In 1995, when Barry Karlin acquired the initial facility that became CRC Health Corp., he did so with a passion to grow the organization and help people heal.
Over the past 15 years, he has grown the company — which provides specialized behavioral health care treatments to patients, ranging from alcoholism and drug addiction to eating disorders and weight management issues — through a variety of ways, from adding new programs and treatment tracks to simply increasing the number of patients treated. However, acquisitions have also played a key role in its growth. He’s done more than 20 acquisitions at CRC, and he now has more than 140 facilities across the country, which collectively generated $429.6 million in net revenue last year.
“We’ve slowed down dramatically the last couple of years, but we did an acquisition about two years ago,” the co-founder, chairman and CEO says. “We’re now back on the acquisition path right now. Acquisitions have always been a separate element of our growth path, and that will again be the case.”
With that kind of acquisition path, he knows exactly how to successfully complete one.
“When we do acquisitions, we’re looking for great people, a strong referral base and a good reputation,” Karlin says. “Then we add value around that.”
In order to make the best acquisitions, he does his due diligence, communicates the integration plan up front and tolerates cultural differences between facilities.
