Aptech Montana to Dig Deeper in Existing Territories

Aptech Montana International Preschool has charted aggressive plans to penetrate deep into the existing territories. The brand which operates in 35 cities is targeting to strengthen its presence in cities like Pune, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Surat, Baroda, Ahmedabad and Chennai.

With a large population of children below age 6 years – 16.45 crore – the preschool segment in India is growing at a high CAGR of 20%. It is in this space where Aptech Montana has created a niche for itself.

 “We specialize in addressing early years learning crisis by providing a safe, caring and comfortable environment to foster all-round physical and cognitive development of the child,” says Bhavika Chouhan, Business Head, Aptech Montana International Preschool. 

Aptech Montana is part of the global education behemoth Aptech, which has a global presence and have trained millions of students. The education behemoth entered the preschool segment by getting into a strategic alliance with Montana in 2016 to form Aptech Montana International Preschool. 

In addition to preschool, the brand offers facilities like day-care, toddler-time and activity centre. In order to build parental trust, the brand has launched a smart app that keeps parents and children connected, even during school hours. In addition, the preschool employs all-women staff to ensure children have a mother figure around. The teaching faculty the preschool is provided rigorous training across all fronts of childhood develop­ment, including academics, behav­ioural development and specialised programs. 

The preschool brand has mastered an asset-light franchise model. A franchise preschool of the brand requires an investment of Rs 15 lakhs onward and a minimum area of 2,000 sq. feet, with some outdoor space. The monthly expendi­ture of the preschool varies from city to city as rent is the major component of operation­al expenses and usually works out to Rs 75,000 to Rs 1.25 lakhs. 

The average fee of a student lies between Rs 45,000-50,000 and it would take a franchise school approximately 50+ stu­dents to reach break­even. The brand offers its franchisees end-to-end support starting from site allocation to training and hiring the staff and sales team. It also provides manuals, IT and administrative sys­tems for running the preschool, and has a continuous monitoring system to ensure quality.