The Bertram Nurseries Group, the name of the new holding company, now has 15 nurseries offering 1,100 places, with a further five acquisitions in the pipeline.
The new majority shareholder and managing director is Graeme Scott, owner of three nurseries in Scotland, which have merged with Happitots to form the new company.
The company's founder, Heather Gilchrist, who opened her first nursery 11 years ago, retains a 10 per cent stake and a position as chairman and will remain involved in the day-to-day business.
Ms Gilchrist said, 'I've been the sole owner for ten years and it's a lot of responsibility. This is the best I could have hoped for, because I still want to be involved. We've been the largest Scottish independent nursery group for a few years and with this we can still grow and grow.'
The Happitots nurseries will not be re-branded and will retain their individual identities.
Mr Scott told Nursery World that he had intended to grow his company slowly.
He said, 'We were just going to add one or two a year. We'd turned away 15 nurseries before because we're very fussy about quality.'
He said that Happitots' emphasis on quality went well with his own business philosophy and he added that he liked the fact that their nurseries were adapted to fit in with the needs of the local community.
Mr Scott said he now has plans to double the company in size to around 30 nurseries throughout Scotland in the next two to three years.
He started his nursery business in 2000, by buying a former care home in Edinburgh and converting it into a 100-place nursery.
A few years later, he bought a second setting in the village of Banchory in Aberdeenshire and added a third nursery in Glasgow late last year.
Ms Gilchrist opened her first nursery in a converted church in Glasgow in 1996.
Happitots has grown steadily since then by building its own settings and opening workplace nurseries at Glasgow and Edinburgh Airports.
It also acquired two smaller Scottish groups: Bright Beginnings in 2004 and Beehive Nurseries in 2005.
