would be the end of the string of ownership changes.
“I thought we would never be sold again and this fourth deal would never get done because we were part of a large health system with Advocate and I thought the synergies we had were working pretty well,” Ross said. “But then again, being in franchising as long as I have, nothing surprises me anymore.”
With its acquisition of Senior Helpers in March, Waud Capital Partners becomes the third private equity firm to take over majority ownership of the brand with 380 locations in 44 states, Canada and Australia. Senior Helpers ranked No. 176 on the Franchise Times Top 400 with more than $387 million in global sales in 2022; it grew gross sales by about 19 percent last year, Ross said.
Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. Waud is a middle market investment firm that has completed more than 460 investments since its founding in 1993 and has approximately $4.6 billion under management, many of those investments in the healthcare service sector. The firm did not respond to requests for comment.
Senior Helpers represents the firm’s first investment in a franchise company, Ross said.
Peter Ross is the co-founder and CEO of Senior Helpers
Ross, who retains his position as CEO of Senior Helpers, explained what prompted Advocate to sell his company just three years after acquiring it. He said after Advocate merged with Atrium Health to form Advocate Health and become one of the largest healthcare systems in the country, it had a change in strategy.
“They said it wasn’t anything personal, you guys are amazing, but we’re going to take you to market again and I said, ‘Oh, OK.’ They said that after the merger with Atrium they’d rather partner with their assets versus owning them,” said Ross. He added Senior Helpers will continue to work with Advocate’s newly formed health system to grow their respective businesses.
Ross said it’s still too early to determine what changes Waud will make to Senior Helpers, which provides seniors with around-the-clock home care and wellness services, including meal planning, grocery shopping, medication reminders, transportation, companionship and assistance with personal hygiene. The company also offers special programs for chronic neurological diseases, particularly Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease so seniors can remain in their homes and avoid or delay the need for care in inpatient facilities.
At the same time, Ross is confident the Chicago-based private equity firm intends to provide the back-end support required to keep Senior Helpers growing.
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“We plan to continue building on the company’s success and further enhance the services offered to our franchisee partners and client families,” Steve Jakubcanin, an executive partner at Waud Capital, said in an announcement of the deal.
Jakubcanin will serve as Senior Helpers’ executive chairman. Ross, who will continue to run the day-to-day operations for his company, said Senior Helpers is targeting the addition of 35 locations this year after adding 30 in 2023.
“We have really good penetration, with about 95 percent of the country’s population covered. At the same time, we see plenty of white space available with almost 500 territories still available,” he said.
Ross, who traveled to Turks-Caicos this week for a Senior Helpers franchisee meeting, said he’s not too concerned about Waud’s lack of franchising experience.
“With Jakubcanin, Waud Capital brings a lot to the table with a lot of healthcare experience, and they are already looking at ways to expand our service lines and different opportunities to grow our business,” he said. “So, yeah, we’re really bullish on this new partnership.”