WEBVTT

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We were really looking for a
part that could provide us with

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that security of long term
capital so that we could pursue

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our ambition to give every child
the best start in life. We

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really wanted somebody that had
a sense of social good as well

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as a sense of building returns
for stakeholders, teachers take

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to all of those boxes.

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As a pension plan, we believe
one of the best ways to ensure

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steady returns over decades is
to invest in the well-being and

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education of the next
generation. In 2013, Ontario

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Teachers Pension plan.

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Purchased a majority stake in
busy Bees, a UK based early

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education provider. We were not
only interested in the enormous

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growth potential of the
business, but also in the

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relentless focus on safety and
quality exhibited in the

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company's many years of
excellent service. We sat down

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with Simon Irons, Group, chief
Executive officer of Busy Bees

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and Mark Randall's cofounder and
Chief Academic Officer of Busy

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Bees, to discuss how they
retained their vision for the

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business throughout rapid
expansion.

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Mark Simon, thank you for taking
the time to do an interview with

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us today. Maybe you could start
off by telling us about the

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origins of busy bees. So the
first piece of bees nursery was

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opened in 1984. I first met the
business in 1988. Busy bees was

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a well established business. So
I think at the time we had

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something in the order of 230
centers, but we had a team

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marking, myself included that
had been frustrated by the Stop

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start nature of the investment.

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Partnerships that we've had over
the years, as one of the

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original founders, it was really
important to us that we were

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aligned with anybody who was
going to have a partnership with

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with the company. We'd had some
bad experiences and we really

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wanted this to be right. And we
did our homework. We really

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looked into teachers and we did
actually notice that they'd had

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some investments that were
longer than the normal three to

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five years that you usually see.

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With with investors, I think
once we got talking to them as

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well, it was very, very clear
that we were aligned in terms of

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quality, reputation,
safeguarding all of those things

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that make us the best in town
really. And we couldn't work

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with anybody who who didn't sort
of put the quality and the

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children 1st and very clearly
Ontario teachers did. Each

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nursery is unique to parents,
unique to our customers. We know

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that.

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Even as a global organization
with a large number of

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nurseries, the parents really
only care about the one nursery

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that they're placing their child
within. So all the rest of the

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estate doesn't really matter to
that parent. Every single

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interaction with the parents has
to then be unique. It has to be

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an individual and personal
experience for those parents and

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that child.

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And with busy bees Ontario
teachers pension plan didn't

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only see strong value alignment,
they saw a brand with global

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ambitions. We had international
ambitions. We at this point

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built the business up to being
the largest we think best

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childcare provider in the in the
UK. We felt that we had

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something here that we could
take onto a global stage and

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teachers with its multiple
offices and its capital base was

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was a was a a good partner to to
go out on that that that

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adventure with.

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Somebody once said to me never
be ashamed of making money and

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that's always been a difficult
thing in childcare. But he was

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absolutely right because if you
don't make money you can't

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invest in your business, you
can't provide high quality

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childcare and education across
the world for more children.

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Were there any particular
capabilities or value add that

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teachers brought to the table in
terms of M&A?

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International expansion in terms
of INTERNATIONALISING and making

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our first acquisition in
Singapore, the the the teacher

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side were were right there
alongside me. We carried out the

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diligence as a as a team between
the shareholders and the and the

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management team, the senior
management team.

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And that acquisition in
Singapore was only the

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beginning. The busy bees
reputation for excellence and

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sterling commitment to quality,
combined with backing and

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guidance from Ontario Teachers
pension plan, provided a winning

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combination when it came to
expansion into new markets.

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10 countries as of today and I
think we have 910 centres. If

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you rewind 9 years that was one
country and about 230 or so

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centres. So we, you know we've
really come a long way to under

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teachers, teachers, ownership,
but we were pretty pleased when

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we first managed to get some
centres in Scotland. We felt

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truly international when we
actually stepped over the

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border. But the business back
then was very UK centric, which

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is is is a disadvantage.

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I mean one of the joys of our
business now and the joys of

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working with an international
team that's in Australia, that's

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in Canada, that's in Singapore,
that is in many places is we're

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able to learn from, from our
colleagues all around the world.

