A “REMARKABLE couple” are celebrating the 40th anniversary of their pioneering care organisation.
Mario Kreft MBE and his wife, Gill, started in a small way by opening their first care home in 1985 because they couldn’t find anywhere suitable for their own grandparents.
It was housed in a fine, red brick Victorian villa called Gwern Alyn, in Wrexham, where they employed 10 staff to look after 14 residents.
Fast forward four decades and they now run nine care homes in Wrexham and Caernarfon where they have a total of 440 beds and employ more than 860 people.
Later this year they will mark another major milestone when they expect to welcome their 6,000th resident.
But the couple revealed it all came about as the result of a sliding doors moment that changed the course of their lives completely.
Opening a care home was not necessarily the obvious career move for Mario who was the son of a bear and lion trainer, Franz Kreft, whose mother, Pamela, ran away to the circus to be with him.
But Mario and his then fiancée, Gill, both had elderly grandparents and they were unable to find anywhere for them that met their own high standards.
He said: “I was brought up by my grandparents because my parents were circus artistes and I was looking to go into business after leaving college.
“After looking around, we thought it might be a good idea for us to open our own care home so they could have the standard of care we thought they deserved.
“We very nearly bought a place in Llandudno and we were all geared up with everything in place but the sale fell through.”
Then the finger of fate intervened when Mario went to pay his car insurance in Abergele.
He saw Gwern Alyn being advertised for sale in an estate agent’s window – the date, Thursday, January 3, forever etched in his memory.
The following day he called the estate agent to arrange a viewing on the Sunday and just over a fortnight later they signed and exchanged contracts.
Gill recalled: “We bought it subject to planning and the owner went forward with a planning application to turn it into a residential care home and we took it over in the July.
“We had a lot to do to turn it into a care home to meet the regulations and we opened on December 9 when we welcomed our two first residents, Mrs Evans and Mrs Barlow.”
The following September Gill and Mario were married in a big marquee in the grounds of Gwern Alyn with all 14 of their residents and staff being invited to be among the 200 guests.
Mario’s beloved grandmother, Rene Warburton, had sadly passed away but two of their grandfathers, Fred Warburton, and Bert Smith, were there to celebrate the nuptials.
By then the social care bug had bitten both of them deeply and in 1989 they bought a leafy 12-acre site on Summerhill Road on the outskirts of Wrexham.
It was originally the grounds of a beautiful mansion called Pendine Hall which had burnt down in a devastating fire in 30 years earlier.
They have opened five care homes there, including the first purpose-built nursing home in Wrexham as well as specialist facilities to cater for people with dementia and neurological problems and brain injury.
Along the way they bought Hillbury House, next door to Gwern Alyn, which was already a care home being run by the Sisters of Nazareth.
Another major milestone came in 2015 when they opened a state-of-the-art care home, Bryn Seiont Newydd, on the site of a former hospital in Caernarfon.
It was crowned as the best new care home in the UK at the prestigious Pinders Healthcare Design Awards.
The opera-loving Krefts are both passionate about the arts which have become a “golden thread” running through daily life at all their care homes.
They became the first care organisation in Wales to employ an artist in residence and 30 years later the person they appointed, Sarah Edwards, is still their working with them as a consultant, along with a musician in residence, a creative practitioner and an army of enrichment co-ordinators.
The couple have also launched the Pendine Arts and Communities Trust which supports a host of community and arts-related activities, including the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod where they sponsor the Pendine International Voice of the Future competition and the North Wales International Music Festival where they sponsor the Pendine Young Musician of Wales competition.
Gill, a chartered accountant, also set up the influential Wrexham Business Professionals group to promote regional prosperity and shine a light on the enterprise and expertise that exists in the region.
Meanwhile, Mario has also found time to become a fearless campaigner for the social care sector, founding both Care Forum Wales, which represents around 500 independent providers, and the Wales Care Awards, to recognise frontline care workers.
He says his proudest achievement was receiving the MBE from the late Queen Elizabath II at Buckingham Palace in 2010 in recognition of his contribution to social care in Wales.
Five years later he was honoured in the enterprise category of the St David’s Awards.
Among those congratulating the couple on reaching the momentous milestone was Wrexham’s Member of the Senedd, Lesley Griffiths.
She said: “Congratulations to Mario, Gill and the entire Pendine team on reaching your 40th anniversary.
“It has been an incredible journey for the award-winning organisation and everyone involved deserves great credit.
“For 40 years, Pendine Park has offered a wide choice of specialist services that enrich people’s lives, ensuring they receive the care and respect they deserve, and long may that continue.”
She was joined by Clwyd South MS Ken Skates, who is also the Welsh Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Transport and North Wales.
He said: “Pendine has been a pioneer in the social care sector over the past four decades and it’s testament to Mario and Gill’s innovation, determination and dedication that the company is held in such high regard today. It has also been a crucial employer over its 40 years, providing jobs for hundreds of people in North Wales.
“Mario and Gill are supremely effective champions for the social care sector and the countless awards Pendine has won since 1985 underlines its status as a leading light in the industry. They are a remarkable couple.”
