We were really looking for a part that could provide us with
that security of long term capital so that we could pursue
our ambition to give every child the best start in life. We
really wanted somebody that had a sense of social good as well
as a sense of building returns for stakeholders, teachers take
to all of those boxes.
As a pension plan, we believe one of the best ways to ensure
steady returns over decades is to invest in the well-being and
education of the next generation. In 2013, Ontario
Teachers Pension plan.
Purchased a majority stake in busy Bees, a UK based early
education provider. We were not only interested in the enormous
growth potential of the business, but also in the
relentless focus on safety and quality exhibited in the
company's many years of excellent service. We sat down
with Simon Irons, Group, chief Executive officer of Busy Bees
and Mark Randall's cofounder and Chief Academic Officer of Busy
Bees, to discuss how they retained their vision for the
business throughout rapid expansion.
Mark Simon, thank you for taking the time to do an interview with
us today. Maybe you could start off by telling us about the
origins of busy bees. So the first piece of bees nursery was
opened in 1984. I first met the business in 1988. Busy bees was
a well established business. So I think at the time we had
something in the order of 230 centers, but we had a team
marking, myself included that had been frustrated by the Stop
start nature of the investment.
Partnerships that we've had over the years, as one of the
original founders, it was really important to us that we were
aligned with anybody who was going to have a partnership with
with the company. We'd had some bad experiences and we really
wanted this to be right. And we did our homework. We really
looked into teachers and we did actually notice that they'd had
some investments that were longer than the normal three to
five years that you usually see.
With with investors, I think once we got talking to them as
well, it was very, very clear that we were aligned in terms of
quality, reputation, safeguarding all of those things
that make us the best in town really. And we couldn't work
with anybody who who didn't sort of put the quality and the
children 1st and very clearly Ontario teachers did. Each
nursery is unique to parents, unique to our customers. We know
that.
Even as a global organization with a large number of
nurseries, the parents really only care about the one nursery
that they're placing their child within. So all the rest of the
estate doesn't really matter to that parent. Every single
interaction with the parents has to then be unique. It has to be
an individual and personal experience for those parents and
that child.
And with busy bees Ontario teachers pension plan didn't
only see strong value alignment, they saw a brand with global
ambitions. We had international ambitions. We at this point
built the business up to being the largest we think best
childcare provider in the in the UK. We felt that we had
something here that we could take onto a global stage and
teachers with its multiple offices and its capital base was
was a was a a good partner to to go out on that that that
adventure with.
Somebody once said to me never be ashamed of making money and
that's always been a difficult thing in childcare. But he was
absolutely right because if you don't make money you can't
invest in your business, you can't provide high quality
childcare and education across the world for more children.
Were there any particular capabilities or value add that
teachers brought to the table in terms of M&A?
International expansion in terms of INTERNATIONALISING and making
our first acquisition in Singapore, the the the teacher
side were were right there alongside me. We carried out the
diligence as a as a team between the shareholders and the and the
management team, the senior management team.
And that acquisition in Singapore was only the
beginning. The busy bees reputation for excellence and
sterling commitment to quality, combined with backing and
guidance from Ontario Teachers pension plan, provided a winning
combination when it came to expansion into new markets.
10 countries as of today and I think we have 910 centres. If
you rewind 9 years that was one country and about 230 or so
centres. So we, you know we've really come a long way to under
teachers, teachers, ownership, but we were pretty pleased when
we first managed to get some centres in Scotland. We felt
truly international when we actually stepped over the
border. But the business back then was very UK centric, which
is is is a disadvantage.
I mean one of the joys of our business now and the joys of
working with an international team that's in Australia, that's
in Canada, that's in Singapore, that is in many places is we're
able to learn from, from our colleagues all around the world.
Joined we were still kind of UK wise. However we've grown I
think as part of the busy Bees team. It's been amazing because
it's meant there's more and more opportunities. A few years ago
we did talent exchange programs, so some of our UK based teams
swapped with teams in different countries. So some went to
Singapore, Malaysia, places like that and to learn their culture
and to learn the way that they teach children and to be able to
bring back knowledge and the same for them.
To kind of impart and share wisdom, it's just amazing to to
have those opportunities. I think as busy bees and Ontario
teachers Pension plan partnered through this expansion has
shared focus on good governance and social responsibility began
to pay off in a number of important ways. I think that
Ontario teachers have been incredibly supportive. They have
pretty much left us to get on with the day-to-day, but have
helped us to grow up as a business as well which which has
been absolutely amazing.
Sometimes they encourage us to do things that perhaps we would
not necessarily have done ourselves, guided us, supported
us, and made us feel comfortable about doing some of those
things. And sometimes they've even expected us to spend more
money on doing the right thing and doing things that perhaps we
wouldn't have spent money on. And that has been incredibly
advantageous to us as a business.
The ASG, we played around with it. We we didn't really focus on
it and this is one of the things I think that Ontario teachers
tasked us to look at and we're supportive in that. Right from
the days era we set out with the social purpose in mind. It's
empowering for women. It's predominantly a female business.
It also provides economic empowerment for mothers that
want to continue with their career. I remember going to a
teachers conference and.
Listening to the 30 things that teachers look for in their
investing companies, and that was a real guide to me to say,
well, actually we do about 15 of these things. Well, the other 15
things we have to, we have to fix. And that involved making a
hire of a general council, putting in a whole load of
policies and procedures.
There's no better intrinsic motivator is there than knowing
that you get out of bed every day and the job that you do has
a positive impact on other people. And as we get bigger and
there's more and more of those other people around the world,
that feels fantastic.
So what's next for busy bees? What's next for busy bees? We've
had additional investment to acquire the Southeast Asian
businesses that's been follow on capital to acquire a business
called Treetops in the in the UK. We want to continue to grow
our Greenfield program has proved to be extremely
successful. You build what you want rather than buying
something that somebody else created and then and then have
to wrestle wrestle it into the shape that you want.
And that's been enormously successful. So I think we would
be switching and be doing more Greenfield in the in the next 10
years than than M&AI think busy bees has been able to
maintain its core values because we choose the right partners, we
choose the correct management teams, management teams that are
aligned with our vision and what we want for children and how we
want children to be treated and educated and given the best
start in life.
And that is very important to us and to Ontario teachers.
Ontario Teachers Pension plan investing to make a mark.