Bupa buys out supermarket dental chain

Bupa will offer dental services in six supermarkets following its acquisition of Instore Dental Ltd and Store Dental Care Limited for an undisclosed sum from owner Dr Lance Knight.

Dr Knight is clinical director and co-founder of Instore Dental Ltd and Store Dental Care Limited, and probably most famous for treating Happy Mondays’ singer Shaun Ryder.

He hit the headlines in 2008 when he opened the first supermarket dental surgery in the UK.

Four of the clinics are in Sainsbury’s stores in the Manchester region, including a clinic in Sale, and one is in Merton, London. There is a further surgery in the Tesco store in Slough.

The surgeries provide a range of private dental services, including general, specialist and cosmetic dentistry.

Appointments can be made seven days a week and the supermarket clinics are open to everyone and patients do not need to have Bupa health insurance.

The acquisitions bring the number of dental centres that Bupa operates to 21.

Tracey Fletcher, managing director of Bupa Health Clinics, said the move brings Bupa a step closer to its aim of expanding its dental business to 50 clinics and being one of the UK’s biggest chains of private dentists.

According to a recent Bupa survey, one in seven people (13%) said they would go to see their dentist more often if their practice was in a more convenient location. 

More than 90,000 existing Bupa customers live within five miles of the new centres.

 

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