Liberty Lake-based in-home care provider Family Home Care has acquired Spokane-based competitor AtHome Care, giving the company a new presence in the Boise and Tri-Cities markets. 

Dean Roberson, the company’s vice president of business development, says the companies completed the transaction Oct. 8 and converted those operations to the Family Home Care brand immediately. 

The company has retained all 75 of AtHome Care’s former employees, Roberson says. The combined operations, headquartered at 22820 E. Appleway in Liberty Lake, employ a total of about 400 people and serve about 600 families annually. 

“We have plans of going nationwide, and this is an acquisition that will get us out of our current market,” says Roberson, who owns the company with his brother-in-law, company CEO Jeff Wiberg, and other family members. 

He declines to disclose the terms of the acquisition, but he says it was a cash transaction that came about when AtHome Care’s owner, J. Wayne Irish, approached Family Home Care about buying his business. 

“They were my No. 1 competitor,” Roberson says. “They were a strong competitor.”

In a prepared release, Irish says, “Our first thought, when we contemplated selling our business, was, who was the competitor we felt had our values and has demonstrated integrity. The first name that came to our mind was Family Home Care.”

AtHome Care had operated for 30 years, and at one time, it had offices in California, Arizona, and Western Washington in addition to its presence in Spokane, Tri-Cities, and Boise.

Established in 1966, Family Home Care provides personal in-home care to its clients on an hourly basis. Wiberg and his family bought the business in 2013 through a company they own called Manito Capital LLC. 

Following the purchase, the company has a presence in five Washington counties—Spokane, Whitman, Benton, Franklin, and Asotin—and five counties in Idaho—Kootenai, Latah, Nez Perce, Ada, and Canyon.