That was after parents with children enrolled at Guardian\u2019s Roseville centre on Sydney\u2019s North Shore learned \u2013 through an email sent at pick-up time on June 30 \u2013 that their centre was to be closed in five weeks\u2019 time. <\/p>\n
Staff were told at the same time, also in an email. <\/p>\n
All this jars with Guardian chief executive Warren Bright\u2019s talk of the warm inner glow he gets from the \u201cnoble purpose\u201d of the industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not in every role that, even on a bad day, you can feel quite good that you\u2019ve helped to improve outcomes for children,\u201d he has said.<\/p>\n
Those fine words are being quoted darkly by a growing army of parents who, until recently, have had their children enrolled in the Guardian network.<\/p>\n
Much of the distress is taking place on Sydney\u2019s north shore. Parents with kids at Guardian\u2019s Cherrybrook centre also got the Roseville treatment: an end-of-financial-year email telling them they had better find other options \u2013 and fast. Guardian\u2019s Torquay centre, in Victoria, is also in the process of being hastily shut down.<\/p>\n
Mercifully, parents at Guardian\u2019s Marsfield and Macquarie Park centres, also both on Sydney\u2019s north shore, have been given months of notice that their centres are destined for the chopping block.<\/p>\n
It appears to us like the taxpayer-dependent chain of almost 180 centres around Australia is being trimmed by its Swiss private equity owner, Partners Group, ahead of another attempt to flog it off. <\/p>\n
In July 2024 it was reported in the financial press that Partners Group was in discussion about a $1bn sale of the outfit, which the Swiss had bought for $440m in 2016. <\/p>\n
Back then, local private equity outfit Pacific Equity Partners was said to have taken a look. Margin Call hears that Tim Sim\u2019s PEP crew has kept its distance ever since. <\/p>\n
\u201cExiting centres is not something new, it is part and parcel of having a network \u2013 just as opening and buying centres is,\u201d Bright told Margin Call.<\/p>\n
Further up the food chain, Partners Group head of Australian operations Martin Scott indicated that Guardian was on the market for the right price.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have now owned Guardian for 10 years and are very proud of the service it provides. It would be a natural outcome to pass this on to the next custodian at some point, but no decision has been made regarding that,\u201d he told Margin Call.<\/p>\n
As we previously noted, parents are advised to maintain an interest in the commercial viability of their local centre, lest they too experience a Roseville surprise.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur role is to create value for the community and investors, therefore we are always reviewing the portfolio as a normal course of business and refining the offering to ensure it is relevant for those it serves,\u201d Scott said. \u201cAny owner would do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parents of Guardianistas, you have been warned.<\/p>\n
Will Glasgow is an award winning journalist and The Australian\u2019s Margin Call columnist, covering business, politics and power. He was previously based in Beijing and Taipei as The Australian\u2019s North Asia correspondent and was a finalist in the Lowy Institute\u2019s foreign reporter of the year prize in 2025. Send him tips via encrypted messaging platform Signal (@WillGlasgow.42) or email him at will.glasgow@theaustralian.com.au<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"27 minutes ago. 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<\/a>Will Glasgow<\/a>Senior journalist and Margin Call columnist<\/p>\n