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Nord Anglia in HQ quit riddle

Exclusive by Patricia Roberts
18/ 7/2005

STAFF at education group Nord Anglia are bracing themselves for the outcome of internal review which some fear could see it quit its Cheadle headquarters with the loss of 100 jobs.

The firm, which runs the UK's biggest nursery chain, including the elite Princess Christian group, has gone through a year in which chairman and founder Kevin McNeany stood down.

Its finance director Lorene Simpson also departed and the group issued a profits warning and scrapped its interim dividend as pre-tax profits fell.

Nord Anglia blamed the fall largely on its nursery acquisitions, on which it spent £78m.

Now there are suggestions that the company is to close its office in Cheadle, where it has had a base for more than 30 years, and move to Burton upon Trent, headquarters of its nurseries' division.

The company said it did not respond to rumours. But in a statement, it said that since its trading update in March it had begun a review of the business, in order to improve performance.

"This process is ongoing and no decisions have been made. All our stakeholders will be kept fully informed of any developments," said the statement.

Since it was founded in 1972, the company has grown to include three divisions, running British-style schools overseas and providing inspection and training services in UK schools.

Warning

It floated in 1997 but last year quit the domestic schools market to focus on the other three divisions. It employs around 4,500 staff and operates more than 100 nurseries offering more than 10,300 places, with brand names including Jigsaw and Leapfrog, which it bought for £61m last year.

In January, when Mr NcNeany stood down, the company had a market value of £90m, but in March

shares plummeted and it lost half its market value after a profit warning.

The company scrapped its interim dividend after pre-tax profits for the six months to February 28 fell from £4.14m to £1.13m, though turnover rose 22 per cent to £55.5m.

In April Stephen Hyde was appointed interim group finance director, following the departure of Mrs Simpson. Mr Hyde, 48, has 20 years experience in financial and management accounting, including 13 years at divisional director level with the international and UK divisions of Tesco.

And in May new chairman Alan Kelsey said, though it had been through a difficult period, it was now stabilising and had revised its banking facilities. Today it has a market value of £50m.

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