ONE of the region’s most active entrepreneurs is building up his business empire after opening his seventh children’s nursery.

North Tyneside-based Rob Kilsby has opened up the nursery at Church High School in Jesmond, Newcastle, as part of his Tyneside Nursery Group business, which has grown its turnover from £2m to £3m in the last year.

Mr Kilsby, who launched the business in 1999 with the opening of his first nursery in Tynemouth, is now looking to continue the growth of the company and expects to open three more sites over the next two years.

He believes the nurseries, which try to create a homely atmosphere, have become more popular since the onset of the credit crunch, with mothers cutting their maternity leave short in order to ensure job security.

The firm is just part of Mr Kilsby’s business portfolio, with the entrepreneur involved in three other business interests, as non-executive director at North Shields-based data capture firm ndata, owner of Rob Kilsby Fine Art Photography and owner of 15 rental properties.

He opened his first nursery at his former family home after finding it difficult to find a good enough facility for his daughter Claudia and was put off by the industrial style units used by many teachers.

He said: “We are determined to establish a homely feel and to give every child considerable attention to fulfil their potential. We want to avoid the institutional factory type environment.

“We have seen more mothers bringing their very young children through our doors as they are concerned about the amount of time they are away from work as a consequence of the current economic climate.”

Mr Kilsby has sold a number of his artistic photos through Newcastle gallery The Biscuit Factory and this year sold a picture of a football pitch in Seaton Delaval, Northumberland, to the Professional Football Association.

Despite such an appetite for business, the entrepreneur, who picked up North East Businessman of the Year award in 1994 during his time as md of Edwin Trisk Systems when it was based in Sunderland, said that he was not planning to take on any new enterprises in the new year.