When a UK nursery chain says it plans to add four new facilities a year to its portfolio, that might be seen as ambitious growth. Adding four nurseries a month would be seen as risky, particularly amid stiff competition from Government-backed initiatives.
An extra four a week? Impossible, surely. But that is what the giant Australia-based company, ABC Learning Centres, has set its sights on as it continues to swallow up its domestic rivals and after its recent takeover of the Learning Care Group, the third largest US childcare operator.
ABC is by far the largest childcare group in the world. A company spokesman confirms that it has around 750 centres in Australia and New Zealand and 330 in the US, as well as franchises in the Philippines, Hong Kong and Indonesia. It is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange with a market capitalisation of Aus$2.5bn - a staggering 1.4bn.
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