West Midlands group plans local expansion

The deal means that the group now owns eight nurseries and one out-of-school club. All are based in Staffordshire, except for one setting in Warwickshire.

Owners Gavin and Catherine Harvey started the group 12 years ago and have grown it gradually from a 20-place nursery to offering more than 550 places and employing 190 people.

Four of the group’s existing settings are graded outstanding and two are good.

The two newly acquired settings - based in Fazeley, also in Tamworth, and Cannock in Staffordshire - are leasehold properties and were previously part of the Happy Tots group, which has now closed.

The nurseries were sold through specialist property adviser Christie + Co within ten working days.

The nursery has also bought a residential property in Walmley in Sutton Coldfield and applied for change of use to convert the building into an 89-place nursery.

Building work will start in January and the nursery is due to open in September 2015. The nursery is in a semi-rural area and will also offer forest school.

Owner Gavin Harvey told Nursery World, ‘We like to stay within the same geographical area to maintain standards. All our nurseries are within an hour’s drive of each other.’

Most of the growth has been ‘organic’ through extending existing settings and the group would continue with ‘strategic acquisitions’, but was not aiming to open 20 or 30 nurseries, he added.

‘The main thing for us is to keep the high quality and to deliver outstanding care.’

The two nurseries have been re-registered with Ofsted under the Footsteps brand.

Two other Happy Tots nurseries remain for sale as closed freehold nurseries with vacant possession.