Busy Bees returns to West Midlands roots with new environmentally-friendly flagship nursery
The UK’s largest provider of early years childcare, Busy Bees, is set to open its most sustainable nursery to date in Lichfield, marking 40 years since the global company was founded in the city.
The flagship new centre formally opens on Wednesday, April 26 – the official 40th birthday of Busy Bees – and will act as the blueprint for all future Busy Bees nurseries and has been carefully designed to include environmentally-friendly features such as solar panels and ‘living walls’.
The result is a market-leading sustainable nursery focused on the health and wellbeing of up to 110 local babies, toddlers and pre-schoolers.
The Lichfield nursery on Birmingham Road has also created 40 new jobs for local childcare professionals and apprentices.
Burntwood-based Busy Bees was launched in Lichfield in 1983 by co-founders Marg Randles and John Woodward. The two teachers has been unable to find a childcare option that offered everything they wanted – a place where they felt their children would be happy, secure, well cared for and treated with respect, with a real focus on education.
They were inspired to create the childcare they wanted and needed for their own families, selling their homes and purchasing the Rocklands property in Lichfield, which they converted into a safe and enriching nursery environment filled with opportunities to learn, while they lived upstairs.
Marg Randles said: “We are delighted to be opening this stunning, brand-new Busy Bees nursery, once again providing the care and educational opportunities we wanted for our own children in Lichfield. This is a truly special moment for me as my children were some of the first to become part of the Busy Bees family.
“Even though we are now one of the world’s largest childcare providers, our values have remained the same, to provide children with the best start in life, which will be our priority in this beautiful, purpose-built nursery.
“Our team has worked hard to create a nurturing and supportive environment for generations to come. We are so excited to welcome people from Lichfield and the surrounding areas to be part of the Busy Bees family.”
From its early beginnings in Staffordshire, Busy Bees has become a worldwide success story. The company now cares for around 40,000 children in more than 390 centres across the UK and Ireland, and almost 100,000 children globally across 10 countries.
The new nursery features bright and spacious rooms, with lots of room for children to play and learn, including creative play areas, large outdoor spaces, a living nature wall, and bespoke furniture.
The centre has been developed to the highest possible environmental and sustainability standards and sets the standard for all future new Busy Bees nurseries in a child and parent-friendly facility.
Additional environmentally conscious facilities include EV charge points and bike storage, food waste collections, LED motion activated lights and low flow water taps.
