A South Australian based childcare business is opening up to franchisees and has appointed the Sherpa Group to help with its growth strategy.

Precious Cargo, a Montessori childcare centre chain of four company owned outlets, has plans to grow nationally and then internationally.

Founder Cheryl Shigrov opened her first centre seven years ago and has just been awarded the 2013 Telstra South Australian Business Woman Award.

Vicki Prout heads up the Sherpa Group consultancy and told Franchising “Eveywhere you go a successful franchise has longevity and constant need. Every child care centre and after school care centre can’t keep up with demand.

“Montessori is a bit special. Precious Cargo is looking for a fairly aggressive but controlled growth.”

The plan is for 57 franchise outlets to open over five years.

“This is a very strong brand in South Australia, and we are about to sign up three franchisees in South Australia. In Adelaide there are waiting lists for services, and before we opened the first site it was at 75 percent occupancy.”

Training in the Montessori method is available for prospective franchisees.

The Sherpa Group also has after school-care business Sherpa Kids in its portfolio and Prout said the addition of Precious Cargo to the group makes sense from a knowledge perspective.

It utilises the “intense knowledge to understand the sector since we took on Sherpa Kids. These are complementary businesses,” she said.