Pre-school chain Tree House Education and Accessories Ltd, the country’s largest education company by market capitalisation, reported 53.36 per cent increase in net profit to Rs 12.3 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2013, from Rs 8.02 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. This was supported by 47.5 per cent rise in revenues to Rs 41.99 crore in the quarter over the year-ago period. The EBITDA margin for the quarter was 56.91 per cent.
Rajesh Bhatia, promoter and managing director of Tree House, said, “Our offering in the pre-school space is threefold and spans the entire sector. The Tree House brand focuses on company-operated pre-schools; the Brainworks brand will focus on franchising and the Global Champs brand will focus on a company-operated affordable model. We have also begun rollout of ancillary services with the launch of birthday parties for kids and tie-up with Amar Chitra Katha.”
In the first quarter of FY2014, the company added 31 pre-schools, taking the total number of centres to 410. Out of these, the number of self-operated pre-schools stood at 310 or three-fourth of the total. Year-on-year growth in self-operated pre-school centres has been 30 per cent.
During the quarter, the company launched new centres in Raipur, Delhi, Varanasi, Udgir, Goa, Nandurbar and Ludhiana. Total staff strength, as on June 30, 2013, was 1,690, showing a net addition of 49 employees in the quarter. Total teacher strength as on June 30, 2013, was 1,603, representing a net addition of 41 teachers.
Tree House runs pre-schools and also provides educational services to K-12 schools throughout the country. It provides school management services to 24 K-12 schools in three states.
In June this year, Tree House Education & Accessories Ltd completed the acquisition of brand and assets of Brainworks, a national chain of pre-schools run by Brainworks Learning Systems Pvt Ltd, in an all-cash deal worth Rs 5 crore.
(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)
