Foresight Group announces £5 million investment in innovative children’s nursery and play provider, Family Adventures Group

• £5m investment will allow company to expand presence across Midlands and South West
• Over 420 jobs to be created over next three years as new sites open
• The investment will expedite the roll out of the leisure hub and nursery spoke model

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Bristol, 05 March 2024: Foresight Group (“Foresight”) a leading regional private equity and infrastructure investment manager has announced a £5 million investment into an innovative and multi-award-winning children’s leisure venue and day nursery group.

Family Adventures Group's (“the Company”) operations are built on a hub and spoke model which sees a children’s leisure site opening with accompanying nurseries created nearby.

There are currently six nursery sites across the South West and Midlands in Cheddar, Worle, Weston-Super-Mare, Bridgwater, Taunton and Dudley.

These are supported by two leisure venues, Ocean Adventurers in Cheddar, Space Adventurers in Taunton and an upcoming third site, Little Town Adventures in Weston-Super-Mare.

The business was founded by the husband and wife team Tom and Laura Filer and the investment from Foresight will support their ambitious growth plans that will see the creation of new leisure sites with accompanying nurseries.

The Company’s innovative adventure leisure offering provides a competitively priced mixture of digitalised soft plays and creative role-play. The newest site - set to open in Spring 2024 - will focus much more heavily on role play, with the creation of a miniaturised shorefront of Weston-Super-Mare providing children with the opportunity to enjoy any number of adventures and creations.

All of Family Adventures Group’s nurseries that have been inspected have been classed as Good by Ofsted. The average rating on daynurseries.co.uk is 9.9/10, making it a Top 20 rated UK Nursery Group. This reflects that parents and guardians with children in the nurseries are confident both in the quality of care offered, and the comprehensive safeguarding protocols implemented by staff.

As part of Foresight’s investment, Jennifer Taylor has been appointed as Chief Finance Officer, joining from iQ Student Accommodation and Pearson Plc and Ann Elliott has been named Chair. Ann brings with her extensive experience within the hospitality industry having worked at board level as CMO for companies including Pizza Hut and Beefeater. Ann has also held multiple NED positions at companies such as Hall & Woodhouse and Gusto. This vast experience covers marketing, operations and supporting site roll outs which will be invaluable as Family Adventures Group grows its presence across the South-West and Midlands.

The Foresight-backed expansion plans are expected to see Family Adventures Group create up to 140 skilled jobs per year.

This growth strategy will also address the growing need within the South West and Midlands regions for increased provision for early years childcare where there are currently not enough places to meet demand.

Nick Mettyear, Senior Investment Manager at Foresight Group, said: “Tom and Laura have created an exciting business model that shows real potential for growth. The team are targeting areas where there has been a chronic shortage of quality early years education options and will provide an excellent alternative to parents. 

The imaginative playscapes in the leisure sites will also bring a new approach to educational and interactive play which will be enjoyable for all children from 2-12. Foresight is looking forward to supporting Tom and Laura on this journey.”

Tom Filer, CEO of Family Adventures Group, added: “We’re proud of the growth we have been able to achieve since starting in 2019, creating high-quality childcare and leisure venues. The whole team is delighted to have investment from Foresight into our company to allow us to turbocharge our growth.

From the moment we met with their team, we knew they were the perfect partner due to the shared values we have around ESG and growing with purpose. We couldn’t be more delighted to be working with Foresight Group.” 

 

Advisers to the Company:

Corporate Finance:          Evelyn Partners

Legal Advice:                     Michelmores

 

Advisers to Foresight:

Financial DD:                      PKF Francis Clarke

Legal Advice:                     Shoosmiths

Management DD:             Confidas

Insurance DD:                    Vista

Cyber DD:                            KyptoKloud

Commercial DD:               Whitecap Consulting

 

Ends

 

For more information contact:

Tom Carlin: carlin@thisisinfluential.com / +44(0)7827 957 740

Lucy Sherwood: marketing@foresightgroup.eu / +44(0)7774 432 466

 

Notes to Editors:

About Foresight Group

Foresight Group was founded in 1984 and is a leading listed infrastructure and private equity investment manager. With a long-established focus on ESG and sustainability-led strategies, it aims to provide attractive returns to its institutional and private investors from hard-to-access private markets. Foresight manages over 400 infrastructure assets with a focus on solar and onshore wind assets, bioenergy and waste, as well as renewable energy enabling projects, energy efficiency management solutions, social and core infrastructure projects and sustainable forestry assets. Its private equity team manages eleven regionally focused investment funds across the UK and an SME impact fund supporting Irish SMEs. This team reviews over 3,000 business plans each year and currently supports more than 250 investments in SMEs. Foresight Capital Management manages four strategies across seven investment vehicles.

Foresight operates in eight countries across Europe, Australia and United States with AUM of £12.4 billion*. Foresight Group Holdings Limited listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange in February 2021 and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 index. https://www.foresightgroup.eu/shareholders

*Based on unaudited AUM as at 31 December 2023.