Nursery group gets 6.5m to grow

The group, which celebrates its 21st anniversary this year, currently has nine nurseries providing around 650 childcare places in Surrey and West Sussex.

The group plans to have opened a further three or four nurseries by the end of next year, through a mixture of development and acquisition.

Managing director Peter Churchley said, 'We traded very well during the recession and now we've taken the opportunity to secure re-financing at very competitive interest rates. This will give us the headroom to accelerate growth to buy individual acquisitions and small groups.

'Our move to Barclays Corporate was to find a partner who appreciated the consistency of our track record of profitable growth and was prepared to support us in taking advantage of further opportunities that have arisen as the economy emerges from recession,' he said.

The group also plans to buy up sites to build its own nurseries.

Mr Churchley added that the deals backed up emerging evidence that serious mainstream banks are now lending to small and medium-size businesses.

He said Caring Daycare has grown in profit every year and now has an 83 per cent occupancy rate.

He said the group had increased staff:child ratios from 1:3 to 1:2 for babies under four months to deliver high quality care for babies, folllowing an influx of babies as mothers returned to work earlier.

Five of the group's nine nurseries have been graded outstanding by Ofsted. All of its nurseries are managed by graduates, and two nursery managers have gained Early Years Professional Status.

Mr Churchley said, 'Graduate-led settings deliver higher quality outcomes for children, so we have prioritised the development of our nursery managers.'

The group also runs two children's centres for Surrey County Council and Mr Churchley sits on the council's children's centre strategy group.

'We're very proud of that,' he said. 'It demonstrates our social responsibility and is part of our commitment to delivering high standards of nursery care.'