From the June 2008 issue of Profit Magazine –
Like it or not, Kids & Co. is all about growth. The “teachers” in its daycare centres, all early childhood education specialists, are committed to the growth and development of their more than 1,000 charges. And at head office in Markham, Ont., founders Victoria Sopik and Jennifer Nashmi are equally committed to the growth of their six-year-old company. Like most proud parents, they delight in their baby’s progress so far — providing accessible, quality daycare for the employees of Canada’s largest companies, and recently venturing out of its Toronto base to establish new centres in London, Ont. and Calgary.
It’s a remarkable feat for a company that has broken new ground by turning one of the world’s least glamorous businesses into a B-to-B play. But president and CEO Sopik thinks her firm has actually been underachieving. “We’ve never looked at this as a small business,” she says. “Our vision was to build a $50-million company. It’s been slower than we would have liked, but we think we’re halfway there.”
Most companies would kill for this kind of underperformance. For the 12 months ended March 31, 2008, Kids & Co. posted sales of $13.7 million, almost twice that of the previous year. The company’s five-year growth rate of 12,639% ranks is No. 1 on this year’s PROFIT 100, but what’s more important is that its biggest growth may lie ahead.
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