The chain specialised in teaching English to children brought in Corpfin Capital at the end of last year to boost its growth, with franchising as the cornerstone of its strategic plan.

Natàlia Perarnau and Quim Serracanta, founders of the Kids&Us chain – Emprendedores.es

Kids&Us, a company that has grown big

Three hundred and seventy-six academies, revenue of €75 million and 116,500 students. Since the opening of its first academy in Manresa in 2003, the children’s English teaching franchise Kids&Us, has grown… and a lot. So much so that, at the end of last year, its founders, the couple formed by Natàlia Perarnau and Quim Serracanta, brought in Corpfin Capital, which took a majority stake in the company. “We are a family business that has grown big,” explains Serracanta. “We saw the need to professionalise the shareholding structure, with a board of directors that would guarantee and protect the business strategy of Kids&Us, its values and its strategic plan. Due to the size of the project, decisions are increasingly complex. And when only two people are making decisions, and they are also a couple, the situation inevitably becomes complicated.” This is not the only reason to embark on a new stage in which the founders will continue to be the reference figures, with the commitment of the current management team: “Having a partner alongside us will make us much better and allows us to move forward in building international leadership. In the end, we needed more structure, and greater and stronger financial solidity. We have a very good product, but now, together with the new partner, we must continue working and investing to deploy a much better and more effective methodology in terms of teaching and quality, elements that define the DNA of the project.”

And why Corpfin? “At the time, we had economic offers that would have allowed us to capitalise our effort better, but the priority was to find a partner that would offer guarantees to co-lead the project. We were looking for someone with experience in driving a small company with strong growth potential.”

We shift the narrative and focus on a Japanese couple who come to Spain to study an MBA for a period of two years. During their stay, they take their child to a Kids&Us academy to learn English. They fall in love with the project, to the point of proposing to its founders to take it to Japan. How does the story end? Quim Serracanta (in the photo with his wife, Natàlia Perarnau, who promoted the Kids&Us methodology at the chain’s original centre in Manresa) reveals the outcome. “They will be our master franchisees in the country. They are already there, because we are in the testing phase, with the idea of launching the first unit in April in Tokyo. This is a project we had been developing before the entry of Corpfin, which has respected the agreement reached and supports us in this initiative.”

EMPRENDEDORES: One of the objectives is to consolidate the international markets where you are present

QUIM SERRRACANTA: We have 17 centres in Italy, 12 in France, 12 in Belgium, 3 in the Czech Republic, 10 in Mexico, 1 in Morocco and 2 in Andorra. From here, we have significant room for growth in the Italian market, which is larger than Spain and has a huge need for language learning. In France, people are internalising that English learning is a priority, although development may be slower than in Italy. In Mexico, the brand is not yet very well known, but the potential is enormous. The network in Belgium is already very consolidated, while in the Czech Republic and Morocco we are still very small, with a lot of consolidation work ahead.

EMP.: Another strategic line is to enter other international markets

Q.S.: That’s right, but it is not our main priority at the moment. The countries with the greatest potential for entry are Russia, Turkey, Poland and probably China. But we will be cautious. We need to find a very strong partner , in line with the profile of the partners who will take the business to Japan, who provide us with reliability from a financial standpoint, expertise in business development, and leadership capacity.

EMP.: What adaptations will you have to make in the Japanese market?

Q.S.: It is likely that we will have to make some adjustments to the methodology. As a result, classes may last a little longer and have a slightly different structure, using some additional techniques or strategies to improve teaching quality, as students need to adapt to different types of sounds.

EMP.: And what is the expansion plan in Spain?

Q.S.: We currently have 319 franchised academies, 12% of which we manage in co-ownership with the entrepreneur. In 2018 we will launch around 50 new schools and expect to reach 500 academies within three years.

EMP.: Will franchising continue to play a key role in the brand’s growth?

Q.S.: Without a doubt. Our commitment is to franchising, a model we really like. One of the reasons is that this formula allows us to dedicate most of our time to thinking and working on how to do things better. We feel very comfortable with franchising because it keeps us on our toes.

Having a franchisee forces you to stay very attentive to the market, to the partner, to your end customer… And we like this, because it prevents us from becoming complacent. Members of the network demand a lot from us, and that is very positive, because that is what they pay for. In the end, the partner puts pressure on us to keep being very good, to keep investing, to keep providing answers…

EMP.: Why has your method been successful?

Q.S.: The key is the passion for developing a methodology that is carefully thought out and designed so that children not only learn a lot, but also enjoy themselves in a well-cared-for, friendly and warm environment. A method where, from the age of one, we begin to replicate the natural way in which we learn our mother tongue.

EMP.: How do you control quality standards in such a large network?

Q.S.: This is a fundamental aspect and we try to leave as little room as possible for improvisation. Quality is, ultimately, the core of our project, in the sense that we have developed a methodology where its correct application is essential. From there, we consider different mechanisms to achieve this objective, such as external and internal audits of teachers (more than 2,500 teachers) and at least a quarterly audit, which consists of recording a class and having it evaluated by a team of experts—qualified teachers. In parallel, each quarter we carry out a test to ensure that children are learning what they are supposed to learn. We also have Kids College, our academy, where professionals have access to a range of training programmes designed to improve the application and performance of their work. We also have an internal coordination team that visits each of our centres with the aim of analysing 40 business parameters.

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Corpfin Capital y Kids&Us – Emprendedores.es

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