Beverly-buyer’s name change will be big job
Posted on Friday, August 18, 2006
FORT SMITH — The company that bought the former Beverly Enterprises Inc. announced a name change Thursday that will affect 78 percent of its nursing homes and assistedliving centers nationwide.
Golden Gate National Senior Care Holdings LLC is now Golden Horizons. Golden Gate completed a $ 2. 29 billion acquisition of Beverly in March.
Golden Horizons oversees three subsidiaries, including Golden Ventures — the name given to the former Beverly Enterprises corporate headquarters on Beverly Way where about 600 people remain employed. Nationwide, Golden Horizons employs about 32, 000.
Officials with Golden Ventures also told employees Thursday that Beverly Way, the nursing home operator’s corporate address since 1990, will soon change to Fianna Way, the name already given to the eastern half of the road.
The new names are part of “the first statement of how we take the company forward, ’’ said Ronald E. Silva, president and chief executive of San Franciscobased Fillmore Capital Partners, in opening remarks to hundreds of employees in Fort Smith and companywide.
Fillmore’s affiliate, Pearl Senior Care, orchestrated the March takeover of Beverly that created Golden Gate National Senior Care Holdings LLC and moved the corporate headquarters to Folsom, Calif., just outside Sacramento.
Joining Silva on Thursday were a sales and marketing representative from Salt Lake City and a Fort Smith-based public relations representative. Both called the proposed campaign a “ massive job ’’ that included changing out 40, 000 soap dispensers that bear the Beverly logo.
Signs at 365 properties nationwide will be changed, along with employee badges, business cards and stationery.
“ The perception of success is wrapped up in a brand,” Hal Price, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Golden Ventures, told employees.
The estimated $ 2 million name change will take a year to complete, Silva said. The switch to the new operating name depends on state approval estimated to take 30 to 90 days.
In Arkansas, 12 nursing homes will be called Golden LivingCenters, and an assisted-living facility will be called a Golden Living Community. However, four Beverly LivingCenters in Arkansas will keep the old name.
The Beverly name is being retained only by leased properties, Golden Ventures officials said.
“We wanted to keep the Beverly name because it’s the oldest, continuously operating longterm care company ’’ in the country, said Silva, who is also board chairman of Golden Horizons. “ It’s trained the entire industry. And it’s a recognizable name. ’’
Founded in 1963 in Pasadena, Calif., Beverly Enterprises Inc. doubled its size 14 years later when it acquired Leisure Lodges of Fort Smith.
In 1990, it relocated its corporate headquarters to Arkansas ’ second-largest city, along with a quality assurance department from Atlanta.
By 1991, the executive management teams and financial departments at a Virginia Beach, Va., office were also moved to Arkansas.
Beverly’s operations in Fort Smith were scattered across 26 office suites and buildings throughout the city until 1999, when it opened its five-story corporate headquarters on Beverly Way, consolidating its presence in Sebastian County.
In announcing the name change Thursday, officials reminded Fort Smith employees about the administrative office’s new place in the private company.
Instead of acting as corporate headquarters, the Fort Smith location now provides support services on a contract basis to the other business units in the company.
“ We have to think of ourselves in a different way, ’’ said Blair Jackson, Golden Ventures’ vice president of corporate communications in Fort Smith.
Golden Ventures employees were encouraged to think like “ contractor clients.”
Services provided by the Fort Smith office include finance, human resources, marketing and billing. Eventually the business unit is expected to offer administrative services to outside nursing home operator clients, Jackson said.
As for Golden Ventures’ continued presence in Fort Smith, Silva said, “ Presently we’re going to keep it in Fort Smith. ’’ In a service-oriented business, employees must fight for the customers every day of the week, Silva said, adding that employees will need to behave in a more competitive manner as the company continues to innovate its business practices. Golden Horizons also operates administrative units in Wisconsin.
To contact this reporter: lwhalen@arkansasonline. com
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