Growth not always good
A FORMER general manager of G8 Education says the company needs to refocus on its existing network and service offering rather than continuing to grow in an industry facing oversupply issues.
Gold Coast businessman Jae Fraser, who runs the seven-strong Little Scholars School of Early Learning centres, was speaking after being named Queensland’s Entrepreneur Of The Year at the 2018 Entrepreneur Of The Year Northern Region awards ceremony held by Ernst & Young.
Mr Fraser, who won the award, along with Theo Vairaktaris, of Arundel-based painting business Usher and Son, and Brett Ambrose, of Ambrose Building, will now go to the national finals in Sydney next month.
Mr Fraser was general manager at G8 Education, Australia’s largest childcare centre operator, for eight years before leaving in 2014 to found Little Scholars.
G8 warned last month it was facing “unprecedented” market conditions – including an oversupply of centres and rising costs – that have taken a heavy toll on its profit and share price.
Mr Fraser said G8 faced the challenge of maintaining quality control over a vast network of 512 centres in Australia.
“If you get to a point where it is too big you start to lose control and a little of quality,” he said.
“The next few years will be really interesting for the sector especially for groups like G8. They are the largest and operate in areas where developers are building lots of centres.”
Mr Fraser won the entrepreneur award for what the judges called “innovating and disrupting the child care industry to ensure his organisation becomes every parent’s best friend”.
Initiatives include takehome meals for parents and a free bus to take children to and from their homes. The Little Scholars campuses employ 180 staff and take care of more than 3500 children.
Mr Fraser said he didn’t want parents to pick his centres because they are the closest to work or home.
“We wanted to be a centre that people chose firstly because of the educational outcomes,” he said.
“But secondly, all the cool things that come with it that make the parents’ lives a little bit easier.”
He said that includes hairdressers, dentists and orthodontists coming to centres on a regular basis to perform services and checkups.
Mr Fraser said he has endeavoured to innovate in the sector, however, that has also brought copycats. “That is the challenge we face now – a lot of the initiatives we have rolled out, other competitors, see it, love it, implement it and it becomes the norm.”