BOSTON: Western based community care operators remain convinced they can win a niche market in the East, despite a failure to establish a beachhead in 20 fruitless and unprofitable years.
The latest market assault is being led by Mark Spitalnik, the Chairman and CEO of China Senior Care (CSC). With his first facility slated to open in the latter part of 2015, Spitalnik makes no apologies for his strategy: they have designed and will deliver a five star senior care experience with best-in-class social and healthcare services seamlessly integrated into the development.
CSC’s story is a best-in-class offering. CSC plans on monthly fees that start well beyond those being charged by most other foreign operators. These prices would take away the breath of most senior care operators in China. But Spitalnik believes the starting point for the high end of the market has to be what families in Hangzhou currently pay for their loved ones to receive care in the city’s premier senior care hospital (which, he is quick to point out, currently has a two year waiting list). Even more to the point, CSC believes even in the best senior care hospital in Hangzhou, the level of care for the elderly comes up well short of what best-in-breed senior services from the west are capable of providing.
Spitalnik has had to encounter his share of questions about CSC’s pricing. “No one has yet to build or operate the equivalent of the Four Seasons in China, designed specifically for China’s seniors. CSC is going to be the first to do this, and we believe the market will accept these prices when they see not only the amenities, but more importantly how their loved ones improve when they are in a facility dedicated to their care,” he said.
Spitalnik has certainly picked the best practices from Western architects, rehabilitation equipment suppliers and healthcare services. CSC also took over three years to localize and integrate all of these into a set of services that would be accessible to an elderly Chinese person.
“It is difficult for people who do not have an in depth understanding of what CSC has been working on these past five years to appreciate yet how this is all going to come together and be perceived by the Chinese market,” he added. Macquarie Capital, the investment arm of The Macquarie Group, a global financial services provider, appears to agree, having announced that it has made an investment into CSC…