Nursery World - Business Models Part 4: Public Companies

It's a high-risk business but, with the right expertise, opening up
to public investment can raise serious cash. Hannah Crown reports on the
nursery as a marketable enterprise.

There are currently no publicly listed nursery chains on a UK stock exchange, since the Creative Education Corporation, trading as Primary Steps, went bust in 2007. Yet three of the ten largest nursery chains are part of, or have links to, plcs. Kiddi Caru is the trading name of The Childcare Corporation, a plc which started as a vehicle for raising funds through individual investors. Bright Horizons trades as a limited company in the UK, but has shares bought and sold daily on the New York Stock Exchange. And Busy Bees, which is now privately owned, was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in 2007 when it was owned by ABC Learning. The parent company went into liquidation a year later.

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