Cheshire's crown jewels

When their dental practices had to close during lockdown, Jan and Kevin Dobbs, of Daresbury, were not ground down...

- Kate Houghton

Kevin Dobbs has been looking after dental patients in Warrington since 1986 and opened the state-of-the-art Dental Academy in Daresbury in 1999. He and his wife Jan, in partnership with dental technician John Wibberley, also run Daresbury Dental Laboratory, which makes crowns and dentures and implant restorations for their own patients and for dental practices throughout the UK.

In 2018 the Dobbs also launched Growing@Field28, a specialist farm growing and supplying micro-leaves to some of Cheshire’s top restaurants.

On 23 March 2020, each one of their thriving businesses came to an abrupt and shocking halt.

“The Chief Dental Officer instructed that all dentistry practices must close,” Kevin says. “At the same time, of course, all the restaurants closed, wiping out that income stream immediately. Within a matter of hours, a lifetime spent building a reputation for providing a quality service counted for nothing. With no patients, there is no income, of course, and we are still liable for all our usual overheads such as rent and rates.

“Being self-employed private dentists, we do not qualify for any government support other than being able to furlough our staff.

“We just have to wait to see what the next phase will bring. It’s nobody’s fault and nobody is to blame.