The Early Learning Centre (ELC) is a British retailer that sells toys aimed at younger children. It is part of The Entertainer (through its

parent company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...

TEAL Group Holdings). It was a subsidiary of Mothercare until 2019.

History

The original shop opened in 1974 on London Street,

Reading, Berkshire Reading ( ) is a town and borough in Berkshire, England, and the county town of Berkshire. It is the United Kingdom's largest town, with a combined population of 355,596. Most of Reading built-up area, its built-up area lies within the Borough ...

. The business was started by John Richard Beale. The mail order department was in the basement. Beale employed the services of a child psychologist to ensure that the toys and books were of a positive and educational value to children. The clever and unique concept was for parents to join as a member, new sets of educational toys/books were then sent to them regularly. If they decided to keep the items, they would pay via their account. If they returned the items, they would not be charged. It proved very successful and within a year, much larger premises in Silver Street Reading were obtained. Beale's partner was an accountant named David so Beale used his middle name, John, to avoid confusion. Originally set up as a mail order company in 1974 and based near Swindon, by 1980, it had ten shops, and has since grown to 215 shops in the United Kingdom, and over 80 in 19 other countries including Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Canada and Australia. In addition, their toys are available in some stores of

Boots A boot is a type of footwear. Most boots mainly cover the foot and the ankle, while some also cover some part of the lower calf. Some boots extend up the leg, sometimes as far as the knee or even the hip. Most boots have a heel that is clearl ...

and

Sainsbury's J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is a British supermarket and the second-largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company was the largest UK r ...

. Since 2001, the company sells via their website. In the 1980s, ELC opened a number of "nursery stores", which sold equipment such as pushchairs and cots. Until 1991, the chain had stores in the United States; contrary to standard

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lang ...

, the British spelling "centre" (spelled "center" in American English) was preserved in these. Over 80% of products sold are own brand, being designed at a research centre in Hong Kong.

Takeovers

In May 1985, John Menzies rescued ELC. Sales struggled in the end of the 1990s. After some years, the company's board of directors led by Mike France, bought the company back in October 2001 for £30 million, being backed by 3i, before selling it to Tim Waterstone (who founded

Waterstones Waterstones Booksellers Limited, trading as Waterstones (formerly Waterstone's), is a British bookselling, book retailer based in London, England, owned by the American investment group Elliott Investment Management. It operates 311 shops, ma ...

bookstores) under the name Eagle Retail Investments, for £62 million in April 2004, and he joined it with his ''Daisy & Tom'' chain of shops within the "Chelsea Stores Group". In June 2007, ELC was purchased by Mothercare for £85 million, from Chelsea Stores Holdings. Mothercare continued to expand the high street presence of ELC by opening additional stores; mainly as concessions within over one hundred stores of Mothercare. On 12 March 2019, it was announced that ELC would be purchased by The Entertainer for £13.5M, formally throug
TEAL Group Holdings

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Retail companies of the United Kingdom Companies based in Wiltshire British companies established in 1972 Retail companies established in 1972 Early childhood education in the United Kingdom Early childhood educational organizations Educational toy retailers Toy companies of the United Kingdom 3i Group companies 1972 establishments in England