Piece by piece

Growing government interest in the early years and higher parent expectations meant that, by 1998, my nursery, Belle Enfant, had to either develop or get left behind. I had been operating from multi-purpose premises in Southend-on-Sea, Essex since 1990 sharing with, amongst others, a local football club. The daily setting up of activities and general lack of facilities combined with increasing demand for baby care made me realise that it was time for a change.

Fortunately, at a party in January of that year, I met Kevin Palmer. I talked about the nursery and my need to develop it and he was full of interest and enthusiasm. As an entrepreneur who had already built and sold several businesses, it soon became apparent that he was seriously interested in the opportunities available in the nursery sector. For about six months we explored various options, with Kevin investigating the possibility of purchasing suitable premises to convert for use as a nursery. However there always seemed to be a problem - no outside play area, odd-sized rooms, poor parking and so on. By chance, I remembered an advertisement in Nursery World for Globalmobile's purpose-built facilities I had seen the previous summer. Kevin and I met with the company's director, Alan Proto, who showed us his own nursery in Maidstone, Kent. This was in the grounds of a local school and we felt that a similar approach could be fruitful. However, after much effort, various approaches and many discussions we were making little progress.