A PAIR of Scottish dentists are planning investment in the group of practices they have recently bought and expect to add two further staff in the coming months.
Colin Hunter and Greig Stevenson have been long-time friends, having met while studying at Dundee University in 1997.
The duo had later gone to work at private practices in Coatbridge and Edinburgh, respectively, but have now launched a new venture in Ayrshire by acquiring four dental practices in the Garnock Valley.
Having looked around the central belt for the right development, the opportunity arose to take on a handful of already-established surgeries in North Ayrshire.
With the help of funding from the Royal Bank of Scotland, they acquired Dalry Dental Practice, Beith Dental Centre, Beith Dental Care and Kilbirnie Dental Care. The Hunter & Stevenson brand will also embark on a major modernisation project throughout their practices.
Mr Stevenson said: "Myself and Colin had been working away for a number of years and had been considering entering into a start-up project together three years ago.
"For one reason or another, that deal fell through but we were later contacted by the bank when the owner of the four dental practices in the Garnock Area [made them] available.
"We thought it was something we wanted to do.
"In the long-term, we certainly wouldn't say no to expanding our portfolio but for the next 18 to 24 months we'll be looking to consolidate and safeguard the jobs of those working here."
The deal sustained the jobs of 16 workers across the four sites, while Mr Stevenson says they will look to take on another two dentists within six months.
In time, those staff members will be able to take part in a policy of ongoing staff development.
While the four surgeries are open for specialist private care, they remain NHS committed practices.
"We just want to offer patients the best possible care we can," Mr Stevenson said.
"NHS patients will be able to access care here, where we will be able to offer them the choice of additional specialist options."
He added: "The first thing we are aiming to do is to modernise all the equipment and facilities to offer the most up-to-date range of care we can.
"In time we hope to bring on a few more dentists and we'll then commit to long-term staff development. The previous owner, Mark Sorrentino, is going to come back in with us to deal with dental implants.
"Specialism is something we are keen to pursue and will be looking to bring in orthodontics as well as sedation services for nervous patients."
Charlie Serafini, from RBS, said: "Colin and Greig are both very enthusiastic and committed to offering the highest service possible. It's been a pleasure to work with them as they take the leap and invest in their own business."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article