Closure of Malvern House, Brighton

The Board of Malvern International plc announces its decision to close the Malvern House, Brighton English language training (ELT) school by the end of the 2023. The decision has been made following a review of the viability of the school, informed by current operations, overhead costs, projected student numbers, financial performance and the further investment required for the school to achieve profitability which it had yet to do.

Brighton Malvern opened in 2019, at a time when Brighton offered a more affordable out-of-London ELT experience. The Covid-19 pandemic halted our efforts to build student numbers quickly, and the centre's performance has since been affected by increased competition and rising costs for student accommodation in the city, making it a less attractive destination for our target audience. The centre accounts for c.5% revenue and is expected to deliver a loss of c. £100,000 for the year ended 31 December 2023.

The Kuwaiti Government is a key customer for this centre's growth prospects. However it has recently indicated that it will be diverting sponsored students to other cities including our Manchester centre. Furthermore, a break clause in the lease agreement provides Malvern with the option to give notice or extend for a further five years. As a result of this and the review, Malvern has served the landlord notice on the property.

Mark Elliott, Chairman of Malvern, said: "This decision has not been made lightly, but it was clear to the Board and the ELT Senior Leadership Team following the review that we had two options: we either take this opportunity to give notice to end the lease and close the business; or, commit to a further five years developing the school. We calculated we would unlikely be able to deliver the critical mass needed to make the business profitable without significant further investment and sufficient visibility of student take up.

The closure of the school will allow us to divert these resources into growing our London and Manchester ELT centres, our Juniors division and our university partnerships where we are seeing far better returns."

Malvern Brighton employs five full time staff. The school has had an average of 35 full-time students at any one time this year; bookings will no longer be taken with immediate effect.