Expanding our Portfolio

Property Development

Bright Horizons currently operates over 270 nurseries in the UK and Ireland and over 1000 worldwide. We are looking to expand our existing portfolio following recent openings in Colchester, Bishop’s Stortford, Shepherd’s Bush, Enfield and Cambridge.

As well as developing purpose built stand-alone day nurseries, Bright Horizons will convert existing buildings such as offices, public houses, churches, medical centres or hotels, and will take space in residential or mixed use developments.

Our requirements:

• Buildings 3,500 – 7,000 sq ft
• Sites of 0.3 – 0.5 acres
• External Play space of 1,000 - 3,000 sq ft
• Car parking / drop off spaces
• Freehold or leasehold
• Bright Horizons will convert offices, public houses, churches, medical centres, existing use class E buildings and/or sit within Mixed Use and Residential schemes.

Click here to download our requirements & target locations sheet

Target locations include:

Bright Horizons target locations easily accessible to good quality residential areas, our priority areas can be viewed on our target locations document linked to above and cover London and Inner M25, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, East/West Sussex, Essex, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Oxfordshire and Surrey.

Contacts

Oliver Brookes, Property Acquisitions & Development Manager

m: 07843 358361, email: oliver.brookes@brighthorizons.com

Harvey Lay, Property Director, Bright Horizons Family Solutions

m: 07980 077 048, email: harvey.lay@brighthorizons.com

Are you looking to sell your nursery or group of nurseries?

Bright Horizons is actively looking to acquire nurseries and nursery groups that share our passion and dedication to delivering high-quality child care.

With more than 270 nurseries in the UK and Ireland, you can be assured that a partnership with Bright Horizons places the future of your business in safe hands;

Our nurseries consistently receive “Outstanding” and “Good” and equivalent judgments at statutory inspection

We are the only childcare organisation to have been listed as one of the country’s ‘Top 50 Great Places to Work’ by the Great Place to Work Institute

We support children and families in crisis through our charity, the Bright Horizons Foundation for Children

We are a network of nurseries (not a chain) and we are proud that each individual nursery in our family has its own identity and strengths, brought together by a shared commitment to excellence.

What makes a good partnership?

We typically look to partner with nurseries or nursery groups which have;

• A strong reputation for high quality child care
• A similar cultural outlook, with similar values and aspirations
• A capacity of more than 70 places per setting
• A sustainable track record of occupancy levels
• A demonstrated track record of profitability

Why choose Bright Horizons?

We have a proven acquisition methodology based on more than 20 years’ experience, and have unrivalled expertise in working with nursery owners throughout the acquisition process.

We can offer a compelling valuation of your business including;

All-cash purchase rather than payment plans or contingency on funding

Flexible deal structures that will protect your future interests including leasing owned premise

We will partner with you every step of the way to ensure a sensitively managed transition not only for you, but for each child, parent and employee – and all of our business dealings are led by our HEART principles of Honesty, Excellence, Accountability, Respect and Teamwork.

“One of our guiding principles is that communication is at the heart of all we do and we believe that honest, ongoing conversation with everyone involved in the integration is the key to success. We provide staff and parents with the information they need at each stage of the process, so they know what is about to happen”

Previous Acquisitions

Our business has evolved through acquiring like-minded nursery groups, each of which has brought its own unique qualities to the Bright Horizons family.

Acquisitions in the UK have included:

kidsunlimited Day Nurseries – 65 nurseries within the group which operates a mixture of client and community nurseries, in 2013

Teddies Nurseries - a leading nursery provider in South East England, in 2009

Waterside - a single nursery with client and community enrolment, in 2008

Asquith Nurseries including Asquith Nannies - A top rated group of 94 nurseries, with a nanny proposition, in 2016

Zoom Nurseries - A small group of 5 settings in South East London in 2018

Yellow Dot Nurseries - A group of 12 nurseries, located mostly in the Hampshire area, in 2018

My Family Care - 2019

Poppetts - a highly regarded single site in Shenfield, Essex, in 2021

Tinysaurus Ltd - a group of 12 nurseries located in Brighton & Hove, Burgess Hill, and Haywards Heath in 2021

“Our successful and dynamic nursery in South East London was recently sold to Bright Horizons. Although it was an emotional wrench to do so, we felt entirely confident that Bright Horizons would be a good fit. Their track record of management with a large number of very popular nurseries (across the world) is impressive and in turn gave us confidence that what we had built up would continue in good hands. This has proved to be so - especially with the consideration given to the professional development of the nursery staff”

Mr Higgins - Previous Owner, Genesis Nursery

Find Out More

There has never been a better time to join the Bright Horizons family – contact us to find out how you could join us and become part of our ongoing success story.

Lauren Boyce, Senior Asset and Business Development Manager

m: 07812680764, email: lauren.boyce@brighthorizons.com

Harvey Lay, Property Director, Bright Horizons Family Solutions

m: 07980 077 048, email: harvey.lay@brighthorizons.com