Care of the elderly is a booming business as Asia’s ageing population grows, but gaps still remain in the industry.
An interview was arranged with Goldencare Group founder Joya Zhao about the difficulties she faced in providing private elderly daycare facilities in Singapore as well as overnight care facilities in China. Despite these difficulties, there are big plans to expand the Group.
WHAT MADE YOU START THE BUSINESS?
The ageing population was becoming a big and pressing societal issue in China. In Singapore, there were only a few senior daycare centres and all of them have waiting lists.
I have a background in IT solutions and business, and thought that it would be a good idea to use my skills to improve the quality of service in this sector.
WHAT SERVICES DOES GOLDENCARE GROUP PROVIDE?
In Singapore, we provide daycare services for the elderly at one centre in Kallang Bahru. Our elderly clients range from 77 to 97 years old, and most of them are mobile but suffering from mild dementia.
We provide activities mainly related to preventing and slowing down dementia. For example, cardio exercises to train the muscles and conducting cognitive games to keep our elderly clients’ minds alert.
Our clients come to the centre for a minimum of three days a week and we charge about $800 a month.
WHAT KIND OF CHALLENGES HAVE YOU FACED?
We do not get any help from the Government. Hence, we have to source for space ourselves and get manpower from the open market. For eldercare providers that get help from the Government, they have subsidies and can hire manpower at a lower cost.
While the market for eldercare services is growing, most service providers still depend on subsidies from the Government.
A lot of people like to use our services as we solve problems for caregivers.
As our clients have more earning power, they would not be able to use Medisave to pay us. If people are allowed to use their Medisave funds, or some liberalisation of the market takes place, like what has happened in China, it would help caregivers and improve the quality of service.
HOW HAS THE BUSINESS PERFORMED AND WHAT IS THE GROWTH STRATEGY?
When we started, in our first year, we had about 10 customers and two staff. We delivered brochures to people and held open house to raise awareness. Our first few visitors are still our clients today.
Today, we have more than 30 customers and five to six staff at the Kallang Bahru centre.
We have invested about $1 million into the centre in the past three years, and we are at the point of breaking even in Singapore. We are looking into renting a smaller centre around our location, as well as opening centres in East Coast and Bukit Timah.
We opened our first centre in China after setting up in Singapore, but growth in China has been faster.
We are the first private senior-care centre in China. We had been repeatedly applying for the licences and was the first to be registered as an eldercare company when the government liberalised the sector in May last year.
Although we began operating our Shanghai centre only after Chinese New Year this year, that centre, which has capacity for 50 people, is almost full. We will be opening a second facility there this September.
The facility, which includes overnight stays for the elderly, is supported by the Chinese government, which gave us a 2,000 sq ft centre to run.
We have the support of venture capital firms, which provide some funding. We hope to accelerate our expansion in the next five years.
In the last three years, we focused on setting up standard operating procedures, facilities and branding.
Through franchising, we aim to grow to 15 centres in Singapore within the next five years, and to have 200 centres in China in the same period.
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Source: The Straits Times, 14 June 2017