The new nurseries will bring the number of places provided by Just Learning up to a total of 3,332. The chain was listed as the seventh-largest UK nursery group in the November 2002 issue of the Nursery World supplement Nursery Chains, and its latest acquisitions would have put it in fifth place, ahead of Bright Horizons Family Solutions and Kidsunlimited.
Just Learning, which was bought by venture capitalists Alchemy in a 30m deal in December 2001, has acquired the three-nursery UK Voyager Group in a 2.5m deal.
The UK Voyager group, formerly listed in Nursery Chains as Partners in Play, is based in the north-east, with a 116-place nursery in Cleadon near Sunderland, an 82-place nursery in Fulwell Grange near Sunderland and a 124-place nursery at Bear Park, Durham. The group was established in 1997 and has around 70 employees.
Just Learning has also acquired Southwell Day Nursery in Southwell, Nottinghamshire, a 37-place purpose-built nursery, for an undisclosed sum.
The fifth of its new nurseries is on Cobalt Business Park to the east of Newcastle. It will open at Easter, and was purpose-built to Just Learning's standard 112-place design.
Just Learning chief executive Michael Fallon said, 'Most of our growth has been new-build, but we also make very selective acquisitions. The four nurseries we are acquiring are all very high quality with strong local reputations. We continue to look for attractive acquisitions alongside our development programme of seven to eight new nurseries each year.'
* Child Base, the ninth largest nursery group in the UK, made a pre-tax profit of 651,000 in the year ending October 2002, with annual revenue up 21 per cent at 11.9m.
Managing director Michael Thompson described it as being 'another solid year of growth for the company'. He said, 'Our new nursery sites matured and occupancy rates across the company as a whole increased significantly.
This, in turn, has led to the improved trading performance. Investment in our existing nurseries and staff training has never been higher.
'While there are many challenges in the market, we are very pleased with our progress over the last 12 months.'
Child Base's turnover has increased steadily over the last three years, from 7.2m in 2000 to 9.8m in 2001 and 11.9m in 2002.
Its operating profit has grown from 440,000 in 2000 to 890,000 in 2002. The average occupancy is up to 87 per cent in mature nurseries, and 74 per cent overall.
Child Base's profit after tax for 2002 was 182,000.
