Busy Bees ties up acquisition of Canadian group
Wednesday, August 2, 2017
Busy Bees has confirmed it has completed the purchase of Canadian childcare provider BrightPath.
As Nursery World reported last month, the UK’s biggest childcare provider has continued its international expansion by acquiring the Calgary-based company, Canada’s only publicly-traded childcare chain, which cares for 8,950 pre-school children in 78 settings across Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia.
With the sale now officially completed, Busy Bees co-founder and managing director Marg Randles commented, ‘BrightPath, like Busy Bees, is committed to providing families with the very best child development programmes and care its country has to offer. We are united in our vision and values and we are delighted to be working with such a talented team to share best practice across the waters.’
In 2013, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plans, which manages the pensions of more than 300,000 Canadian teachers, invested in Busy Bees Nurseries to help fund the chain’s international expansion ambitions.
Busy Bees made its first international purchase in 2015 with the acquisition of 60 nurseries across Singapore, Malaysia and Singapore’s Asian International College.
Ms Randles continued, ‘Busy Bees is enjoying an amazing year with the addition of a number of quality nurseries, bringing the total to 482 nurseries across the UK, Canada, Singapore and Malaysia. Our ethos remains that we are an international network of local nurseries, and our purpose is to continue to create better outcomes for each and every child.
‘We really appreciate the hard work everyone has put in to bring this partnership and others to fruition. We are looking forward to working closely with Mary Ann, the CEO of BrightPath, and the team in Canada to share ideas and deliver exciting and innovative activities to more children in all our markets.’
Mary Ann Curran, CEO of BrightPath, said, ‘As part of the Busy Bees family, BrightPath will continue to raise the bar on quality and, with a passion for the care of children, we look forward to continuing to expand and fill the need for high quality early learning and childcare.’
