Too good to be true?

KLEUTERZONE: FROM ZERO TO HERO CLAIM DUE TO AGGRESSIVE ADVERTISING

- Ryk van Niekerk & Liesl Peyper Moneyweb

KleuterZone is a national preschool franchise brand that has shot to prominence over the past two years, following aggressive marketing campaigns featuring many paid-for interviews on television channels and radio stations, social media campaigns, and advertorials on online media platforms.

These campaigns focus on attracting preschool pupils to the network of 120 schools around the country, as well as the marketing of investment opportunities to members of the public offering returns of between 36% and 62.4%.

Through interactions with KleuterZone and the analysis of documents, it appears that KleuterZone may have attracted investments of between R200 million and R300 million.

This is based on KleuterZone's website stating it has attracted 1300 clients, and from marketing material stating that minimum investments amount to between R200 000 and R300 000.

Moneyweb's investigation started after investors expressed concerns about the sustainability of the advertised high returns.

However, KleuterZone founder and owner Anthonie Bougas said the schools "easily" generate the required profits to pay the advertised dividends. He also claimed investors who had not received their full expected returns were invested in schools that were not operating at full capacity.

Background