Centre for Dentistry at Sainsbury’s aims to provide affordable dental care within the convenienceof a Sainsbury’s store. The company is managed by a team, balancing extensive experience with proven records of innovation. The team represents appropriate excellence in clinical practice, patient care, corporate and financial governance, partner relations and store retailing. Its CEO, Lisa Riley explains the inspiration behind the company and its vision for the future.
“Just as Sainsbury’s believes we can ‘Live Well for Less’, we believe that we can provide affordable dentistry without compromising quality.
“Our expertise lies in creating and taking care of the Centre for Dentistry brand, building its value and trust with patients, providing operational infrastructure and support, and in working with our retail partner Sainsbury’s to build new practices contributing to healthcare in their local communities and capable of being run profitably.
“When we plan each new practice, we look for a dentist whom we feel shares our vision, and who will usually have existing roots in the area. The dentist becomes the third partner in a relationship with us and Sainsbury’s. There are many benefits for dentists. Firstly, it offers an opportunity to build a unique and profitable practice on our groundbreaking model. Your practice benefits immediately from the endorsement afforded by the Sainsbury’s store environment, the high patient registration rate brought about by the footfall of the host store, and the increasing trust and brand recognition of Centre for Dentistry.
“Our first practice opened in January 2012 and we have now completed 14 installations across the UK including one in Northern Ireland. The next two years will see implementation of our ambitious expansion plan, adding a further 60 practices to our portfolio. Typically each installation includes a reception area, two surgeries, a dedicated consultation area, digital radiography, separate decontamination rooms, fully computerised practice management software with brand new equipment throughout. From start to finish, an installation takes about two months and uses the same template and protocol ensuring uniformity and adherence to our brand. This is devised through industry experience and knowledge, both retail and dental. All the in-store building work is undertaken by our own contractors with The Dental Directory supplying and installing the dental equipment across all locations, to the highest specification.
“For our surgeries we chose Takara Belmont’s Voyager II-L Treatment Centre, each time installed in our corporate accent colour of lime green. The brand came highly recommended and this particular model provides the flexibility of right and left hand use, which is obviously a major consideration in a business where many different staff might use the equipment on a daily basis. All our equipment is of the highest quality and with such heavy use we felt it was important to have a chair which is known to be extremely durable and robust and where spare parts can be obtained and replaced quickly with the least impact on the business.
“With the operational infrastructure established our most important consideration is the dental team. Our approach is to select an associate dentist to head up each practice with a view to developing this relationship to a point where it is possible to move to co-ownership in the future. Each site has two surgeries that can be used by both dentists and hygienists or therapists and the wider team includes practice managers, dental nurses and receptionists. Deploying the right staff is crucial to building trust with patients and ultimately ensures we build the value of the brand. We are confidently building a brand which is changing the future of dentistry forever.”