WELCOME Nurseries will not be returning to their St Helens property, despite news of a management buyout of the company.
On Thursday, July 28, Welcome Nurseries announced the management buyout with a private investor taking over the reins from founder Johnathon Jay.
While the investor has pledged to "further drive the nursery chain's expansion", their St Helens town centre site has been closed for "constantly failing to pay their rent on time".
READ > Welcome Nurseries closed in St Helens town centre for 'constant failure to pay rent'
Despite being closed for almost three weeks, the nursery company has not communicated any information about its closure or the reasons behind it.
Initially, the company blamed the closure of the Halefield Street site on the July heatwave and sent parents emails of numerous re-opening dates.
However, the building's landlord, Bearly There Limited, confirmed that Welcome Nurseries will not be returning to the property after they constantly failed to pay their rent on time.
Since moving into the Halefield Street site in November 2021, the nursery company is said to have paid the rent on time just once.
A spokesperson for Bearly There Limited said: "We have still had no communication from Welcome Nurseries but can confirm that they will not be returning to the property.
"We did not want to close the nursery as the parents and children were our concern, but we could not continue with the nursery company deferring payments and continuing to not pay the rent on time."
The closure of Welcome Nurseries, which took over the property from Little Saints nursery, has infuriated parents as it left them struggling to find alternative child care at the last minute.
They are also yet to receive refunds for their childcare payments for July.
In addition to this, nursery staff are said to have been left in the dark and worried about their jobs, despite the management buyout and investment at the top of the company.
Since the site was repossessed, Bearly There Limited stated they have had no communication from Welcome Nurseries.
However, the landlord did confirm that they wish to keep the Halefield Street site as a nursery, and have had approaches from other nursery companies to take over the property.
Welcome Nurseries have not responded to numerous approaches to comment.
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