BUYER: Bright Horizons

Opportunity

Boston-based Bright Horizons has acquired six Montessori preschools during the last three years, and it's eager to increase that number through startups and acquisitions, says Tobin Kelly, a vice president with Bright Horizons' acquisition team.

"Montessori is a good opportunity for us. It's a natural offshoot of our childcare philosophy, which is simply to provide great quality and a culture of care for children and families." And Kelly says he's finding many Montessori programs that meet those standards.

The 20-year-old company had experience with Montessori prior to its acquisition search: it utilized many Montessori principles in the proprietary curriculum that it uses in its traditional preschools.

But Kelly promises that curriculums won't be blended at Bright Horizons' new Montessori offerings. The company launched a separate Montessori division to manage those programs, and it's steadily adding expertise, he says. "We don't want to acquire Montessori schools and then create compromises. We're buying these programs because of what's already going on in the classroom."

Guiding Kelly's search is a handful of general criteria: Schools must have strong, loyal staffs; a tradition of supporting those staffs; and a strong school reputation in the community.

"We're not doing turnarounds," either financially or academically, he says.

The size that Bright Horizons targets are schools licensed for 80 to 100 children, and "ideally, we will buy multi-site schools."

Beyond that, the search is a broad one. Kelly says he's not locking into an acquisition number. He's shopping in markets throughout the country for both freestanding programs and the workplace sites that have been a Bright Horizons staple.

There is occasionally some unease, Kelly acknowledges, when his 600-school international corporation steps in to buy a small, independent preschool, one that's generally identified closely with its founder and owner.

"When we go through due diligence it's important that both Bright Horizons and the seller get comfortable with this change. Owners feel like they're passing a family on to us, and we want them to be able finally to turn to the school's staff and families and say with complete confidence, 'This is the best decision for everybody.'"

He stresses that "this is a people industry," and he says that Bright Horizons' inclusion on Forbes magazine's list of best workplaces indicates that his big corporation ($625 million in revenue last year) has learned to operate a people-friendly culture. "Try not to judge us harshly because we pay taxes," he asks.