Ireland’s largest private childcare company received more than €8 million in State funding in 2023, more than double the previous year’s figure, as the Government rolled out its Core Funding scheme.
Eagle Target Holdings, a holding entity in the Busy Bees group that owns the Giraffe Childcare and Park Academy network of crèches and preschools in the Republic, reported in newly filed accounts a 19 per cent jump in turnover from €35.1 million to €41.7 million in 2023.
Revenues from creche fees at the group, which is ultimately owned by a UK-registered investment company controlled by a Canadian teachers’ pension fund, increased by almost €2.3 million to €33.5 million.
After receiving more than €2.65 million in Covid-related grants in 2022, the group received none in 2023. The Irish Times reported last year that Giraffe received more than €19 million in pandemic-era grants from the State between 2020 and 2022.
Asked at the time whether the group intended to return some of the grant funding to State, given its profitability, a spokeswoman said: “We were grateful for the Government support during that period, and since the pandemic we have made significant investments in the childcare sector opening four new centres with plans for further expansion in 2025.”
Administrative expenses across the Giraffe and Park Academy networks – which employed 681 people in 2023, up from 662 in 2022 – increased by around 13 per cent to €39.3 million, contributing to a loss before tax of €234,460 compared with a profit of almost €750,000 in 2022.
Eagle Target owed some €45.5 million to its UK parent at the end of 2023, according to the accounts. A spokeswoman told The Irish Times last year that the amounts owed to the UK company relate to “the significant amount of money the holding company has invested into the Irish childcare business, primarily for the acquisition of Giraffe and Park Academy”.
Meanwhile, the group received €8.2 million in other Government funding in 2023, up from €3.9 million in 2022. The increase is understood to relate to the roll-out of the Government’s Core Funding scheme.
The Government introduced the scheme in September 2022, allowing childcare companies to access grants to help cover rising operating costs, including those related to new statutory pay orders, which increased salaries across the sector.
Separate accounts filed recently for Giraffe Childcare, which operates some 24 crèches in the Republic, show the company paid an almost €2 million dividend to its parent in 2023 as revenues ballooned by more than 20 per cent.
After-tax profits at Giraffe declined slightly from €4.3 million to €3.9 million in the year, leaving its owners sitting on accumulated profits of more than €21.5 million.
Busy Bees entered the market here in 2019 with the acquisition of Giraffe Childcare before acquiring Park Academy in 2021.
