Bright Horizons acquires kidsunlimited

The £45m deal - the largest acquistion of this year - brings the total number of nurseries owned by Bright Horizions Family Solutions in the UK to 203, offering 15,500 childcare places.

The international company, which has headquarters in the United States, operates more than 750 childcare centres worldwide.

The acquisition sees the nursery group edge closer in size to the biggest UK childcare provider Busy Bees, which has 214 settings and 19,509 places.

Founded in 1983, kidsunlimited operates 64 settings including workplace nurseries for employers such as WH Smith, Cambridge University Hospitals and the University of Oxford, across the North-West, London and the South-East.

All the settings will remain under the kidsunlimited brand and managed by Bright Horizons.

kidsunlimited's 1,800 employees will continue their employment with Bright Horizons. Their chief executive Ros Marshall will support the integration of the nursery group.

Kidsunlimited also runs a childcare voucher business, KU vouchers, which Bright Horizons will take over the running of. It follows the government’s announcement last month that the exisiting childcare voucher scheme will be extended to more working families in 2015.

Carole Edmond, managing director of Bright Horizons UK & Ireland, said, ‘We warmly welcome all kidsunlimited staff, children, families and clients to Bright Horizons. We believe this will be a partnership which will benefit everyone. Our companies have a shared purpose to provide exceptional and inspiring care and education for the early years, to support the dependent care and employee well-being aspirations of our clients, and to offer our staff the best opportunities for professional development and job satisfaction. We look forward to what the future brings.’

David Lissy, chief executive officer of Bright Horizons, added, 'We have long admired the kidsunlimited team. Both organisations share a deep commitment to quality early years education and workplace childcare. This combination gives us a well established foothold within the childcare sector and solidifies our position as the leader in providing high-quality employer-sponsored childcare throughout the UK.'

Ros Marshall, CEO of kidsunlimited, said, ‘We are delighted to be joining the Bright Horizon’s family. Both companies share a commitment to excellence, innovation and investment in their staff and facilities, creating the environment for all of the children, parents and staff in their care to flourish.’

Courteney Donaldson, director of childcare at Christie + Co, which advised Bright Horizons on the acquisition, said, ‘Over the last year or so, the nursery, childcare and education marketplace has been the stand-out sector in terms of the vibrancy of its transactional marketplace, particularly across the corporate and regional marketplace. This latest deal, on which we were delighted to be able to advise Bright Horizons, shows there is no let-up just yet.’

Last year, Bright Horizons acquired the Casterbridge nursery group of 27 settings.