Commercial director appointed at South West nursery group

Mary
Authored by Mary
Posted: Tuesday, September 1, 2020 - 20:26

A South West-based nursery group has appointed Chris Marston as Commercial Director to help with its significant recent growth.

Chris has joined the Mama Bear’s Day Nursery and Pre-School group, which has 24 settings across Bristol, Somerset and Devon, and will work closely with owner Tony Driffield to oversee the business and help drive it forward.

With a career spent in sales and marketing, including eight years’ experience in the education sector leading The Consortium Early Years, an education supply business, Chris has significant commercial and management experience running multi-site teams.

Chris said: “I’m excited to be joining Mama Bear’s and sitting on the other side of the fence within a renowned private day nursery group. My role as Commercial Director will involve ensuring our childcare provision is well-resourced and our teams are engaged whilst helping to optimise our occupancy within the communities we serve.

“We find ourselves in a society that is rapidly changing and being challenged, particularly as we learn to live with Covid-19. The need for the early years sector to evolve at pace, in order to support parents and employees, is critical. I will be working across the business to ensure we are fit to deliver a proposition that suits our customers’ needs.”

Tony Driffield, who co-owns Mama Bear’s with wife Bev, said: “Over the past 10 years Mama Bear’s has experienced fairly rapid growth and we have aspirations to expand further with the right opportunities and without compromising the quality of our childcare and our core family values.

“Chris will help to finesse our policies and practices and through his experience, help us to build on our success.”

Mama Bear’s was founded in 2002 and provides childcare for children aged three-months to five years. Its flexible booking structure has made it popular with working parents. 

The first Mama Bear’s nursery opened in Brislington, Bristol in 2004 and the most recent Mama Bear’s nursery opened in Bridgwater in August 2020.

The Mama Bear’s group now has 16 settings in Bristol, 5 in Devon and 3 in Somerset and cares for over 2000 children.

More information on Mama Bear’s Day Nursery can be found at www.mamabear.co.uk