The deal means that the Old Station Nursery group now owns 17 nurseries, offering 1,195 childcare places, placing it within the top 25 largest nursery groups in the country, according to our 2019 Nursery Chains supplement.
- French nursery group La Maison Bleue seals first UK deal
- Old Station Nursery group adds two more settings
The Old Station Nursery group also operates an after-school club.
Sandhills operates nurseries in Wolverhampton, Birmingham and Lincolnshire.
It was founded by a husband and wife team who bough their first nursery in 2005. In 2010, the pair bought an additional two settings in Boston and Wombourne. Seven years later they bought two more nurseries, one in Heath Mill and the other in Wolverhampton - a 100 –place setting.
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La Maison Bleue’s head of mergers & Acquisitions Fatima Essoufi said, ‘We are very excited about the acquisition of Sandhills and look forward to continue building up the legacy of the founders. Following the nurseries viewing, we’ve been very impressed with the vendors achievements since the acquisition of their first nursery in 2005.’
Managing director of the Old Station Nursery group, Sarah Steel, commented, ‘We are delighted to welcome the staff, children and parents of all the Sandhills group to our Old Station family, and look forward to working closely with them in the future. We feel that there is a really good fit between the nurseries and those that we already operate, with a real emphasis on high quality early learning and great customer service.’
Jenna Caldwell, director of childcare & education at Redwoods Dowling Kerr, added, ‘From our initial conversation with the vendor, it was clear that this was a group of exemplary quality and that to achieve the very best results we would need to work closely with them to showcase the potential on offer, both current and future. La Maison Bleue saw the opportunity in its entirety and a sale was swiftly agreed with both parties wanting an expeditious completion.’
