UK: Bayswater Education acquires Eurocentres
As part of the deal, Bayswater will take control of centres in London, Cambridge, Brighton, Bournemouth and Paris; Eurocentres’ “rapidly growing” online division and a network of franchise and partner schools.
“These have been the most challenging times for our industry”
The Eurocentres schools will be integrated into the Bayswater Education portfolio over the course of 2021.
“We are delighted to end this year with such exciting news,” said Stephan Roussounis, managing director of Bayswater Education.
“These have been the most challenging times for our industry. In March 2020, we acquired a leading summer school business, Language Study Centres (now Bayswater Summer), and in a post-pandemic world we feel strongly that further integration and consolidation of the market is needed.”
Roussounis founded Bayswater Education nearly three years ago with business partner James Herbertson and had a clear mission to expand from the outset.
The deal marks Bayswater’s third acquisition of this year, noted Roussounis. He told The PIE News that pandemic had resulted in a number of opportunities for the company.
“I’ve been in the sector for 20 years. For the last 10 years I was working for a private equity-backed business, I did a number of acquisitions. So I got that experience,” he explained.
“Basically we have looked at many companies that have been struggling in the market this year.”
“After the first three months of lockdown, where we were saying “Oh, my gosh, can we survive?”, we [then] realised that the next strategy that would actually be a lot more exciting was: how can we come out of this bigger?” he revealed.
“Opportunities were landing on my desk on a daily basis.”
In addition to the LSC takeover, Bayswater acquired Liverpool-based The Language House in February.
“Combining the forces of Eurocentres and Bayswater is a logical and strategic move”
Eurocentres, a veteran brand which is associated with development of the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages), was previously acquired by MVC Education and Career Group, led by Stefan Menden, in 2018.
Menden, who is also group chairman of Eurocentres, will be joining the Bayswater board as part of the transaction.
“Combining the forces of Eurocentres and Bayswater is a logical and strategic move,” he said.
“We fully believe in the vision of offering a broader portfolio of courses beyond English that appeal to Gen Z, and our expertise and legacy of delivering quality English programmes will be a valuable part of the Bayswater portfolio.
“Eurocentres has invested heavily in a curriculum focused on 21st Century skills, and Bayswater’s portfolio of courses will complement this greatly”.
Roussounis told The PIE that in terms of any restructuring, Bayswater are going to“create a consolidated admissions, finance and customer service function.”