Finance director Stephen Chalmers-Morris said 372,000 of the loss had been incurred by raising funds to expand. The operating loss before interest, depreciation and exceptional items was 346,212. 'If you look at the operating loss on a cash basis, the loss is not as severe,' he said.
Jean and Stewart Pickering, the founder members of Kidsunlimited, secured funding to expand from Isis Capital plc, a member of the Friends Provident group, in June 2001. Kidsunlimited chairman Graham Smith's statement in the annual report for the year ending 30 April 2002 said that two new directors, John Hirst and David Hirst, had been appointed to help expand the business quickly, but 'unfortunately, things did not work out as planned', and so last April, they resigned. Mr Smith said, 'The accounts for the period to 30 April 2002 include 309,000 in respect of payments made to these two directors.'
He said that the company would continue to report losses in the current year, but that results for the first quarter of this financial year showed the company to be moving towards break-even at the operating level before depreciation and interest on shareholders' loans. Mr Smith added, 'If this trend continues, the outlook for the future is encouraging.'
Careshare, the eleventh-largest nursery group, reported a turnover of Pounds 4.2m - a 39 per cent increase on the previous year's 3m - and a loss before tax of 137,987 for the year ended 31 March 2002. In the previous year it reported a profit before tax of 117,124.
Careshare finance director William Hodgins said, 'What we have done in the last 12 months is put in place an increased infrastructure. We have invested heavily in IT systems and put in place a regional manager structure, and an in-house training school, all to enable us to grow.
'Over the past year we opened ten new nurseries, more than doubling in size, and we will open our twentieth this month. Our established nurseries are averaging 90 per cent occupancy, but it takes time for a nursery to reach this level.'
He said the chain planned to open eight new sites this year and anticipated that its turnover would increase to 6m in the year ending in March 2003, rising to 9m the following year. 'We anticipate that we will break even this year,' he added.
Happy Child, ranked nineteenth among the largest providers in the latest issue of the Nursery World supplement Nursery Chains, saw its revenue increase by 300,000 to 2.2m in 2002 from 1.9m in 2001.
The group made a profit before tax of 549,700 in the year ending 31 March 2002, compared with 748,962 the previous year.
Happy Child finance director Julian Cook said, 'The turnover has gone up because we have opened new nurseries and increased occupation. We plan to continue to expand, so we hope the figures will continue to improve.' Happy Child, based in Ealing, London, owns 17 nurseries, three preparatory schools and a training centre.
