Family First has extended even further across the UK with the acquisition of two nurseries in the Midlands and six in north Essex, bringing its total to 76 nurseries

The two most recent are Grosvenor House Day Nursery & Pre-school in Nottingham and Handkerchief Day Nursery in Derby.

The six in East Anglia are Chestnut House, Holly Corner and the Old School House in Colchester, along with Pelican Place in Witham, Brimpton House in Kelvedon, and ABC Day Nursery in Tiptree.

Two sites have also been acquired from the Childbase Partnership – Oaktree Day Nursery in Finchampstead and Victoria House Day Nursery in Marlow.

This is in addition to the recent acquisition of the 10-strong Davidson-Roberts group, based in Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire.

Family First chief executive, Ollie Humphries said: “It’s amazing how far we have come from when we launched just three years ago to where we are today and I’d like to thank all of our team at Family First for their incredible dedication and commitment and for showing an incredibly warm welcome to all our new nurseries.

“This is such an exciting time for everyone involved and we are so thrilled to bring even more superb quality nurseries into the group. Our passion for providing excellent childcare shows no limits.”

Family First, which is backed by August Equity, intends to reach 100 nurseries by the end of the year. This brings the total number of full-time nursery places to over 5,500, supported by more than 1,850 staff.