Eamonn O’Connor and his wife Urvashi founded the nursery group in 2013, running Toddletown Day Nursery in Chiswick for four years before acquiring the Wigwam Day Nursery in Reading.
A newly-built Toddletown site in Godalming is due to open in September 2020.
Mulberry Corner also offers Toddletown space for expansion, and the group plans to build a baby room to open in spring 2020, offering an additional 10 places.
Eamonn O’Connor, managing director of Toddletown, said, ‘As a long-established family-run business which is well-known in the locality, the outstanding childcare is what drew our attention to Mulberry Corner. Its long-standing staff team have huge longevity of service, which is highly unusual in the sector.’
Established in 1992, Mulberry Corner was rated Outstanding by Ofsted at its last inspection and offers places for 50 children.
After running the nursery for nearly 30 years, the previous owner Denise Barry, has retired.
Her daughter, Emma Sadler, who helped her in the running of the business, said, ‘Mulberry Corner holds a very special place in our hearts and we are delighted to have found a purchaser who shares the same ethos and values as we do. We are very excited to see how Mulberry Corner grows and develops over the years to come.’
Meanwhile, Toddletown, which offers 170 places in total across the three sites that are open, is on the lookout for more expansion opportunities.
Mr O’Connor said, ‘We have plenty of investment behind us and we are still looking for the right opportunities. We are open to going concerns or we can start from scratch, and we are fairly open-minded as to where. We keep the branding localised if we acquire an existing setting, as we don’t want to be too corporate in outlook.’
Sophie Willcox, associate director at Christie & Co, which handled the sale, said, ‘We were inundated with interest for Mulberry Corner, which is no doubt a result of its Ofsted rating and reputation for providing excellent childcare. I am delighted to have assisted Eamonn in expanding his group and hope to work with them again in the future.’
