Ten years ago, before he and his wife opened
Comfort Keepers, Tom LaMacchia didn’t even know there was a need for custodial care in the Lansing area. Apparently, he wasn’t alone.
“When we got into the business there were four or five custodial care facilities in the area market,” says LaMacchia. “Now there are more than twenty.”
The reasons why now seem obvious.
“Nobody wants to go to a nursing home,” LaMacchia says. “In most cases [custodial care is] a lot less expensive…and they’re in their homes. People do much better in their home.
“There was just a void there that wasn’t filled prior to this.”
That was in 2001, when LaMacchia and his wife Bridget LaMacchia opened Comfort Keepers, a business that attracted the pair because of Bridget’s experience caring for the elderly.
Comfort Keepers grew right along with the industry. Though LaMacchia recalls when they hired their first part-timer to care for their first patient in 2001, the business now employs 48 caretakers as it celebrates its tenth anniversary.
“It increases a little every year,” says LaMacchia about the size of his staff.
The LaMacchia’s will celebrate their tenth anniversary of Comfort Keepers on April 29. The Comfort Keepers franchise itself has much to celebrate too, as it has grown from 50 locations when the Lansing branch opened to 550 today.
“We’re very lucky that we have a successful business, and we can make such a huge difference in people’s lives,” says LaMacchia.
Source: Tom LaMacchia, Comfort Keepers
Writer: Natalie Burg, News Editor