Grupo Ballesol: Retirement Can Be Beautiful

And the facilities? They're more like five-star hotels than nursing homes: ritzy locations, formal table settings, fresh flowers. The approach works. Sales rose 138% last year, to 50 million euros ($64 million). The company doesn't disclose profits, but average monthly rates for a resident are 1,800 euros.

Grupo Ballesol owes its success to Lola Soler, who, after raising four children and without prior work experience outside of the home, decided to combine her husband's knowledge of the construction industry with her own love of caregiving. She opened the group's first facility in 1980, after an exhaustive study of the market and nursing-home industry outside of Spain. That first center became one of the few comfortable alternatives to the nursing-home options then available to Spaniards, which consisted of spartan religious hospitals or asylums for the elderly. "I have always enjoyed working with sick people and seniors. You have to in order to be in this business," Soler told a radio interviewer recently.

Ocean Views

Meanwhile, Ballesol is easing its way into a market segment as yet underdeveloped in Spain. It will open a 400-bed resort next summer on Spain's eastern coast in Alicante, where residents can rent or own an apartment on the beach. Based on Ballesol's track record, those apartments should be quite spectacular.