Direct Healthcare Group Sign Agreement to Acquire Handicare’s Patient Handling Division

Direct Healthcare Group (DHG) have entered into an agreement with Handicare AB to acquire Handicare’s Patient Handling division in Europe and the Rest of World markets, excluding North America. The transaction is expected to close in early May.

Handicare’s Patient Handling division offers solutions to increase the independence and mobility to individuals across acute, community and long-term care environments. These solutions encompass a comprehensive range of transfer, repositioning and lifting aids that effectively encourage earlier mobilisation of the individual, whilst reducing strain placed on the healthcare personnel.

The acquisition of Handicare’s Patient Handling division provides key synergies in DHG’s ambition to “Advance Movement and Health”, significantly broadening the portfolio offering to provide healthcare personnel with a single solution provider that can positively impact on touchpoints across the 24 hours of care; from bed to bedside, and now further.
The increased portfolio of solutions will now enable Direct Healthcare Group to deliver Intelligent Pressure Care Management, Specialist Seating, Bariatric Care and Safe Moving & Handling into a wider market space and across a broader patient population.

The acquisition continues to provide strategic growth into more European markets, including direct sales teams in Sweden, Norway, Demark and the Netherlands; whilst further strengthening DHG’s position in the UK. This provides a significant milestone in DHG becoming a leading European provider of customer focused, high quality and cost-effective solutions and products to facilitate the care of patients with limited mobility.

Graham Ewart, CEO at Direct Healthcare Group, said: “The acquisition of Handicare Patient Handling Europe represents a key strategic step in delivering our clinically proven, market-leading Pressure Care Management and Specialist Seating portfolios into wider European markets presently serviced by Handicare. With the addition of Patient Handling Europe, we can encourage even safer, earlier mobilisation and recovery across a broader patient population. This will continue DHG’s more than decade-old history of achieving better health outcomes and economic efficiencies for those who would otherwise be bed bound.”

Erik Østby, current EVP Patient Handling Europe & RoW, will continue to lead the commercial operations for the Patient Handling division.

Erik Østby commented: “From the first day I met DHG and ArchiMed, I felt a strong cultural fit and we have a lot of values in common. Particularly as it is the desire of both of our companies to enable movement and therefore faster recovery and greater outcomes. It is clear that there are strong synergies from a product, market and channel perspective.”

In December 2019, ArchiMed, a leading European private equity healthcare specialist, acquired Direct Healthcare Group. Simultaneously, it was communicated that they would provide €150million for investment, such as continuing to target strategic acquisitions. This acquisition represents the second in the 6 months post-investment, following on from the earlier acquisition of GATE Rehab Development AB in February. The acquisitions continue to have a focus on expanding DHG’s European presence, whilst adding clinically effective products.

Direct Healthcare Group look forward to further investing into the Safe Moving and Handling business unit that will become a key brand of DHG, across the direct and export markets in Europe and APAC.