The Holyrood nursery opened at the Princes Dock development on Monday following a weekend of activities that included face painting, balloon modelling and a bouncy castle.
The Bertram Nursery Group, which is currently the eighth largest in the UK and Ireland, now owns 32 nurseries in north-west England and in Scotland and offers a total of 2,405 places. It runs 15 settings in England under the Holyrood brand and 17 in Scotland under brands including Happitots, Bright Beginnings and Strawberry Hill.
The opening of its new nursery in Liverpool is part of an expansion plan under which the chain intends to open four new settings a year over the next three years.
Susan McGhee, commercial director of the Bertram Nursery Group, said, 'This year we will be opening another new nursery in Scotland and two settings in the north-west of England. We have identified the sites that we want to use and we are in the final stages of negotiating the lease.'
The 100-place Holyrood Princes Dock Nursery has been designed to fit the needs of parents working in the local area. It offers support services such as a parent book bar, where parents can borrow, swap and share books, onsite children's hairdressing services and a dry cleaning drop-off and collection point, with the aim of helping parents to spend more time with their children rather than carrying out errands.
Ms McGhee said, 'We only signed the lease six weeks ago, so it has been extremely busy. Monday was a settling in day and children will start officially from Tuesday.
'We chose the site because there has been a lot of redevelopment and regeneration in this area and there are some quite big businesses based here, but not very much childcare provision. At the moment we have four staff but are envisaging there will be more than 20. It's going very well so far and we have had a lot of interest from parents who work in the area.'