The Company
Blueleaf Ltd, based at Oakhurst Business Park, Wilberforce Way, Horsham, West Sussex, describes itself as a one-stop shop for care homes — supplying consumables, equipment and related products to the social care sector. The company is owned by members of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church and sits within the Global Consortium Ltd group. Brethren Intelligence has followed Blueleaf and its parent company for over three years.
In July 2023, Blueleaf merged with Nexon Healthcare — another Brethren-owned care supplies company, based in Lincoln — and now operates as a single consolidated entity under the Blueleaf brand.
The Contract Award
On 26 May 2020, the Department of Health and Social Care awarded Blueleaf Ltd a contract worth £4,000,000 for surgical IIR face masks. The masks were manufactured by Hunan EEXT Technology & Service Co in China. The contract ran from 26 May 2020 to 26 May 2020 — a single-day award date, consistent with the summary procurement process used throughout the pandemic.
The contract was awarded through the VIP channel — the high-priority procurement lane that fast-tracked companies with political connections or ministerial referrals. Once awarded, the government's appointed logistics company Uniserve Ltd collected the order directly from the manufacturer.
The published contract is worth £4 million. Yet DHSC published spend data shows that between 21 July 2020 and 3 September 2020, a total of £35.9 million in invoices were processed for Blueleaf by the DHSC. That is a discrepancy of £31.9 million. No other contracts with Blueleaf have been published. No framework agreement involvement has been identified.
The Roundtable Connection
On 12 May 2020 — exactly two weeks before the contract was awarded — Blueleaf attended a ministerial roundtable chaired by Helen Whately MP, then Minister for Care. The roundtable brought together ten PPE suppliers to discuss adult social care PPE distribution.
The full list of companies present was: Blueleaf, Countrywide Healthcare, Gompels Healthcare Ltd, Care Shop, Deliver Net, Nexon Healthcare, Wightman & Parrish, B&M Supplies Ltd, Beaucare Medical, Protoc Healthcare Products and Halliday Healthcare Ltd.
Of the eleven companies at that roundtable, three were Plymouth Brethren-owned: Blueleaf, Nexon Healthcare, and Protoc Healthcare Products. Blueleaf subsequently received a contract. Blueleaf and Nexon later merged.
Selected as a Recommended Wholesaler
The government was also directing care homes towards approved PPE suppliers at this time. A ministerial statement from the period confirms the selection of seven wholesalers to supply PPE to care providers registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC):
"We have made arrangements with 7 wholesalers to supply PPE to the social care sector. Careshop, Blueleaf, Delivernet, Countrywide Healthcare, Nexon Group, Wightman and Parrish and Gompels will all provide supplies to care providers registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC)."
DHSC Ministerial Statement, May 2020Bunzl plc owned both Careshop and Delivernet. The remaining five were independent family companies. Of those five independent companies, only Blueleaf recorded a dramatic increase in turnover. The accounts of the others show only marginal differences from their pre-pandemic figures.
How these seven companies were selected — and on what basis — has not been publicly explained. The charity Leonard Cheshire submitted written evidence to a parliamentary committee documenting the significant chaos that existed in the social care PPE supply chain during the first months of the pandemic.
The Turnover Jump
Blueleaf's Companies House accounts tell a striking story:
| Period | Turnover | Profit / (Loss) |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-pandemic (18 months to Dec 2019) | £38 million | Loss |
| 2020 (year to Dec 2020) | £98 million | +£10 million |
| 2021 | Pre-pandemic levels | Loss |
| 2022 | Pre-pandemic levels | Loss |
Turnover in 2020 was £60 million higher than the previous comparable period. Profit increased by £10 million. The company was loss-making before and after 2020. The accounts are consistent with a significantly larger PPE contract than the £4 million published figure suggests.
BL Assets Unlimited — The Commission Company
Buried within Blueleaf's 2020 accounts is a related-party disclosure. An unlimited liability company called BL Assets Unlimited — owned by the Andrews and Campbell families, the same families behind Blueleaf — charged commissions of £6,230,900 during 2020 (2019: nil). The accounts note:
"BL Assets Unlimited charged commissions of £6,230,900 (2019: £Nil) during the year and these fees are included in cost of sales in the Statement of Comprehensive Income. At the balance sheet date the amount due to BL Assets Unlimited was £6,230,900 (2019: £Nil) and this is included in accruals."
Blueleaf Ltd Accounts, 2020As an unlimited liability company, BL Assets Unlimited is not required to file public accounts at Companies House. No turnover, profit or activity is publicly disclosed. The company has since been dissolved. The nature of the services provided — and the basis for a £6.2 million commission — is not explained in Blueleaf's accounts.
The Nexon–Unispace Connection
Nexon Healthcare was owned by the Green family of Lincoln, including Ralph Green. Following the July 2023 merger with Blueleaf, Ralph Green became a director of the combined entity.
Ralph Green is also a director of Unispace (now Sante Global) — the Brethren-connected company that won approximately £950 million in Covid PPE contracts, making it one of the largest single recipients of pandemic procurement spend in the UK.
Peter Green, another member of the Green family, has been photographed with the Speaker of the House at an event at Westminster. Karl McCartney, the Conservative MP for Lincoln, subsequently confirmed the identity of Peter Green in comments on the photograph — indicating that Green was well-known to the local MP.
Unanswered Questions
- Why does the published contract value of £4 million not match the £35.9 million in DHSC payments to Blueleaf in the same period?
- Are there additional contracts with Blueleaf that have not been published?
- What was the selection process for the seven wholesalers designated to supply PPE to care homes — and why were three Plymouth Brethren companies represented at the associated ministerial roundtable?
- What services did BL Assets Unlimited provide to Blueleaf in 2020 to justify £6.23 million in commissions, and why did this arrangement not exist before or after that year?