The groups in Nursery Chains' first-ever league table provide more than 33,000 places across the UK between them, nearly twice as much as the number provided by local authority nurseries in England.
Asquith Court Schools is the leading provider by more than 1,000 places, followed by the Jigsaw Group and Leapfrog Day Nurseries, which has grown at an exceptional rate since its launch in 1998. Leapfrog now has 31 nurseries caring for 3,000 children.
Asquith Court, which has 85 nurseries, was recently bought for 66m by the private equity arm of WestLB, a German-based investment bank, and plans to double in size over the next five years.
Other chains also report ambitious plans. Jigsaw is scheduled to float in 2002 and plans to open 22 new purpose-built nurseries over the next two years.
Busy Bees, the fifth-largest group, secured 50m backing from Gresham Trust in February last year and plans to expand to up to 90 nurseries. Teddies Nurseries, in 11th place, also has a heavyweight backer, as the group was bought by healthcare provider BUPA last summer.
Edinburgh-based Careshare, in 14th place - which has 10.5m venture capital funding from 3i, which also backs Jigsaw - plans to increase by 550 places this year, while ninth-placed Bright Horizons, which is based in Milton Keynes, plans to add another 50 to 60 nurseries to its present 14 branches over the next few years.
