Kids Planet continues to grow
Wednesday, June 6, 2018
The nursery group Kids Planet has bought its 26th nursery.
Stretton Day Nursery in Warrington, Cheshire, has been sold to the nursery group by business property adviser Christie & Co.
The nursery, in a Victorian property on large fenced grounds, has capacity for 50 children.
After establishing and running the business for over 20 years, previous owner Patricia Morris decided to retire.
‘This truly was a very difficult decision, which took years to make,' she said. 'I felt confident that Christie & Co had the right approach – professional but with a human face. I didn’t want publicity and I had a very specific profile of the successor in my mind.’
Clare Roberts, chief executive of Kids Planet said, ‘We are thrilled to add Stretton Day Nursery as our 26th nursery to the Kids Planet group. We would like to thank Patricia for choosing us to take over the nursery following her retirement and we look forward to continuing to build on the high standards of care and education that they provide.
‘Christie & Co introduced us to the opportunity, knowing that Stretton is a great fit for us in terms of its geographical location to our other settings and sits perfectly within our expansion plan of continued growth.’
Sofia Beck, the childcare business agent at Christie & Co who handled the sale, added, ‘This transaction is a great example of how beneficial it is for a nursery operator to build a relationship with a Christie & Co agent a few years in advance of an exit strategy. It’s always useful to have somebody to turn to for advice and updates on market activity in the lead up to selling your nursery business and could potentially result in you achieving a higher price for your business.’
Kids Planet, the 13th largest UK chain and top of the Nursery Chains quality table last year, is expected to double its number of nurseries in the next five years thanks to a £6.5m investment from Business Growth Fund (BGF).
Since the initial £10m investment secured by the group from BGF in 2016, the family-owned business has expanded from 17 to 26 sites across the north of England.
