An early childhood education franchise is set to open three locations in the St. Louis area later this year.
The Learning Experience is set to open in Ellisville, at 16058 Manchester Road, and St. Peters, at 515 Florence Dr., later this year. Another location in St. Peters, at 600 Bond St., is expected to open early next year. Chesterfield-based Knoebel Construction built the Florence Drive location, and Maplewood-based CASCO + R|5 was the architect.
Each center will employ up to 30 staff members and teachers to serve about 180 kids from 6 weeks to 6 years of age. The centers will be 10,000 square feet plus a 2,000-square-foot outdoor playground, a spokesman for The Learning Experience said.
Franchisee Mamatha Vulli will open the Ellisville location under Wisdom Child Education LLC and the two St. Peters locations under Smart Kids of Missouri Inc. along with Krishna Dindugapu, the spokesman said.
Startup costs are about $575,000; other franchise costs were not disclosed.
Child education franchises are expected to grow exponentially. A 2016 report from market research firm IBISWorld said child education and development center franchises will grow at an annualized rate of 6.5% to $3.6 billion by 2021.