G8 Education

G8 Education

Type	Public company
Traded as	ASX: GEM
Founded	2006 in Australia
Headquarters	Gold Coast , Australia
Areas served	Australia
Key people	Gary Carroll (Managing Director) Mark G Johnson (Chairman)
Revenue	A$776 million[1] (2020)
Net income	A$(196 million)[1]
Total assets	A$2,074 million[1] (2020)
Number of employees	7,417[1] (2020)
Website	Official website

G8 Education is an Australian for-profit childcare conglomerate. Its childcare centres are marketed under brands such as Kindy Patch Kids, Jellybeans, Kinder Haven, First Grammar, Community Kids, Pelicans Learning for Life and Casa Bambini.^[2]

History[]

The corporation was founded in 2006 as Early Learning Services. In December 2007 it began selling shares on the Australian stock exchange, at a time when it owned 38 child care centres. In 2010 it merged with Payce Child Care Pty Ltd and the name was changed to G8 Education Ltd. By 2014 it had grown to 432 child care centres.^{[citation needed]}

In 2010 it began operating childcare centres in Singapore, but in October 2020 exited the country by selling its childcare centres to a Singapore company.^[3]

As of March 2018, it has 470 childcare centres and claims to employ 10,000 staff.^[4]

Controversies[]

In December 2020 G8 Education became embroiled in a staff underpayment issue. It self-reported to regulators that it had underpaid up to 27,000 employees between $50 million and $80 million dollars. It said it had the funds to make restitution but the issue saw it shares slump on the ASX.^[5] In February 2021 G8 Education announced it was raising fees by 4.5 per cent as it recovered from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and restore occupancy levels which had dropped during the economic downturn.^[6]

References[]