Partou buys All About Children

It is the second UK acquisition for the Dutch provider, following the buyout of Just Childcare last year.

All About Children, founded in 2010 by ex-CEO of Asquith Russell Ford, and Marcia Viccars, opened its first nursery in Cheltenham and expanded to 38 settings, largely based in London, the South East and the Midlands.

The group has around 3,500 children on roll, providing just under 3,000 childcare places and employing around 850 staff.

Following the deal, Partou confirmed to Nursery World that the founders will be leaving the group.

Sinead Johnson, COO at All About Children, said, ‘We are delighted to be partnering with Partou and are looking forward to an exciting new chapter in our development. The ethos, philosophy and practices of our two companies are very well aligned, and we’re enthusiastic about continuing to grow All About Children in the UK market.’

Jeanine Lemmens, CEO of Partou, said, ‘We are equally excited about this new partnership and are very impressed by the best in class childcare Sinead and her team deliver to the children every day. This partnership contributes to our ambition to provide outstanding childcare to more children and families in the UK. All about Children and Partou share the same, simple quality principal: “all children deserve nothing but the best.”’

After opening its first childcare centre in 1984, Partou now operates more than 700 childcare centres, caring for over 65,000 children and has about 9,000 staff.

Last year, Partou bought the North West based nursery group Just Childcare, which now provides around 5,000 childcare places and 1,500 employees.