Norvic Group expansion continues

Taverham based, Norvic Ambulance, is expanding its ambulance operations outside of the East of England. The company is to start operating in Bristol and Bath from this week having secured work in the West Country. There's also a possibility of opening another base on the South Coast in the near future. Norvic was purchased by Elijah Adeyemi, Steve Brundle and John Banbury in July 2010. Since then the company has bucked the economic trend and seen month-on-month growth in turnover following a major contract win, acquisitions, expansion into Papworth and Colchester and launching three new sister companies in the latter part of 2011.

Norvic Ambulance remains the Group's core business. This has grown significantly, particularly following a three year contract being awarded by the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST) in April 2011. This resulted in Norvic acquiring another private ambulance company based near Papworth and the opening of a base in Colchester. Several other new customers have come on board during the last 12 months and services such as emergency rapid response vehicles, ECMO transport and mental health transfers have been developed. The company has also seen a big rise in the number of bariatric patients it transports following a successful promotional campaign to local hospitals. Turnover has more than doubled to £3.6m for the calendar year 2011.

The Directors were also delighted to appoint Lee Barham, a former AGM at EEAST in Essex, as their new Clinical Director in July. Lee has since been appointed Managing Director. His wide-ranging role includes maintaining and developing the clinical standards within the company and helping to win new contracts. The Ambulance business now employs over 150 staff, including Doctors, Paramedics, Nurses, Emergency Medical Technicians and Ambulance Care Assistants, with over 60 new staff taken on in 2011.

The Ambulance fleet grew from 16 to 36 vehicles during 2011, including six brand new front line ambulances, three rapid response 4X4s, a Land Rover for events and its most recent addition a state-of-the-art mobile medical treatment centre. This vehicle has many uses and has already been commissioned as an SOS bus in Clacton and as a mobile clinic for GP surgeries. All vehicles are tracked in the Taverham HQ Control Room via a real-time satellite navigation system.

John Banbury, Norvic Group's Chief Executive said "Our growth has been quite aggressive, but it has been planned. And we've got excellent people and processes in place to cope with even more demand. Launching Norvic Academy, Norvic Medical and Norvic Security in recent months are all part of our strategy to diversify within the independent healthcare sector so as not to become overly reliant on any one business or any single customer."

Norvic Academy is a healthcare and personal development training company. Sharon Bowen, previously of City College Norwich, has been appointed as Managing Director. Over 60 courses have been put in place and these will either be delivered by our own experienced Ambulance staff or in partnership with well-respected experts in their field. One initiative the Academy will be promoting is 'Learn to Earn'. John says "We can train people to then give them work on our ambulances or at events in either a medical or security role." John adds "The big attraction of our Academy is that our tutors don't just teach, they actually practice what they teach."

Norvic Medical was set up following the acquisition of Allied Medical Support (AMS) based just outside Colchester and offers comprehensive event medical services, ranging from basic first aid through to advanced event medicine, including onsite minor surgery performed by Doctors in our own mobile medical treatment centre. John said "We are delighted to have taken on board AMS. The calibre of people joining us is very high. They bring considerable skills, knowledge and experience to the Norvic Group as a whole, and will take key roles in the clinical governance of our Care Quality Commission (CQC) registered business."

Norvic Security has been launched so that Norvic can offer event organisers up and down the country a unique, combined package of medical and security cover from one company. John added "It's usual for event organisers to have to plan, book and liaise all of their medical and security requirements with separate companies. Now they don't have to."
All in all, Norvic now employs over 200 staff with planned turnover for 2012 set at £5.5m.

John concluded "Running any business has its challenges and we had to make a difficult decision last year to cut staff pay so that we could remain competitive and ensure the business had a sustainable future. This has not deterred our plans for growth, and we expect to recruit a further 50-70 people throughout the eastern region in the coming months, plus taking on new staff in Bristol and Southampton. Anyone interested to find out more about the company and what we have to offer can come along to one of 2012 Open Days - the next one is on Saturday, 14 April at our Taverham HQ just outside Norwich from 10am to 2pm."

For more details, contact John Banbury, Chief Executive
M: 07884 320 338