Major international expansion for nursery group

Nursery group Busy Bees has made a major international acquisition after completing its takeover of Canadian group Brightpath.

The deal adds 78 sites to Busy Bees’ existing portfolio and follows two years after the group’s first overseas acquisition, when it bought 70 nurseries in Singapore and Malaysia.

Busy Bees has paid $145m (£87m) for Brightpath. The Staffordshire-based nursery group is owned by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, the investment group which also holds a 48% stake in Birmingham Airport.

BrightPath is Canada’s leading private childcare provider caring for 8,950 pre-school children.

Busy Bees managing director Marg Randles said: “BrightPath, like Busy Bees, is committed to providing families with the very best child development programmes and care its country has to offer.”

Earlier this year Busy Bees added 61 sites with the acquisition of Derby group Treetops Nurseries, and in a separate deal added two more nurseries in Scotland.

The ambitious group is one of the success stories of the region, having been named in the top 100 fastest growing mid-market companies last year while Marg and John Randles jointly took home EY’s EY Entrepreneur of the Year award for the Midlands.

Randles added: “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.”

Mary Ann Curran, chief executive of BrightPath, which operates in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia, said: “Since the company began seven years ago, BrightPath has developed into Canada’s leader in early learning and child care.

“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 child care.”