Zee Learn will open company owned preschools

Zee Learn Ltd, India’s largest operator of preschools under the Kidzee brand, is changing strategy to set up company owned and operated centres as against the current preference for the franchisee route.

It plans to set up 300 Kidzee centres in the next five years that would be owned and operated by it . These would be over and above the 300 centres it annually adds under the franchisee model, a senior company official said. 

Navneet Anhal, chief operating officer, Zee Learn, said, “With preschools being our flagship business, we have decided to set up owned and operated Kidzee centres across the country. Work on five such centres is on and we should open them this fiscal.”

He said the company decided to tweak the model as it has a very good product in Kidzee and also because the company owned and operated preschools would serve as would excellence centres for its franchise business.

“Preschools being an area of minimal risk, thanks to the management’s vast experience and knowledge in the space, the company thought it prudent to make further investment in this vertical,” he said.

The company is looking at investing Rs120 crore in the next five years towards these centres which will be funded through equity infusion plans announced last year and internal accruals. “Each centre will require investment of Rs30-40 lakh as we are not buying real estate, but leasing out the space. The money will be invested largely towards creating the right environment including designing, furniture, play equipment, etc,” he said.

Zee Learn currently has over 850 operational centres, while 250 are in the pipeline.

Last year Zee Learn signed up over 300 franchise arrangements and has a similar target this year, too. It has also hiked fees by 10% on account on inflation.

The company, which last year announced a chain of schools for upper tier consumers, would open the first school under the Mount Litera World School brand at Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) in Mumbai in a few months.

The BKC unit will be an integrated education complex comprising school, media management training institute spread over 1.4 acre. The project cost envisaged then was over Rs50 crore.

The company has also lined up big plans in K-12 (kindergarten to XII standard) segment and is planning to set up 400-500 schools under the Mount Litera Zee School banner. These schools would be largely set up under the franchise route in states including Maharashtra, Punjab and Goa.  The company currently has 50 Mount Litera Zee Schools and plans to sign up 30 franchisees this fiscal.