Small is beautiful as Kids Allowed expands again
KIDS Allowed, the independent Manchester-based nursery chain is to create 50 jobs with the opening of its fifth site, this time in Stockport.
The new facility comes as the business founded in 2002 and led by Jennie Johnson has passed the £6m turnover for the first time. Jennie, her co-founder Maureen Bennett and entrepreneur Anthony Preston, founder of Pets at Home, own Kids Allowed.
Building work on the Stockport site began this month and will last for 11 months. In addition to nursery provision from three months old, the centre will offer before and after school provision, holiday clubs, a parent concierge and daily parent and toddler activities.
Jennie Johnson told TheBusinessDesk.com the business is performing well, and the Stockport site, as with the recently opened centre in Macclesfield, would be funded from within the group’s own resources.
She said: “We are focused not on growth, but rightly on opening and operating high quality centres where we have happy children and therefore happy parents.
“We want to make sure we get the right locations too, so our rate of openings of one every 18 months to two years feels about right.”
The new nursery is being built on the former site of the Acton Court Hotel just a mile south of Stockport town centre. It will have places for 190 childre.
The facility will have age-specific rooms, a sensory room, one-way porthole windows so parents can see their children settling in without disturbing them, and biometric fingerprint technology, meaning that only staff and parents can gain access. The centre will also have a roof-top garden.
Like the four other Kids Allowed sites in Didsbury, Cheadle Royal, Knutsford and Macclesfield, a parent concierge service will be available to help parents handle common day-to-day household chores such as dry cleaning, ironing and post collection, leaving more time for families to spend together.
Jennie Johnson said “Our centres have a comprehensive range of services to match the real needs and expectations of family life. Although we are nearly a year away from opening in Stockport we are already taking reservations which is fantastic.”
