Earn profits, the playful way

Aiming to provide best knowledge and supervision to kids to nurture them, JIE Preschool was evolved. In an interview to Ekta Verma, Avneet Kaur, Managing Director, JIE School India Pvt Ltd, talks about the brands venture into franchising and its aspirations from it.

Tell us about JIE Preschool.

Jaskawal Institute of Education (JIE) Preschool, the name is synonymous with the best in education. It gives a new meaning to the ambience and environment in which the latest of educational techniques could be applied and synthesized with the best in Indian culture. It has a spacious building, which nurtures the child as special and unique in the most hygienic, secure, luxurious, comfortable, refined, cultured, stimulating environment guided by experts. JIE Preschool is an inspiring and ultra-modern preschool and play station for the present generation of kids. The child gets international quality education with Indian values amid joyous ambience.

JIE Preschool truly matches the best of playschools globally and presents lively learning and playing.

How did you script your success story?

14 Feb 2007, was the day when JIE was incorporated. JIE excelled in a very short span of time providing competent education. All the members of team JIE work for the one and only motive of assisting students to reach beyond the sky. To help students, curriculum and strategies are consistently monitored by the administration. In 2010 after spreading our wings into the four states of the country, we planned to enter the preschool concept of education. We then started our first preschool franchise at Pantnagar, Uttarakhand in the year 2012. We have done sufficient study on it for one full year and now after having full satisfaction and seeing the tremendous success are shortly starting additional centres at Haldwani, Dehradun, Bareilly and Kichha which will be operative by 2014.

Shed some light on the USP of JIE

We are a preschool with international accreditations like IAO of USA, AECES of Singapore. These organisations keep a special watch on the quality of education we provide from time to time. Our curriculum is specially designed in keeping with the Montessori methodology of teaching. It is under the banner of JIE School India (P) limited, an ISO 9001-2008 certified company, which thrives for quality management system standards.

Discuss the Market potential of preschool Industry.

I believe analyst and educational experts are bullish on the education sector, especially the preschool segment. In India, the preschool market leads the pack in the franchise industry. Of the four main verticals in the education industry, preschools, K-12, vocational and supplementary education, organised preschool players are the largest pie. The Indian education industry is poised for rapid growth. The sector is changing rapidly with more private players entering the field. The private educational system is currently estimated to be between $6000 million and $ 7000 million. As India is home to world`s largest number of children in the age group 0-5, catering to the same age group offers more opportunities. But we feel there is still dearth of good preschools in the preschool industry.

What was the reason behind opting for the franchise route? What sort of training and support do you offer to the franchisees?

With an ambitious vision of offering the best educational experience to the young students, JIE had embarked upon the development of a unique preschool chain in 2012. JIE wants to go for full fledged franchising, to start with concentrating to cover North India. By another two years, the number of franchisees would transcend 50.

We provide extensive training in the fine art of operating a JIE preschool. The training will cover all aspects of operations, including the business, education and culture. All this will be done before the actual business starts. The franchisees will receive the tools they need to run the schools. We shall be providing them with the daily, weekly and monthly activity, study plan and special event programme schedules. These are specially designed taking the child`s mental and physical ability into consideration;

Which cities in India are you tapping for expansion?

At present we are concentrating in Uttarakhand and other northern states of the country. We want to promote our brand in metros and other major cities.

Share with us your expansion plans.

We are planning to stabilise in the initial stages and then would like to have our brand name expand nationwide. At present we have a franchise at Pantnagar in Uttarakhand and very shortly we are coming up with centres at Kichha, Bareilly and Dehradun. We are planning to expand in Uttarakhand in the initial stages and spread to other major cities in the Northern part of the country.

Franchise facts:

(Franchise fee – Rs.1.50 lakh +12.36% service tax (one time investment)