From modest beginnings in the UK, Busy Bees has built a robust, global business across four key regional hubs: Europe, North America, Asia, and Australia and New Zealand.
This strategy has helped us offer more families around the globe the Busy Bees best start in life by promoting a consistently high quality service, and facilitating the sharing of best practice between our teams, including through our Talent Exchange Programme, while retaining autonomy to use local expertise to meet the needs of families.
Case Study
Talent Exchange
Programme 2023
Our global diversification has also helped ensure the group's ongoing resilience against economic, political and regulatory volatility in any particular territory.
As a result, we have been able to continue our growth strategy in the face of local and international challenges, from Brexit to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Our operating model has evolved as we have built our central management capabilities and support functions in order to be enable the teams in our territories to focus on delivering for our families.
More detail on our governance structure and processes can be found here.
Explore Where We Are
Europe
UK, Ireland, Italy and
the Channel Islands
Europe is currently the largest territory within the Busy Bees Group, with operations in the UK, Ireland and Italy.
The UK
The UK is our most mature market, with close to 400 centres, making Busy Bees the UK's largest childcare provider.
Our centres are based in suburban neighbourhoods and residential areas, targeting communities where there are a high proportion of working parents and therefore strong demand for our early years education.
As well as our ambition to give Busy Bees children the best start in life, we also want to contribute to local economies and support more parents to return to work. So, we welcome the expansion of funded childcare to children of working families from 9 months old from 2025, and the opportunity this presents both for parents and to our business.
The UK market remains fragmented, with the largest operators still only counting for a small proportion of total places between them. We therefore see further growth opportunities through market consolidation, as well as through our greenfield plan to build new centres in communities across the country.
We acquired our first centre in the Channel Islands in 2019, and now operate three centres on Jersey.
Ireland
Busy Bees expanded into Ireland in 2019 through the acquisition of Irish chain Giraffe Childcare, and has since grown to create a portfolio of 30 centres.
Busy Bees Ireland mainly operates purpose-built centres in city centre and suburban locations across Greater Dublin, targeting accessible and high-income areas.
We are looking to build our presence in the country and have identified a pipeline of growth opportunities in key locations.
Giraffe is the largest operator in the Republic of Ireland, with more than 80% of its centres achieved the highest possible quality rating.
Italy
Busy Bees entered the Italian childcare market in 2019 with the acquisition of the Doremi chain and now has 32 centres, predominantly in the city centres of Milan and Rome.
Our current growth strategy is to increase our capacity by building new centres where there is demand for our high-quality early years education.
We are proud that 100% of our Italian centres have received the best quality rating available.
418
centres
7,800
staff
36,600
places
Explore Europe
North America
We see North America as a huge growth opportunity, and we aim to become one of the region's top 10 largest childcare providers.
We entered the market in 2017 with the acquisition of BrightPath Canada, with 78 centres, followed by the acquisition of Educational Playcare in the US two years later, with 19 centres.
As in Europe, the group offers families a premium, affordable offering and has made a significant investment in developing our Bee Curious curriculum to ensure we offer consistently good early years education across our centres.
Our Portfolio
Today Busy Bees - operating under the BrightPath brand - has 80+ centres in the USA across the states of Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
In Canada, we more than 80 sites in large provincial hubs including Toronto, Ottawa and Calgary. Our centres are mostly found in suburban communities where they are conveniently positioned for working families.
The group is currently the 15th largest early years education provider in USA and the 2nd largest private childcare business in Canada.
Our regional growth strategy is focused on acquiring high-quality early years education and care groups and investing in upgrades to their facilities and materials while incorporating Busy Bees' best practice policies, procedures, technology and curriculum.
To that end, in October 2023, Busy Bees acquired The Malvern School a network of 27 childcare centres in Southeastern Pennsylvania and Central New Jersey.
165
centres
3,190
staff
23,400
places
Explore North America
Asia
Asia is a fast -growing sector that holds exceptional growth potential for Busy Bees, and we have already established a diverse offer, with a particular niche providing bilingual childcare for internationally-minded families.
Busy Bees entered Asia in 2014 with the acquisition of Knowledge Universe, adding 60 centres to Busy Bees' portfolio in Singapore and Malaysia, before expanding into Vietnam in 2019.
The group currently operates over 140 centres, making it the number one provider of early years education in both Malaysia and Singapore.
Singapore
Singapore is Busy Bees' most mature Asian market and the group has established almost 100 centres, operating under 10 brands.
That makes us the largest operator in the market offering exceptional quality childcare, with 100% of our settings achieving the highest possible quality rating.
While growth has historically been achieved by building new sites, Busy Bees has also identified opportunities to growth through further acquisitions in locations with high demand that complement our current portfolio.
Malaysia and Vietnam
Busy Bees has almost 40 centres in Malaysia, primarily in the centre and suburbs of Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru.
The Malaysian childcare sector recently experienced significant growth, driven in part by rising female employment and an increasingly affluent population.
The group established itself in Vietnam in 2019, where it has six centres.
140+
centres
3,040
staff
21,000
places
Explore Asia
Australia and
New Zealand
Australia and New Zealand represents a rapidly-growing territory for Busy Bees with a fragmented market that offers lots of opportunity for consolidation.
Across both Australia and New Zealand, Busy Bees caters predominantly to the mid-market and is the third largest provider in the early years education sector.
Australia
Busy Bees launched in Australia with the acquisition of the 32-centre group Foundation Early Learning in 2018.
Our ongoing growth has been driven primarily through acquisitions, including Think Childcare which joined the group in 2021 marking a significant milestone, adding 71 centres.
Over the last four years, Busy Bees has increased its centre count five-fold, winning market share from rival chains.
Today, Busy Bees operates 144 centres largely in the central and suburban districts of large cities including Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.
New Zealand
New Zealand is the newest country in the Busy Bees group.
Our 80-centre portfolio was created with the acquisition of the Provincial Education Group in 2021. Centres are split between rural towns and city suburbs in Christchurch and Auckland.
The childcare market in New Zealand is growing thanks in part to rising household incomes and female employment.
224
centres
3,600
staff
18,900
places
Explore Australia and New Zealand
