Houghton to spearhead kidsunlimited’s overseas push
CATHERINE Houghton has joined Wilmslow-based private nursery business kidsunlimited as part of its plans to expand overseas.
Houghton, who has been working for kidsunlimited’s private equity backers LDC since 2009, had been a non-executive on the company’s board for 12 months but will now lead its push into Asia as well as its continued growth in the UK.
Prior to joining LDC, she was a director of Bank of Scotland Integraged Finance and had previously worked within PwC’s private equity team.
She joins a four-strong senior management team led by CEO Ros Marshall, who joined the business in 2010 from education group Nord Anglia PLC, alongside development director Jeremy Clark and finance director Darren Powell.
kidsunlimited was founded in 1983 and has subsequently been through a number of private equity-backed buy-outs, with the latest being LDC’s acquisition in 2008 in a deal which valued the business at £45m.
It currently operates from 61 sites in the UK and runs workplace nurseries for employers including Manchester Airport, University of Oxford, HSBC and Toyota. In the year to April 30, 2011, the firm declared a pre-tax loss of £4.3m on a 9% increase in sales to £38.1m.
kidsunlimited is due to open six sites in the current financial year and has has identified a further 150 locations, predominantly in London and the South East.
As part of her new role, Houghton will also be exploring kidsunlimited’s expansion into China, where there is significant demand for high quality pre-school education from British providers.
She said: “kidsunlimited has an ideal opportunity to expand its footprint in the UK with its proven and highly successful roll out model, and export its model internationally, particularly in China where domestic demand for high quality private childcare and pre-school education continues to grow.
“I’ve worked closely with Ros and the team for the past 12 months as a non-executive director and have seen the business make enormous progress.
“This role gives me the chance to become far more operationally involved in delivering the growth strategy at a hugely exciting time for the business and the sector.”
Ros Marshall, CEO of kidsunlimited, said: “Having Catherine join our senior management team is a tremendous vote of confidence in the business.
“Both Steve Harrison and Catherine at LDC have made a significant contribution as non-executives in recent years and combined with LDC’s continued backing, we now have the ideal opportunity to drive our expansion both at home and overseas in locations where the kidsunlimited model has the greatest potential.”
