Aberdeenshire’s booming population has prompted a local day care firm to invest over £3million to expand its operations.
The Great Western Pre-School, which operates from nine locations across Aberdeenshire, plans to treble the size of its baby unit at Portlethen after securing a £3.6million credit facility.
The business, which employs 160, will see the number of places for infants at the facility rise to 37 from the current ten. The deal with HSBC will also allow the company to refinance an existing loan and overdraft.
Cindi Black, who founded the business with her husband Kenny 25 year ago, said:
“Aberdeen is expanding. There has been a real surge at the moment.
“There has always been waiting lists. There has always been a situation where we didn’t have spaces to fill demand. At the moment it is one phone call after another. There are a lot of people requiring spaces.
“If you need to go to work and you need somebody to look after your children you don’t want to worry about your child,” she added.
Based on the latest projections by Aberdeen City Council, the population of the granite city is due to grow by over 28% in the next 25 years, with the 0-15 age-group growing by 45% during that time, which equates to an extra 63,818 youngsters.
The firm provides day care servi ces for children ranging from birth to 12 years old including out of school clubs.
Jim McVee, Area Commercial Director for HSBC North of Scotland Commercial Bank, said the population boom made the Black’s nursery business an attractive proposition for the lender.
The bank used allocated funds from its £300million fund for Scottish small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), £100million of which has been earmarked specifically for businesses in the North of Scotland, the bank said.
Mr McVee said: “Business logic states that you should provide a product or service where there is demand for it and that is certainly true for what Kenny and Cindi are doing with Great Western. They have impressive plans for growth, a great reputation and a growing market for their childcare services.”