Busy Bees to sell childcare voucher business
Cathy Wallace
Monday, March 10, 2008
One of the biggest childcare voucher schemes in the UK is up for sale.
Busy Bees, which runs a childcare voucher scheme for nearly 100,000 parents and 10,000 companies, is selling the scheme as its parent company ABC Learning continues to sell off parts of the business.
ABC, which is based in Australia, is also selling parts of its business in the US.
It is not yet known who might buy the Busy Bees voucher scheme but Steve Alexander, chief executive of the Pre-School Learning Alliance, said he expected there would be a lot of interest.
"I don't think there will be any negative impact at this stage," he said. "There's more a general issue across the sector of sustainability. ABC is no more vulnerable than any other childcare provider. They are just tying to make ends meet."
John Woodward, group managing director of Busy Bees, highlighted just two weeks ago the importance of the childcare voucher scheme when news broke of ABC's share price plummeting, leading to fears of job losses and nursery closures from the sector.
But Woodward said last week: "While the vouchers business is an excellent business, the board of ABC have decided it is not core to ABC's overall strategy."
He added: "From Busy Bee's perspective it is business as usual."
ABC, which is based in Australia, is also selling parts of its business in the US.
It is not yet known who might buy the Busy Bees voucher scheme but Steve Alexander, chief executive of the Pre-School Learning Alliance, said he expected there would be a lot of interest.
"I don't think there will be any negative impact at this stage," he said. "There's more a general issue across the sector of sustainability. ABC is no more vulnerable than any other childcare provider. They are just tying to make ends meet."
John Woodward, group managing director of Busy Bees, highlighted just two weeks ago the importance of the childcare voucher scheme when news broke of ABC's share price plummeting, leading to fears of job losses and nursery closures from the sector.
But Woodward said last week: "While the vouchers business is an excellent business, the board of ABC have decided it is not core to ABC's overall strategy."
He added: "From Busy Bee's perspective it is business as usual."
