‘I turned my family’s physio practice into a £1m enterprise’

Denise Kesson’s parents were trying to convince her to join the family physio business when her father, Roderick, “dropped dead of a heart attack” while out for a run in April 2007.
Shell-shocked, her mother, Monica, handed the reins to Kesson, before taking a year to travel and explore the world. “My dad was frightened of heights so she decided to go and embrace all the things she couldn’t have done with him, like rock climbing,” Kesson, 42, said.
Her mum had originally started Kesson Physiotherapy from the family home in Faversham in 1983 after having children: Kesson and her older brother, Andrew. Monica had previously worked as an NHS physio but wanted more flexibility to accommodate their young family, especially as her husband worked long hours as a GP.
As she picked up more clients, she converted her garage into a clinic. “There was one treatment room and a reception and she had some other physios that came to work with her as subcontractors.” By the early 2000s she had fought several bouts of breast cancer and was considering retirement, so she started trying to persuade Kesson, who was working as a physio in London, to move back to Faversham and take over her client list.
“There was absolutely nothing that excited me about going to work in their garden,” laughed Kesson. The business was small — ticking over with annual revenues of about £80,000 — but Kesson told her parents she would consider it if they went for growth. They signed a lease on their first dedicated studio on March 31, 2007, and on April 24, Roderick died. “It was a huge shock,” said Kesson, who moved from south London to Faversham with her husband, Adrian, to support her mum and prop up the business.
“My mum had zero interest in being involved in it and I didn’t know how to run a business. We had staff with these very flexible arrangements, where they would walk in and work if they wanted to, and not if they didn’t. Everyone was very happy having it almost as a hobby. And so I started thinking, ‘This needs to operate better and we need to start thinking about how we can grow the business so it can sustain at least me.’” Even the invoicing wasn’t being done properly, Kesson discovered, with the practice owed £25,000 in outstanding fees. “No one was invoicing anybody,” Kesson said.
The next few years were a “real transition period,” Kesson said. She got rid of sub-contractors, preferring instead to directly employ her team so she could control the quality and consistency of the service. A key tipping point came in 2011, when she won an NHS contract to deliver services to clients across east Kent. It brought in about £300,000 in the first year.
But at one point the NHS work accounted for 75 per cent of revenues, which left Kesson feeling “exposed”. To make the business more resilient, she developed its “heal, move, improve” model of treatment. Where patients might initially need help to “heal” with one-to-one physiotherapy for an acute problem, once they build confidence but may still need support and guidance, they could start attending the physio-run activity classes. “Improve” is for clients who want to push themselves further still.
Particularly popular among the over-55s, with some clients in their 70s and 80s, classes include pilates, lower limb and cardio work-outs, as well as sessions to improve balance and core stability. Staff let attendees choose the music for the classes. “Sometimes they go rogue,” Kesson laughed. On the day we speak, the Beatles are playing as the soundtrack to a lower-limb workout, with a lady in her 70s powering away on an exercise bike in the background to our video call. Buoyed by its success, Kesson opened a new 2,000 sq ft studio in Faversham in 2019.
The community element is “absolutely integral”, Kesson said. For some of her clients, who pay £14 a session or £42 a month to attend as many a month as they wish, attending their Kessons class can be one of few regular social interactions. Concerns about clients’ loneliness during Covid meant Kesson and her team stayed in touch with all of their clients, with a combination of online group video calls to stave off feelings of isolation, and phone calls for clients who didn’t have access to a smartphone or computer.
Her work with the local community was recognised when her MP, Helen Whately, who has represented Faversham and Mid Kent since 2015, nominated her as an MP HERo — an initiative started by Savvitas, the women’s think tank, and NatWest, the high street bank, three years ago to celebrate female founders around the country.
She has since expanded her studio further in Faversham and is set to open its first site in Canterbury on January 20. Kesson, who employs 18 staff, hopes this will help push turnover to £1.4 million next year. And she isn’t stopping there, with two more studios in the pipeline, possibly for later in 2025. The business is profitable, with the cost of opening the sites funded by cashflow.
She says she’s considering doing future openings as joint ventures, not just to expedite the roll-out, but also so other people, including staff, have the opportunity to benefit from Kesson’s future success.
She says she’s been exploring the Specsavers model, where a “partner” buys shares in the shop, with the remaining stock held by Specsavers. “My parents gave me an opportunity and I’d like to pay that forward,” Kesson said. “How amazing would it be to get to the end of your life and think, ‘I’ve created an opportunity for millions of people to be empowered to move better and live better, and environments for people to love working in’. That’s pretty cool.”
Kesson said she thinks her parents would be proud of what she’s achieved with the family business. Her mum died of breast cancer in 2012, so didn’t see the transformation either. “We have this massive Kesson Studios sign on Canterbury High Street and also a horrendously branded car. My dad would find it hilarious — but he would also absolutely love it.”