kidsunlimited to continue investment as earnings rise
NORTH West private nursery operator kidsunlimited grew sales and earnings last year as it continued to open new sites.
The Wilmslow company, which has owns stand-alone sites and also runs childcare facilities for major corporates such as WH Smith, Toyota and HSBC, intends to keep expanding this year after revealing a 6% increase in ebitda to £5m in the year to the end of April 2012.
Sales at the business, backed by private equity investor LDC, rose 8% to £41.4m. After interest charges of £4.6m the group made a bottom-line loss of £3.5m, down from £4.2m in 2011.
kidsunlimited spent £3m on new and existing facilities during the year and also ramped-up investment in staff training, play and education resources, which helped boost occupany levels, resulting in strong organic growth,
The group – now the fourth largest in the UK – will open another four new sites in the current financial year, primarily in the South East of England, with three already open at prime locations in Richmond and Carshalton in Surrey and Church Crookham in Hampshire, with a second site in Wandsworth south London due to open in the next few weeks.
Founded 30 years ago in 1983, kidsunlimited cares for over 7,500 children every week across 64 sites in the UK, including independent nurseries in urban locations and workplace nurseries.
The majority of its independent nurseries are in affluent areas of Cheshire, south Manchester, Oxford, Cambridge, the Home Counties and London, where locations include Ladbroke Grove, Chelsea and Maidstone.
Chief executive Ros Marshall said: “Our successful roll out strategy, combined with excellent organic growth from rising occupancy levels, continues to drive overall commercial performance.
“As well as our on-going programme of investment in the estate, we have also continued to invest heavily in training and resources, ensuring our teams can provide the kind of high quality, inspiring childcare and early years education that parents desire and deserve for their children. This commitment remains our core focus in the years ahead.”
The group, which employs over 2,000 people, also provides childcare vouchers for working parents. It said the number of parents using the tax-efficient vouchers had increased 17% during the year.
Its childcare programmes include a wide variety of activities, from gardening and cooking, to music and art, and languages including Mandarin, Spanish and Portuguese.
The business was originally founded by husband and wife Jean and Stewart Pickering in 1983. LDC backed a secondary buyout of the business in 2008, following an earlier investment by ISIS in 2001.
