In 2021 Dutch childcare provider Partou, which owns more than 800 settings in the Netherlands, acquired UK childcare nursery groups Just Childcare and All About Children. Just Childcare had a portfolio of 64 settings located across the Northwest, Yorkshire and the Southwest, while All About Children owned more than 40 nurseries and pre-schools across the Southeast, Midlands and London.

In 2024 the group set about rebranding as Partou UK. Vikki Makinson, head of brand and marketing, and Chris Conchie, commercial director, explain what prompted the move, and how the two brands have been successfully integrated under the Partou umbrella.

What was the thinking behind bringing Just Childcare and All About Children under the Partou brand?

Chris: We had a number of options open to us, including bringing the two UK brands together under a completely new identity, or becoming part of the Partou brand.

When we spoke to the Dutch team about its vision and values, they really aligned with our own values of care, compassion and continuous learning. We have been able to build on the brand equity from the Netherlands, where Partou has a long history and a strong reputation for innovation, excellence and trust. Dutch children are ranked as the happiest in the world, according to Unicef.

We also get the practical benefits of synergies of communication across operations. Our ambition is to grow the organisation in the UK, and we felt it was best to do that with the full support of the Partou brand.

What does rebranding look like in practice?

Chris: We have new uniforms, and updated signage, retaining unique setting identities but reflecting the unified brand. We have also started a programme of refurbishment across some of the 106 settings.

However, it is not just a change in the name on the door and a different email signature. It’s less about the surface changes, and more about all the cultural and behavioural changes that we have put into the organisation.

In the run up to rebranding we held discussions about culture and values across the whole of our team, to understand what was important to them. We were then able to show them how we’d merged what they told us with the vision, mission and purpose of the Partou group.

Vikki: We wanted people to feel like they were part of the same thing, that they were connected.

Does a brand name that doesn’t reference children or childcare make you stand out in a sector that has a lot of similar names?

Vikki: Yes, it was a conscious decision and I think it’s the right one because ultimately we are attracting people to our business. We are a setting for children, but we don’t market directly to the children. This is about making sure that families know that we are a safe space for their children, and we’re an extension of their family.

Are there any differences between Partou UK and the parent brand?

Vikki: The logo is the same. There are some very subtle differences in wording, some things that they say in the Netherlands don’t always have the same impact in the UK. But if you went to the Netherlands, you would see it as the same brand.

However, we have not just taken that brand as a whole and plumped it into the UK, because there are critical differences between childcare in the Netherlands and in the UK, as well as similarities.

Chris: We want consistency in the visual element of the brand, but there are variations in the delivery because there are differences in the UK around regulations, educational approach and funding. In the Netherlands the team supports children and families up to the age of 12, with wraparound care and different partnerships. There are also more intangible cultural differences.

The trunk of this ‘branding tree’, our vision, mission and purpose, is absolutely the same, but the interpretation of that will differ in order to meet the country’s needs and the structure of how childcare is delivered.

Unlike some of the other big groups we’ve retained our individual nursery names, with some tweaking where there was repetition. So we have Little Acorns nurseries, we have Little Big Steps, Leaps and Bounds. That isn’t the same approach as Partou takes in the Netherlands, but it was really important to people here.

Our families come from around a two-mile radius, our team comes from within a similar area. It took quite a bit of discussion, but it was a statement of clear intent from us that that local identity is incredibly important.

Vikki: A lot of our marketing is very localised; we absolutely encourage our nurseries to be out and about in local communities. We engage with local media, because we’ve got some incredible stuff going on in our individual sites and we want to celebrate that with the communities that we care for.

How else will Partou UK benefit being part of a larger group?

Vikki: One of the things that we’re incredibly inspired about is their approach to corporate social responsibility; they’re a B Corp organisation. The thing that attracted me to Partou was that we are a business, but there’s a real purposeful intent there as well, and it’s quite inspiring to be part of that. So watch this space, there’s a lot more to come.

How have you gone about getting staff onside?

Chris: We were aware of what the rebrand was going to mean to the team who were invested in these two established brands.

Vikki: There’s always a bit of fear and anxiety when an organisation is bought out by a big company because it’s the unknown. Just Childcare and All About Children had their own set of way of doing things. The hardest part when you bring two organisations together is how you apply consistency but still retain the strengths of what existed within those organisations. It is not just about taking the Dutch brand and making it British.

Obviously the first step in that is to understand what the strengths are. We have done a lot of work around understanding what is our business? What are our values? What kind of organisation do our colleagues want to work for?

The rebrand has been pretty hectic and challenging, but we have invested a lot of effort into internal communications and engagement, and making sure that we listen to the practitioners. We have regular focus groups with team members, meetings, presentations and webinars. We have a monthly survey to understand how people are feeling because we know this is a challenging sector.

I’m really impressed to see that what we are doing is making a difference, because our people tell us that on a Sunday evening, they’re feeling better about going to work on a Monday morning. If you’ve got happy team members, you know you’re going to have happier children. So they’ve been a really important part of this whole journey with us.

Chris: We have had our quality team visit the Netherlands, and we have had teams from the Netherlands come over here to spend time in our settings. We will do more of that over time.

Partou has invested in research programmes with Utrecht University and that’s done with the aim of sharing all of that information across the whole of the group. We’re really mindful about how the sector can be perceived, and there is a huge amount of learning that our teams need to go through to be in this position of developing the most important group of people in our country. We really want to work to elevate the position of our team, by showing the science behind the work that gets done in the nurseries.

Vikki: Health and wellbeing, and recognition, are the things that are important to staff. We have ensured they’ve got access to health-related benefits, for example. We have put in place recognition platforms so people feel regularly valued and appreciated for what they do. We are massively focused on learning and development, we have a dedicated learning and development team with some great specialist expertise.

I don’t think people see themselves as former All About Children or former Just Childcare. I think they absolutely see themselves as Partou now.

At Nursery Management Show London 2025, Vikki Makinson will be speaking as part of a panel on Marketing & Branding.