Caremark Franchise: A Multi-Award-Winning Home Care Business with One of the Lowest Royalties in the Sector

The Caremark Franchise is one of the most respected names in the country's home care sector. Founded in 2005 by Kevin Lewis, Caremark was built around a simple but powerful idea: real care means putting people first. Twenty years on, the brand has grown into a network of around 140 offices, delivering more than 135,000 hours of care each week to vulnerable people across the country, supported by a workforce of around 6,500 care assistants.

Caremark is wholly UK-owned and independent, with no overseas investors to report to. That independence is a meaningful advantage because it means the brand can react and adapt quickly when the market shifts. It also explains why Caremark is able to offer one of the lowest ongoing royalty structures in the entire care sector, at just 4.5% Advice and Support Fee plus a 1% National Marketing Fee.

What a Caremark Franchisee Actually Does

Caremark is a true management franchise. As a franchisee, you are not delivering hands-on care yourself. Your role is to build and lead a local home care business that employs trained care assistants to support customers in their own homes.

Importantly, Caremark serves both private fee-paying clients and customers whose care is arranged through their local authority. That gives franchisees access to the entire home care market rather than just one part of it.

Investment, Fees and Earning Potential

It is important to separate the franchise fee from the wider start-up requirements. The headline figures for the Caremark Franchise are:

Typical Funding Split

Caremark has strong relationships with the major franchise banks, who will typically consider lending up to 70% of the total investment. The brand reports that franchisees can build a £1 million turnover business within around three years, with the wider Caremark network now generating over £100 million in combined annual turnover.

Training and Ongoing Support

Caremark's eight-day in-house induction programme is consistently rated five stars by new franchise owners. It covers business operations, legal compliance, marketing, recruitment and the Caremark systems. After launch, ongoing support comes from a dedicated Regional Support Manager and a Quality and Compliance Manager, with each pair overseeing only 20 to 25 offices.

• ✓Help with CQC and other regulatory registration
• ✓Bespoke website creation, PR campaigns and social media support
• ✓Branded materials, stationery and uniform provided
• ✓Inclusion in the National Marketing Fund
• ✓First-year UKHCA membership and professional fees covered
• ✓Regular network conferences and peer-to-peer learning

A Sector with Powerful Tailwinds

Home care is one of the most resilient and fastest-growing sectors in the economy. The ageing population and the strong consumer preference for ageing in place rather than moving into residential care are pushing demand higher year on year.

Who This Franchise Is For

This is a management franchise rather than a hands-on caring role. It will appeal most to people from corporate, sales, professional services or operational backgrounds who want to use their leadership skills to build a substantial local business with a strong purpose. You do not need any prior care experience because the Caremark training programme covers everything you need to know. What matters most is a caring nature, business acumen and the determination to grow.

Key Benefits at a Glance

• ✓Established UK-owned brand trading since 2005
• ✓BFA Franchisor of the Year (Established) winner
• ✓One of the lowest royalty structures in the care sector
• ✓Up to 70% bank funding typically available
• ✓Comprehensive eight-day induction and ongoing regional support

Brand Heritage and Independence

Kevin Lewis launched Caremark in 2005 after years inside the wider care sector convinced him that high-quality home care could be scaled through a franchise model without losing its local, person-centred feel. Two decades on, the business has remained privately held in the UK, with no private-equity owner or overseas parent setting quarterly targets. That structure shapes day-to-day life for franchise owners: decisions on training, technology and fee levels are made at a UK head office that talks to operators directly. The 2025 BFA Franchisor of the Year (Established) Gold award, judged on submitted franchisee P&Ls and network feedback, is one external read on how that culture is landing.

A Day in the Life of a Caremark Owner

The rhythm of a Caremark business is closer to running a managed services firm than a clinical role. A typical week mixes office-based leadership with community-facing meetings and quality oversight.

Hands-on care is delivered by the trained care assistant team. The owner's job is to keep the operation safe, well-staffed and growing, and to make sure the brand promise is being kept in every home.

Territory and Coverage

Every Caremark franchise is awarded an exclusive geographic territory, mapped using population data so each owner has a viable catchment of older adults and younger adults with care needs. Resales and new territories are released across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, with recent network expansion adding offices in Scotland. Once an owner has stabilised their first office and met operational benchmarks, the brand will discuss multi-territory or satellite expansion. That gives ambitious operators a clear runway beyond a single office without forcing them to switch brands to scale.

Marketing and Lead Generation

The 1% National Marketing Fund is reinvested into central activity that individual owners would struggle to run alone. That includes a national website with local landing pages for each office, SEO, paid search, digital PR and a content programme aimed at adult children researching care for a parent, which is where most private enquiries originate.

At a local level, franchisees are supported with:

• ✓A bespoke local website integrated into the national domain
• ✓Social media templates, branded creative and quarterly campaigns
• ✓Local PR launch support and ongoing media outreach
• ✓Sales coaching for building referral relationships with social workers, hospital discharge teams, GPs and community nurses
• ✓Tender support for local authority and ICB contract opportunities

UK Home Care Market Context

The structural case for home care has rarely been stronger. The Department of Health and Social Care projects that the number of adults aged 65 and over who need home care will be roughly 57% higher in 2038 than it was in 2018, while requests for adult social care support recently hit a record two million. Rising demand sits alongside constrained council budgets and rising hourly rates, a tension explored in detail in The King's Fund Social Care 360 annual review. For a well-run private-and-public-mix operator like Caremark, that backdrop translates into deep, durable demand.

Interested in exploring more opportunities in this sector? Take a look at other Home Care franchise opportunities available on Franchise Hunt.