EC English Language Centres, the Maltese-owned international education group, has acquired three schools in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal for “significant millions”, executive chairman Andrew Mangion said.
The schools, previously owned by Language Studies Canada, will immediately give EC a firm footing in the Canadian market, the third largest for English language tuition after the US and the UK. Last year, schools across Canada booked more than 1.5 million student weeks.
Mr Mangion told a press conference the acquisition of Canada’s oldest English language operation will rank EC among the international industry’s top six groups. The LSC chain was bought as a going concern, complete with its agent base in Asia, Latin America and Europe.
He added there were “positive expectations” for the Canadian business until the end of the year.
EC will invest a further €2.2 million to upgrade the new schools’ facilities and technology, including the installation of interactive whiteboards in classrooms.
A five-member Maltese integration team, led by CEO Michael Xuereb, will move to Canada this weekend to lead the rebranding and refurbishment project which should be complete by March.
The schools are already well equipped with 49 classrooms in Toronto, 43 in Vancouver and 23 in Montreal. The Montreal school runs French language tuition programmes in addition to English, a capability which could eventually be exported to some EC operations, Mr Xuereb added. The new EC schools in Canada will tap the Asian, Middle East and Latin American markets, particularly countries like Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela. They will also be able to market newly- developed products like exam preparation courses and university pathway programmes to student groups looking to enrol in any of Canada’s 40 universities.
EC will open two new schools in Miami and Los Angeles on January 3. By early 2012, the group will encompass 15 centres worldwide, including six in the US, four in the UK, and two in Malta and South Africa. EC also holds a 50 per cent stake in Expanish, a Spanish language tuition company based in Buenos Aires.
EC’s full-time staff complement of 430 has grown to 600 and will swell further in the peak summer months. Earlier this month, it was named Best Chain School at the LTM Star Awards in London.