Gresham House invests £37.5mn into N Family Club nurseries

Gresham House plc has announced today a £37.5 million investment in N Family Club (NFC), the #1 ranked nursery group operating 20 locations across the South East and Midlands.

▪  First education sector investment complements BSIF’s social impact agenda
▪  5,000 nursery places and 3,000 new early years careers to be created across 80+ locations by 2025
▪  Extended opening hours model to support a more diverse workforce and boost UK economy
▪  Major long-term benefits for individuals and society from high quality early years education

This is the first investment in the education sector made by its second flagship sustainability fund, the British Sustainable Infrastructure Fund II (BSIF II), and is driven by the long-term benefits from high-quality early years education on the outcomes of our children’s lives and society.

Founded in 2017, NFC grew considerably as the country rebounded from the pandemic, opening 11 new sites in 2021 alone. N Family Club will continue to be led by its Founder, and with the support of Gresham House, which through this investment becomes NFC’s largest minority shareholder, the group aims to further accelerate its growth to over 80 nurseries by 2025 and deliver on its vision of being the highest quality and most loved early years education group in the UK.

In achieving this growth, NFC will add 5,000 nursery places and create 3,000 jobs.

NFC’s strategy is a direct response to demand in the undersupplied early years education sector which has reportedly lost 16,000 places over the past five years, while also providing extended opening hours, which enables parents to return to or remain at work, allowing for a more diverse and productive workforce.

With a strong focus on high-quality education and care, NFC has received ‘Outstanding’ Ofsted ratings for all its inspected nurseries, putting them at the top of Nursery World’s 2022 Quality Rankings.

The group offers a progressive curriculum which was developed with leading experts to inspire and prepare children to thrive in an ever-changing world. As well as developing critical personal and emotional skills, NFC has a strong focus on environmental sustainability and social responsibility.

As part of their impact strategy, NFC will be working to increase the number of state funded places it offers, while the BSIF investment team has also committed to support NFC’s bursary programme, providing free care to an additional five children every year selected by the local authority as not being able to afford nursery fees. With a long-term study in the US suggesting that every £1 spent on high-quality early years education can create circa £6 of value to society, NFC’s vision in the UK seeks to embed social sustainability.¹

BSIF II invested alongside the Steyn Group, who made a further commitment to NFC having invested in them originally in 2020.

Peter Bachmann, Managing Director of Sustainable Infrastructure at Gresham House said:

“The pandemic has reaffirmed how essential early years education is for families, and how it is an enabler of more sustainable and productive economies. N’s focus on redefining early years education, and importantly early years careers, complements our socially focused impact agenda well, whilst creating a highly attractive investment opportunity, with great potential to scale, given the chronic shortage of quality new nursey places available in the UK. Through our investment in N Family Club, we want to help address the enduring trilemma of availability and quality immediately, and affordability over time, in early years education. We believe the other recent investments by institutional investors in the education sector prove both the financial attractiveness and structural importance of this space.”

Phil Sunderland, N Family Group CEO and Founder said:

“This significant investment from Gresham House and their BSIF II fund represents a huge vote of confidence in our team’s approach to early years education and our strong sustainability ethos. Their financial support, expertise, and shared commitment to promoting wellbeing and sustainability will enable us to accelerate our growth plans, creating thousands of new nursery places, new jobs, and new possibilities for parents.”

1. Science Direct 

For further information

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Abbie Anderson +44 (0)7944 157 798

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Heather Fleming h.fleming@greshamhouse.com