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Joined we were still kind of UK
wise. However we've grown I

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think as part of the busy Bees
team. It's been amazing because

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it's meant there's more and more
opportunities. A few years ago

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we did talent exchange programs,
so some of our UK based teams

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swapped with teams in different
countries. So some went to

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Singapore, Malaysia, places like
that and to learn their culture

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and to learn the way that they
teach children and to be able to

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bring back knowledge and the
same for them.

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To kind of impart and share
wisdom, it's just amazing to to

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have those opportunities. I
think as busy bees and Ontario

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teachers Pension plan partnered
through this expansion has

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shared focus on good governance
and social responsibility began

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to pay off in a number of
important ways. I think that

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Ontario teachers have been
incredibly supportive. They have

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pretty much left us to get on
with the day-to-day, but have

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helped us to grow up as a
business as well which which has

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been absolutely amazing.

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Sometimes they encourage us to
do things that perhaps we would

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not necessarily have done
ourselves, guided us, supported

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us, and made us feel comfortable
about doing some of those

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things. And sometimes they've
even expected us to spend more

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money on doing the right thing
and doing things that perhaps we

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wouldn't have spent money on.
And that has been incredibly

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advantageous to us as a
business.

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The ASG, we played around with
it. We we didn't really focus on

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it and this is one of the things
I think that Ontario teachers

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tasked us to look at and we're
supportive in that. Right from

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the days era we set out with the
social purpose in mind. It's

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empowering for women. It's
predominantly a female business.

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It also provides economic
empowerment for mothers that

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want to continue with their
career. I remember going to a

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teachers conference and.

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Listening to the 30 things that
teachers look for in their

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investing companies, and that
was a real guide to me to say,

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well, actually we do about 15 of
these things. Well, the other 15

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things we have to, we have to
fix. And that involved making a

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hire of a general council,
putting in a whole load of

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policies and procedures.

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There's no better intrinsic
motivator is there than knowing

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that you get out of bed every
day and the job that you do has

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a positive impact on other
people. And as we get bigger and

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there's more and more of those
other people around the world,

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that feels fantastic.

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So what's next for busy bees?
What's next for busy bees? We've

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had additional investment to
acquire the Southeast Asian

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00:08:24.464 --> 00:08:28.372
businesses that's been follow on
capital to acquire a business

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00:08:28.372 --> 00:08:32.218
called Treetops in the in the
UK. We want to continue to grow

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00:08:32.218 --> 00:08:35.320
our Greenfield program has
proved to be extremely

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00:08:35.320 --> 00:08:38.732
successful. You build what you
want rather than buying

2ad68f40-73a5-494c-a174-ee8615d25943-6
00:08:38.732 --> 00:08:42.454
something that somebody else
created and then and then have

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00:08:42.454 --> 00:08:45.680
to wrestle wrestle it into the
shape that you want.

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00:08:45.870 --> 00:08:49.816
And that's been enormously
successful. So I think we would

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00:08:49.816 --> 00:08:54.096
be switching and be doing more
Greenfield in the in the next 10

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00:08:54.096 --> 00:08:57.975
years than than M&AI think
busy bees has been able to

02e0b771-6e01-4fbb-a912-d9d87ed399ef-3
00:08:57.975 --> 00:09:02.389
maintain its core values because
we choose the right partners, we

02e0b771-6e01-4fbb-a912-d9d87ed399ef-4
00:09:02.389 --> 00:09:06.603
choose the correct management
teams, management teams that are

02e0b771-6e01-4fbb-a912-d9d87ed399ef-5
00:09:06.603 --> 00:09:10.950
aligned with our vision and what
we want for children and how we

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00:09:10.950 --> 00:09:14.963
want children to be treated and
educated and given the best

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00:09:14.963 --> 00:09:15.900
start in life.

bc0efdd8-255d-4ba2-9f6b-fafa3150ea6b-0
00:09:15.970 --> 00:09:19.750
And that is very important to us
and to Ontario teachers.

d214ebcf-2a3d-4e4f-a85e-eb400090ca81-0
00:09:26.580 --> 00:09:30.580
Ontario Teachers Pension plan
investing to make a mark.