Nursery World - Busy Bees buys first Irish nursery group

The UK’s biggest nursery group has acquired Giraffe Childcare, one of Ireland’s largest.

Busy Bees has acquired 100 per cent of the Irish group’s 21 nurseries in the Greater Dublin area from Giraffe’s existing shareholders.

Founded in 2001, Giraffe Childcare provides nursery places, as well as after-school care for 2,000 children up to the age of 12.

Set up in 1983 in Staffordshire, Busy Bees has long been the UK’s largest nursery group and has expanded internationally in recent years into countries including Singapore, Canada and Australia.

Last year, Busy Bees expanded into the Australian market by acquiring Foundation Early Learning, a group of 30 nurseries, and also announced that it would be opening 32 nurseries in China over the next five years.

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