Chema Cosculluela has become the boss of nursing homes in Spain, modeled on Aragonese group Vitalia, which has grown exponentially in the last decade and plans to have 15,000 beds nationwide by 2026.
Vitalia’s situation today has nothing to do with her situation when she was born in the 90s.
I started this job in a consulting company working for the SAR group, which had a Basque partner and a Catalan partner. When they left, the Basque group asked me to partner with them and we developed a project that would last only a year. I left and in the process gained the right to specialize in Córdoba, Espiel, and this is where my solo journey began. That is why Vitalia has such a large development in Andalusia, where we have around 3,000 beds and 1,600 employees.
The company grew until 2017, when it made a major expansion push with the entry of CVC funding.
I started this business without many resources: with a company owned by Cajasur, another owned by Cajasol, another owned by La Caixa… First with Portobello, then with CVC, we bought shares of the savings banks with which I had relationships. past. We grew up a little with Portobello, he could no longer accompany us, and we started to develop our own residential project with CVC’s venture capital. We started buying land all over Spain, just like we did in 2008 when no one was buying land.
Considering that the company has such a family structure, how were the negotiations with the fund?
We were three individual partners; a first cousin, a partner, and me. They decided to pay cash and I wanted to go ahead and here I am. I was negotiating with 15 different venture capital firms, until I reached an agreement with a company with which I had good feelings and where the conditions concerned us.
Could the concept of quality advocated by Vitalia be compatible with the demands of a venture capital fund?
They are perfectly aligned for a reason, this fund aims to create value. We have never distributed a dividend in Vitalia’s 25 years of life, so both the fund and the family are on the same page in that sense. The fund has been with us for six years. I’m guessing there will be three more, and then I think they’ll consider leaving.
Was this value creation a condition?
The business model was agreed upon. Our relationship with the funds is so excellent that we only hold two board meetings a year. The existence of the fund was decisive in the expansion plan, but it was not noticed in the day-to-day management. We are a large company managed like a family business.
He said he believes the majority of the funds will exit the company within three years. What options are open?
At the end of the expansion plan in 2026, when the current partners leave, we will first propose an IPO in Spain; I want this because it will allow us to maintain our independence as an Aragonese company with national projection. This is common sense: partners will divest at some point. Another fund can also enter, but we look for a slower fund, such as a pension fund, because the society is very mature. The family decided they wanted to continue with the company.
The geriatric industry is leaving behind a very difficult year with the pandemic. Many old people died in Vitalia’s residences, as in Leganés.
The sector suffered a lot. We had a really bad time and in many centers it didn’t affect us. It wasn’t the responsibility of the residences, I think the people working there did a good job, but the problem was that the healthcare system had become saturated. Our clients, the last in the care chain, are the ones who suffer the most and are very elderly. For us, people did not die, the healthcare system died.
Has this loss of reputation in the power of the business been noticed after the pandemic?
The system noticed this, I think we came out stronger. Especially when we were called in the middle of a fight, those of us who made a difference in quality, interest and transparency let the journalists in.
This quality model they advocate will also be reflected in the prices.
100% of our customers are special. At around 1,900 euros per month, we are 20% to 30% below our competitors. We are the second operator in Spain after SAR. We will never be the first because my project is 15,000 beds, we will reach it in 3-4 years. By improving the quality plan and continuing to focus on neurological rehabilitation, we will continue to grow more sustainably.