London, United Kingdom, 29 July 2022 – Happy Days Nurseries (Happy Days), an operator of 18 nurseries throughout the South West, is delighted to announce it has received a significant strategic investment by Zetland Capital, a London based private equity firm.
Over the past twelve months, Happy Days has restructured and strengthened its Senior Leadership Team to prepare for its exciting expansion and now has the financial support to proceed with these plans.
Happy Days nurseries was established over 30 years ago in Cornwall and has since expanded across the South West with settings in Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Swindon and Bristol. The group plans to grow even further into existing and new areas across the South West and beyond through a mixture of organic growth and acquisitions. It’s committed to opening new sites in Salisbury, Yate and Taunton in 2023 with further opportunities in the pipeline.
Happy Days mission is to provide inspiring childcare and education, where every child shines and has developed an ambitious, broad and balanced Early Years Curriculum to achieve this. This curriculum provides opportunities for children to learn, explore and discover, reflecting Happy Days vision and values enabling all children to reach their full potential to become strong and motivated learners for life.
Ahmed Hamdani, Managing Partner at Zetland, commented:
“We are excited to have made this investment into such a high quality portfolio of nurseries. We are partnering with a highly experienced team, led by Kim and Mark, and will back them and their team with substantial investment to grow Happy Days into one of the leading nursery chains in the country.”
Kim Herbert, Managing Director of Happy Days commented:
“We are delighted to have secured this investment from Zetland which will allow us to provide inspirational care and education to more children across the south west, whilst investing in our existing nurseries and teams to improve environments, support staff development and ensure every child at a Happy Days Nursery has the best possible start in life.”
Mark Beadle, Executive Chairman of Happy Days commented:
“We are thrilled to be working with Zetland Capital with whom we have already developed a strong working relationship and whose values align to our own. After two challenging years, we are looking forward to growing our family of nurseries; creating new jobs, affordable quality childcare for families and building a company culture that values and rewards colleagues.”
