Founded in 2016 by Ashwin Grover and Varun Chanrai, Storal is one of the largest nursery groups in England with 28 sites, providing high-quality Early Years education across a nationwide portfolio.
The business operates in a fragmented sector that has seen steadily increasing demand driven by structural drivers such as societal focus on children’s educational attainment, growing parental participation in the workforce and benefits from increasing cross-party political support.
Having built the business to date, Ashwin and Varun bolstered the group's strategic leadership by appointing Sarah Mackenzie as CEO in early 2022. Sarah, a respected industry veteran, brought with her a wealth of operational and quality expertise.
With a market-leading management team in place, significant investment in the organisational infrastructure and a track record of success, the shareholders engaged with Grant Thornton to seek a new partner for the next phase of their growth journey.
The Grant Thornton Corporate Finance team worked closely with management and the shareholders to understand their ambitions for the transaction. Leveraging Grant Thornton’s in-depth market knowledge and extensive network, the team orchestrated a focused marketing process delivering over a dozen investment offers.
The team project managed the sale process from start to finish, leading negotiations to ensure stakeholder objectives were met, oversaw an efficient due diligence process to minimise disruption on the business and successfully drove the deal through to completion.
Over the course of the transaction, Grant Thornton provided additional expertise across Modelling, Financial Due Diligence, Tax and Debt Advisory. This breadth of service combined with a deep understanding of the market delivered an outcome that exceeded the objectives of existing shareholders and secured an experienced investor in the education sector in Graphite Capital for the next stage of growth.
Grant Thornton has advised Storal from the very early stages of the business and provided insightful guidance and support every step of the way, and in particular throughout the transaction process. They were able to successfully manage the numerous stakeholders and secure an excellent result for the business and shareholders. The Grant Thornton team were instrumental in driving the deal to completion through their tenacity and deep sector knowledge. I would not hesitate to recommend them to anyone looking for investment or exit.
Ashwin Grover Founder and CSO, Storal Learning Ltd
