In FY2023, it added 450 franchise pre-schools, bringing the total count to approximately 1,600 Eurokids franchisees and 35 Kangaroo Kids franchisees pan India. Prajodh Rajan, Co-founder & Group CEO, Lighthouse Learning Pvt Ltd discusses the brand's strategies and expansion plans.
Being pioneers in the education and franchise industry, how many categories do you cater to in the education sector?
The brand operates in two segments: early years and K-12. In the early years category, we have two brands, EuroKids and Kangaroo Kids. Both brands operate via the franchise business model, largely franchise-owned and franchisee-operated. These are the two propositions that we franchise in the early years. In the K-12 segment, we have a house of brands ranging from premium to super-premium, including Euro School, Billabong High International School, Centre Point Schools, and the Heritage schools. We do not franchise these.
How has been the brand’s growth so far especially post Covid?
We've been aggressively expanding across India for EuroKids & Kangaroo Kids. The first year of COVID was fairly brutal, but in the second year, we managed to repurpose some of our online tools, which we used in K-12, even for early years, and we managed to serve students as young as two and three years old. Most of the partners or edupreneurs I met decided that they would rather not start their own business, but they would prefer partnering with well-known renowned brands, franchise brands, rather than starting their own venture. Post-COVID recovery, in my view, has been spectacular for both EuroKids International and Kangaroo Kids.
How many schools are operational right now for the early years category & what are your expansion plans for EuroKids?
Presently, we have 1600 EuroKids franchisees and 35 Kangaroo Kids franchisees. We want to double our network in the next three years. From the current 1600 EuroKids centres, we want to take it to 3200 centres. We plan to add 500+ franchisees every year.
How is EuroKids International offering different from Kangaroo Kids?
EuroKids International is positioned as a masstige offering, which is mass premium, and Kangaroo Kids is our premium offering in the early years space. Positioning and pricing for both brands vary. Different markets have different pricing for us. But that's the difference in terms of how we position the two brands.
Could you share details about particular markets witnessing a spectacular rise in the number of schools for both brands?
A: For EuroKids, the demand has been really high from tier II & III markets. But we have a densification strategy, so we actually take one market and densify in that territory. For cities like Bangalore, we operate one of the largest chains of our preschools. We already have 135 EuroKids preschools. Another great market is Hyderabad; in Hyderabad, we have already crossed 104 preschools. We take one particular market and densify that market; that's been the strategy for us. Chennai has also witnessed higher growth for us. Southern cities have been a game-changer.
What sets your brand Lighthouse apart from other franchise educational institutions in India? And how does this uniqueness contribute to its success in the market?
I believe it’s a tried & tested franchise proposition. I strongly believe that we've never been stagnant. We've always kept with the times; our USP is our curriculum. Our partners & parents always have feedback that the curriculum that we offer is one of the best. I believe that our curriculum has evolved, and that has come over years of research and also years of upgrade. So we are currently in our seventh version of our curriculum, and now we are going to launch the eighth version next year, and I attribute this to our Academic Research and Development team. We’ve always had a child-first philosophy. So our Child First Philosophy is what really sets us apart. We have invested in curriculum researchers, planners, and writers. These are the three categories of people who comprise, who are specialists in early years.
