LOCATION AND BACKGROUND This Nursery was established about 8 years ago but has been in the hands of the current proprietor for only about two years. It is located in a large detached house in about ¼ of an acre of land in a good residential area of a large suburban town to the east of London.

PUPILS This Nursery is registered for 42 children between the ages of 3 months to 5 years. The children can attend for any number of hours of the day on a system of organised flexi-time. There are frequently up to 9 more children than the registered 42 and in these circumstances and with the agreement of the local authority, the surplus are taken by minibus off location to some extra-mural activity or other such as swimming or a play-park. In the main the children come from the local area and the majority go on from this Nursery into the state sector of education.

CURRICULUM/ACTIVITIES This Nursery believes in pre-school education and training and its activities are devised to encourage communication, pre-reading and reading, pre-writing and writing and simple arithmetic. The children are also encouraged to care and share, to have self control, self motivation and self confidence and to be independent. The activities leading to these aims include play groups, story telling, identity games, classroom tuition and outdoor activities. The Nursery is open from 7am until 7pm. The early arrivals are given breakfast and, in addition to a fully cooked lunch meal and supper if required, there are mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks also.

STAFF The staff are employed on similar flexi-hours to those that are offered to the children. This method of employment offers benefits to both employer and employees who can fit in aspects of their social life with their work. At the beginning of the day there are typically, maybe, 3 staff on duty which rises over the next 3 hours up to the 14, commensurate at all times with the numbers of children attending, and they remain for the bulk of the day. The numbers of staff tail off at the end of the day. All staff are at least NNEB trained and all are paid at the School's own rate.

FACILITIES Based upon a detached two-storey house both floors are given over entirely to Nursery operation. There are 5 rooms given over specifically to activities or to sleeping and additionally there is a dining hall where the children eat their meals in rotation. The well-equipped kitchen is located next to the dining room with a connecting hatch between them. There is also a Nursery Manager's office on the ground floor and another administrative office on the first floor. There are toilets for staff and children on both floors.

The area outside is spacious, surrounded by flower beds and provides two separate, totally enclosed playing areas behind the Nursery for the different age groups. There is a wide variety of outdoor equipment and amenities - sand pits, seesaws, trampoline, swings, slides etc. At the front, there is parking space, security lighting and security entrance.

The standard of decoration throughout the Nursery is good, it is well equipped and there is an excellent CCTV security system with cameras in each of the main children's rooms producing a recorded video throughout the working day.

FINANCIAL This Nursery has a turnover of around £285,000 which in turn generates the operating profit in the region of £96,000. This derives from a fee level of around £3.00 per hour depending upon the number of hours attended.

POTENTIAL This Nursery has realised the great majority of the potential at its disposal. It runs for 52 weeks of the year, for 12 hours of the day and very close to full occupancy. There are in effect only two realistic ways of enhancing revenue:

1. increasing the fees - clearly only after careful consideration of the competition; and

2. offering the facilities for children's parties, at weekends and on bank holidays.

ASKING PRICE The proprietor has been offered another business opportunity and wishes to sell this Nursery to help finance that opportunity. They are asking for the sum of £400,000 comprising £290,000 for the bricks and mortar and £110,000 for the goodwill and stock.