Shenton Group

Aware that its luxury retirement communities could suffer powercuts from troublesome power supplies, Richmond Villages, part of the Barchester Group, has contracted with power support company, shentongroup’s Powercall UK for provision of its unique generator callout service for its villages in Nantwich, Coventry, Northampton and Painswick.

A new concept in retirement living, Richmond Villages offer a range of accommodation including independent village apartments, assisted living in hotel-style serviced apartments, en-suite care bedrooms as well as facilities for respite, convalescence and dementia. The village environment includes a restaurant and café, hairdressers, library & IT, bowling green, spa and village shop.

Looking for a cost effective solution to providing standby power in event of a protracted powercut, Facilities Manager, John Cashmore, decided to investigate the options available.

“There is no payback on a standby generator and asset depreciation affects a company’s bottom line”, said John Cashmore. “We therefore made a strategic decision to contract with Powercall UK, which provides us with a sensible, well-balanced approach to potential power outages whilst ensuring the safety and security of our residents, especially those requiring nursing care”.

Richmond Villages’ four retirement villages, together with a new facility in South Oxfordshire, are being covered by Powercall UK’s unique service. This enables the Richmond Villages to continue providing high levels of care to their residents when the electricity supply is cut, regardless of the length of the power outage.

This new contract is a continuation of an association with Barchester Healthcare that began three years ago. One of the UK’s largest and fastest growing care providers, Powercall UK has been contracted to provide standby power to 46 of Barchester Healthcare’s rural and vulnerable locations in England, Scotland and Wales.

“Powercall UK’s service meets all our requirements by guaranteeing we have a generator in situ and connected up within a target time of 1 hour and guaranteed maximum of 3 hours”, concluded John Cashmore.

Powercall UK’s network provides cover to a large number of companies in an increasingly wide range of market sectors. With as many as 1 in 3 companies experiencing business interruption due to extreme weather and less than 31% of these implementing business continuity plans Powercall UK is finding a high demand for this unique service.