G8 Education reports significant progress across multiple domains in FY2024 results 

G8 Education has released its full year results in which it reported momentum across key business areas including quality, workforce, family experience, network optimisation and profitability in 2024, marking a second consecutive year of notable progress for the Group. 

“Throughout 2024, our journey focused on building a fit core and laying the foundations for consistent operational execution to deliver high quality education and care for our children,” Pejman Okhovat, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director said.  

“This included improving efficiency across our processes and systems, managing costs and assets effectively, and continuing to build capabilities in our team.”

Group revenue grew by 3 per cent to $1,018 million with operating earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) rising to $115 million, an increase of 14.3 per cent on last year with gains driven by more efficient planning and agency usage at the workforce level but also a new strategic procurement initiative focused on property, food and consumable costs. 

The 2024 performance builds on the strong performance reported by the Group last year when G8 reported revenues up 9 per cent and EBIT increasing 25 per cent and confirms that G8 is now well and truly past the very challenging COVID-19 and post COVID-19 operating environment. 

Quality investments start to pay off reinforced by real progress on team engagement

G8 confirmed that 93 per cent of its services are now rated as meeting or exceeding the National Quality Standard, 3 per cent higher than last year and 2 per cent higher than the long day care sector average. 

The Group confirmed that a new digital compliance management system was supporting increases in visibility and accountability across the network with additional focus on teacher recruitment and professional development supporting gains. 

Alongside improvements in quality have been substantial gains in key workforce metrics such as vacancies, retention rates and team engagement all of which showed improvement year in year, with particular strides made in the vacancy space where overall vacancies are more than 42 per cent lower than last year and 59 per cent lower than 2022. 

G8 was a key participant in the multi-employer bargaining process that helped secure the Federal Government funded Worker Retention Grant which it implemented in December 2026 and further evolved its performance programs via a differentiated remuneration Framework designed to recognise and reward our top performing Centre, Area and Regional Managers.

Overall employee engagement, a measure used to assess team members willingness to recommend G8 as a place to work to others, improved from 76 per cent to 78 per cent, a level that is higher than education, care and broader not – for profit benchmarks that include companies similar to G8. 

Occupancy modestly higher as portfolio optimisation gains offsets lower enquiries

Occupancy across the Group’s network was 70.7 per cent in 2024, 0.3 per cent higher than last year and just below the 70.6 per cent reported in 2022. 

G8 noted that although occupancy in the first half of 2024 was slightly above 2023 levels, it was slightly below in the second half of the year as a result of lower enquiries possibly due to the impact of cost of living pressures.  

The Group actively continued to pursue its portfolio optimisation strategy which saw eighteen centres divested and nine leases surrendered. Three centres were added in the year bringing the closing G8 network to 406 centres equal to 33,846 license places. 

Despite the lacklustre occupancy growth, family experience and engagement showed improvements with NPS levels tracking at 54, compared to 48 last year and average bookings per child per week rising slightly to 3.13, up from 3.09 in 2023. 

Looking ahead to 2025, spot occupancy currently stands at 61.8 per cent, 3.5 per cent lower than last year with the Group changes to school holiday period endings has impacted the seasonal occupancy trends somewhat. 

Group balance sheet remains strong as wage remuneration and class action end

G8 closed out 2024 with $47.7 million of cash and cash equivalents on its balance sheet with long term borrowings also ticking up from $99.0 million to $114 million. 

2024 also saw the closure of two significant programs, namely the Employee Payments Remediation Program and Slater & Gordon class action lawsuit, both of which had significant financial consequences that have now been settled and accordingly triggered the write back of around $36 million of provisions on the balance sheet. 

From an operating cash flow perspective G8 generated $167 million in 2024, lower than last year’s bumper $201 million which was flattered by a favourable income tax receipt which was not repeated this year. 

Lower cash outflows from investing and financing activities made up however, with over all cash levels growing by $7.4 million. 

“We are confident our operational execution, in a challenging environment, will gain momentum in CY25 and we remain optimistic that favourable macro factors including female workforce participation, easing inflation, lower interest rates and unemployment will start to increase childcare participation,” Mr Okhovat said. 

To read more about G8’s 2024 performance visit their website here.