Primrose Schools Franchise Circumvents Credit Crunch with Innovative Financing Solutions

By: Primrose Schools | 1,021 Shares 315 Reads

April 19, 2010 // Franchising.com // ATLANTA – Primrose School Franchising Company announced today that it has secured financing for 30 new franchise owners to open 14 new private preschools in the past 5 months, since bringing on seasoned franchise finance professional John Teat to its team.

Teat, Managing Director of Franchise Finance for Primrose Schools, was recently brought on to support continued growth of the franchise system through sourcing and maintaining reliable lending solutions for new and existing franchise owners. No stranger to Primrose Schools, Teat managed the Primrose Schools portfolio as a Sr. Regional Account Manager at CIT, SBL for the past 17 years. In that role, he assisted with the financing for more than 90 percent of Primrose Schools.

"Although the economy has shown some signs of improvement, the credit crunch still exists, and it continues to be challenging for small business owners to secure financing from traditional sources," said Darin Harris, Chief Operating Officer for Primrose Schools. "We had a pool of prospective and existing owners seeking to open a new Primrose School. Since John came on board, he has been instrumental in helping us close multiple deals through alternative funding sources."

In addition to providing access to capital through the development of relationships with regional banks in growth markets, Teat has expedited the loan approval process for franchise owners through his connections with CIT and other lenders. Primrose Schools also introduced a real estate leasing program that significantly reduces up-front cash investments for prospective owners.

"At Primrose, by setting up regional banking networks, opening doors to non-traditional and traditional lending solutions and other creative financing approaches, we have not had a single deal fall through in this market," Teat said.

After opening 40 new schools in the past two years alone, Primrose Schools plans to open another 200 private preschools over the next five years in 15 key markets around the country. In fact, to expedite growth, Primrose Schools recently introduced incentives for prospective franchise candidates in the Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Baltimore and Washington D.C. markets. The incentives involve reduced royalty fees and reimbursing potential franchise owners up to $35,000 in relocation expenses for any owner opening a new school more than 100 miles from their current home.

About Primrose Schools

Founded in 1982, Primrose Schools is the nation's leader in providing consistent, accredited early childhood education and child care services in more than 200 schools in 16 states. Primrose Schools has a dedicated and passionate group of early childhood professionals providing high quality education with a balance of learning, character development and play.

Primrose School's exclusive Balanced Learning® program blends teacher-directed and child-initiated activities with a special emphasis on character development and is consistently delivered in all Primrose Schools nationwide. Through this approach, Primrose Schools has created a meaningful learning path, or blueprint, that enables teachers to guide children in the development of the knowledge and skills they need to move successfully from one year to the next. Primrose is the first preschool organization in the country to achieve the gold standard in educational accreditation (SACS CASI/NCA CASI).

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