Little Einstein's, which opened in Mansewood, Glasgow last October, has bought the Wonderland group of four nurseries. The acquisition also includes the childcare and early years training company Thistle Training.
The group now provides 425 childcare places across six sites and employs 120 people.
It also has planning permission to extend the Dundee nursery for 50 more children and to add 40 more places at one of the Glasgow nurseries.
Little Einstein's managing director Deepak Poddar also owns Everest Nursing Homes.
Mr Poddar told Nursery World, 'We're really excited. We have plans to expand to more than ten nurseries by this time next year.'
The sale includes the properties for three of the four sites, which are in Perth, Dundee and Arbroath. The fourth nursery is based at the Ninewells Hospital run by NHS Tayside in Dundee.
All the nurseries will be re-branded eventually under the Little Einstein's name.
There are also plans to expand the training company. 'We feel there's a big gap in the training sector and we want to push that quite hard,' Mr Poddar said.
In other acquisitions, the Old Station Nursery group now has 11 nurseries after buying Filkins Nursery in Lechlade, Gloucestershire, and taking on the 80-place pre-school at RAF Linton on Ouse, North Yorkshire.
Managing director Sarah Steele said, 'We're turning term-time-only provision into full daycare and extending provision to offer full support to parents.'
The chain has also taken on the running of the Watlington After-School Play Scheme in Oxfordshire.
Stewart and Janine Birchall, owners of Lancashire-based company Netstar 9, have bought Summerfield Nursery in St Annes on Sea, Lancashire, in a £1m deal.
The group, which was set up in 2001, also owns Busy Bears Day Nursery in Fulwood, Preston, and School House Private Day Nursery in Blackburn. It now has just over 180 childcare places.
Mr Birchall told Nursery World the nurseries would not change their names.
'We don't want to go for re-branding because we want to maintain strong links with the local community. That' s not to say that we don't have an aspiration to be a major player,' he said.
He said the company, which employs 54 people, has high adult:child ratios 'to give the best care for the children'.
