Ravenstone House Nurseries has sold ten of its 13 nurseries to four different buyers, who include the chains Child First and Magic Nurseries.
Ravenstone, owned by equity partner Pacific Investments and the Pauley Group, has kept Milton Keynes Preparatory School and Nursery, its sister school Broughton Manor and Walton Nursery.
Chief executive Hilary Pauley, who started the company in 1975, said she had chosen to keep the cluster of Milton Keynes nurseries. She added that she also wanted to develop her publishing business and website Everything Early Years.
She told Nursery World, 'The 13 nurseries totalled approaching 1,500 children and 400 staff. I feel that distant management of other people's children can be quite difficult - when our nurseries are 50 or 60 miles away and we want to make sure the children have the same service we offer up here around our base, it's quite hard.'
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