The UK's top 10 largest nursery groups continue to expand

The largest nursery group in the country, Busy Bees has bought a standalone site, Goldstar Montessori Day Nursery in Enfield (pictured below), and is set to open a brand-new 110-place nursery next spring in Lichfield – where it opened its first ever setting in 1984.

Nitin Jain, managing director of Montessori by Busy Bees, said, ‘We are delighted to welcome Goldstar Montessori Day Nursery to the Busy Bees family. The team has done a wonderful job of growing the nursery over the past 26 years, and we are committed to preserving their vision and values going forward. Their child-initiated approach perfectly aligns with our mission at Busy Bees, and we are looking forward to working with the team to ensure children continue receiving the best possible start in life.’

The deals were handled by Christie & Co.

Grandir UK, which owns the Kiddi Caru nurseries, has bought the Rushcliffe Day Nurseries group of three settings in Nottingham, as well as Pippins Day Nursery in Colchester, taking it to 56 sites in total.

ICP Education has acquired the Scottish Children’s Hour Nursery chain of two settings.

Speaking on behalf of ICP Education, mergers and acquisitions director, Kirsty Ibbott, commented, ‘We are pleased to welcome these two well-established nurseries in Glasgow - Children’s Hour Nurseries – to ICP Education. Former owners Trudy and Kevin have established nurseries with a strong reputation for providing excellent care and early years education. We look forward to building on this reputation whilst supporting the current teams for a seamless integration and to ensure that, like all our nurseries, we will maintain its local identity in the community.’

ICP now has 68 nurseries, of these 11 are in Scotland.

The deals come as the nursery group is set to rebrand to Bright Stars.