While Busy Bees and Bright Horizons continue their long-held dominance as the biggest nursery groups in the country, Kids Planet can lay claim to the highest growth in the last 12 months, maintaining its strong position in third place in our table of the 25 largest nursery chains in the UK.
The Manchester-based group now operates 172 nurseries in this year’s table, up from 145 in our 2023 issue.
Indeed, as we went to press (and just too late to include in this year’s table) the group has confirmed a deal to buy the Fledglings nursery group of four nurseries.
In a very challenging year, it was those groups backed by private equity investment, such as Kids Planet, that were able to continue to expand.
Not far behind in terms of expansion is Grandir UK, which remains the sixth-largest group, after adding 14 more nurseries and more than 1,000 extra places since last year’s listing.
Its growth was driven predominantly by acquiring nine of the nurseries previously owned by the Bristol-based group Mama Bear’s, which in our last issue was the 25th-largest group.
Bev and Tony Driffield, who co-own Mama Bear’s, told Nursery Worldthe reason behind the sale was to allow the group to restructure its finances post-Covid.
The group continues to operate with 16 nurseries.
Family First, the fifth-largest group, acquired the Kids Play group of four nurseries last May. However, former owner Paul Sharp continues to run the nine nurseries he set up as the Farm Day Nurseries.
The Old Station Nursery group and Kindred have both acquired seven more nurseries since our 2023 table was published, while N Family Club has grown by five settings.
The number of nurseries operated by the 25 biggest groups this year is 1,926. This compares to 1,885 settings in our 2023 issue.
*Figures as of 30 November 2023 ^Figures as of 31 January 2023
There are three new entries to the table this year. The highest ranked is Partou in seventh place with more than 100 nurseries. The nursery group is the result of the merger of Just Childcare, which Partou acquired in 2021, and All About Children, which it bought the following year. They have now amalgamated under their Dutch owner’s brand, the largest nursery provider in the Netherlands.
Partou is set to continue on its expansion path and is due to open an 82-place nursery in Rock Ferry in the Wirral.
Another new entry is Ashbourne Nurseries in 22nd place, which operates 29 settings currently based largely in the Midlands and the Home Counties, and has plans to open five new nurseries in the first quarter of this year.
Finally, in 24th place is Happy Days, a group which operates 23 nurseries, with the majority based in Somerset and Cornwall. It plans to open an 81-place setting in Dorset in the spring.
Banana Moon, which operates 47 nurseries as part of a franchise, has four new openings planned, one in Royston, one in London and two in Tyne and Wear.
Monkey Puzzle, which currently operates 67 nurseries as part of a franchise, as well as six of its own, has plans for five more settings.
Fennies, ranked 23rd in size, has ambitious plans to open six more nurseries in the next six months in Twickenham, Whitton, Reading, Richmond, Clapham and Maidenhead.
However, it is more than fair to say it has been a difficult year for many. Summing up 2023, Arun Kanwar, managing partner at Cairneagle, told Nursery World it was ‘one of the most challenging I’ve seen for UK nursery operators’.
Sadly, some groups are not faring as well, as we continue to recover from the pandemic, an ongoing staffing crisis, the rise to the cost of living and high interest rates. Not to mention, of course, the perennial problem of funding gaps to cover Government-funded nursery places, under increasing scrutiny against the planned expansion of places for two-year-olds in England, which starts in April.
Devastating for the sector as a whole are those nursery groups that have visibly suffered in the last year, among them the two largest voluntary providers.
The Early Years Alliance now operates 43 nurseries, down from 61 in last year’s table.
YMCA, the largest voluntary provider in the UK, has lost 18 nurseries in the last 12 months, although thankfully some of these were saved from closure, after Christie & Co stepped in to support the group. Courteney Donaldson, managing director of childcare and education at the specialist property adviser, said in January that the nurseries weren’t sustainable for the group, but ‘very fortunately we were able to intervene ahead of that formal closure process. We were able to find a number of buyers that could take those nurseries on and maintain capacity.’
Spring, the nurseries that are operated by the charity Action for Children, has alsolost eight nurseries since our last issue.
Meanwhile, Alpha Nurseries, which was founded in 2010 and operated 21 settings and 875 places, according to last year’s directory, closed all its sites at the end of December with no notice.
The company, based in Ipswich, announced it was ‘regretfully’ having to close immediately due to financial problems, and insolvency specialists Begbies Traynor were engaged to put the group into liquidation.
Nevertheless, there are signs of recovery for some, as both small and medium-sized groups in our extensive directory share their plans for the year ahead.
Kids Inc Nurseries, which currently provides 1,200 places, has more acquisitions and openings planned in Surrey and Hampshire this year.
New to the directory this year is Little Adventures Nursery Group, established just three years ago. It already has six sites and has plans to open more in the South West and the Midlands.
Meanwhile, CC Nurseries currently operates nine settings, and has a new site due to open in Edinburgh in 2024.
Ofsted table
Congratulations to Childbase, which is ranked top this year in our analysis of Ofsted group reports, with 42 out of its 44 nurseries rated Outstanding or Good.
As controversy over Ofsted inspections and the one-word judgement continues, it is interesting to note that the number of Outstanding grades among the 25 largest groups has fallen from 369 in our 2023 table to 319.
