First off, a caveat – all the information in our table of the biggest chains is correct as of the end of January 2022.
This means that due to the lead time needed for the extensive research we carry out in preparing the magazine, by the time this issue of Nursery Chains comes out in early March, there may have been some more acquisitions in the intervening weeks that we have been unable to capture in this edition.
Such is the current pace of change and consolidation in the sector, despite – or in some cases, as a direct result of – the major challenges we have all faced during the past two years of the pandemic.
Most certainly, and even without the gift of clairvoyance, it is not a stretch to predict that some major groups may well have acquired more nurseries. (Indeed, as I write, Kids Planet has announced its acquisition of Twinkles’ group of six nurseries, including a new 84-place nursery set to open next year.)
Sources have told us in preparing this issue that major deals are under way. We certainly know of at least one group in the top 20 that is up for sale. Nevertheless, we hope not to have been caught completely on the back foot!
While the top three groups remain the same as last year, Kids Planet has almost doubled in size since our March 2021 issue of Nursery Chains, both in terms of settings and places offered – up from 53 nurseries to 97, now offering more than 9,500 places.
During 2021, the group acquired a number of other nursery groups, including the ten Poppy & Jack’s nurseries in Lancashire and Cheshire, the nine Kinder Haven nurseries in West Yorkshire, and Learning Curve’s five settings and out-of-school clubs in Blackpool. Kids Planet also won the contract to run Oxford University’s five workplace nurseries.
The group also has two new nurseries acquired in the last few weeks, but not yet registered with Ofsted. Chorley is opening in March and Hatchford will be opening ‘in the near future’.
In fourth place is Welcome Nurseries, which has jumped from 13th position to fourth in the past 12 months. Since it was established less than three years ago, the group has grown at an extraordinary pace, and now operates 48 nurseries after acquiring 20 settings in the past year alone. Welcome is in the process of acquiring several more nurseries, with more than 30 acquisitions planned this year, including in Wirral, Cheshire and Manchester.
Family First is the biggest new entry to this year’s table and is also one of the fastest-growing nursery groups, buying 37 settings in the last year, taking it from 10 settings in last year’s directory to 47.
Family First was set up in 2019 by Andy Morris, who is the ex-CEO of Asquith Nurseries and is the group’s chairman. Ollie Humphries was appointed as chief executive last May to oversee the group’s expansion.
Family First’s deals in 2021 included six settings previously owned by Poppies Nurseries in Berkshire.
Meanwhile, The Old Station Nursery group, part of French operator La Maison Bleue, now has 52 settings after acquiring eight Polkadot Nurseries in Warwickshire and Worcestershire in January.
It follows the acquisition of Sixpenny Day Nursery & Pre-school, a standalone site in Wiltshire, the same month.
The deal sees the group move to 12th place in the table, providing 3,472 childcare places.
In 24th place, Kindred Education now owns 22 nurseries and one out-of-school club and is planning to continue expansion this year.
Its nurseries are based in London, Essex and the South of England.
Finally, in 25th place is N Family Club, which now operates 17 settings throughout London, the Home Counties and the West Midlands.
It plans to grow in the next six months through opportunities including upcoming nursery launches in Highgate, Whetstone and Cambridge.
Meanwhile, The Co-operative Childcare – currently the 11th largest group – is opening a 100-place nursery in Warwickshire in May.
Other changes in the directory include the sale in January of long-established Paint Pots Pre-school & Nursery, winner of Nursery World’s Nursery Group of the Year in 2018.
In February, Paint Pots sold its nine nurseries to Launchpad Early Years, a social enterprise with three pre-schools, which have a broad Christian ethos similar to church schools. The settings are open to all children of all faiths.
Well-known in the sector, Paint Pots’ founders, David and Anna Wright, told Nursery Worldthatthey want to continue their work as ‘early years ambassadors’. David is the national representative for England for the World Forum on Early Childhood Education, which takes place in Orlando in May.
Other notable groups for expansion in the directory include Dukes Education. After the acquisition of The Kindergartens last October, it operates 24 nurseries, offering more than 1,200 places. Its other nurseries operate under several different brands, including Hopes & Dreams, which is opening a second 47-place nursery in London this spring.
The total number of nurseries operated by the 25 biggest groups in the UK is 1,701 (as of 31 January 2022). This means that the largest groups have increased in size by 130 nurseries, up from 1,571 settings in our March 2021 issue (for comparison, the previous increase was 57 between November 2019 and March 2021).
However, on closer inspection, expansion is primarily being driven by four groups: Kids Planet, Welcome, Family First and The Old Station Nursery.
Bright Horizons, long the second-biggest group, has experienced a loss of 13 settings.
Meanwhile, some groups have added a handful of settings, while a few have closed one or two sites.
Ofsted grades
N Family Club takes first place in our annual analysis of the Ofsted reports of the 25 biggest groups, and is a new entry in both of this year’s tables. While only five inspection reports are so far available for this group, all are Outstanding grades.
The second and third groups, Childbase and Children 1st respectively, have swapped places from last year, remaining in the top three. Finally, Kids Planet, last year’s number one, is now in fourth.
*The Ofsted table and downloadable PDF was corrected with a minor amendment to the bar chart for Welcome Nurseries on 3 March after a production error resulted in an earlier version being published.
