Contracts with centres across Europe and parts of Asia are expected to expire at the end of next year. With the new direction the company hopes to forge growth through teacher training and young learner education contracts with ministries of education or schools, and through fee-sharing programmes with organisations.

“We have always been very transparent with our close partners and we have made clear that our future lies more with educational projects and partnerships, rather than with a chain of franchises,” confirmed Director of Education Jim Kell.

“We have made clear that our future lies more with educational projects and partnerships, rather than with a chain of franchises”

“Our emphasis going forward will be on educational projects focusing on young people, and also on seeking as much reach as we can get through teacher development courses overseas.”

Bell expanded internationally by establishing a franchise network in the early 1990s, and has partnerships with nine centres abroad through which it offers general English tuition. Now contracts for locations in Europe including Bulgaria, Poland and Romania will expire at the end of next year, although other centres in Asia will be spared and could develop into new partnerships.

“We’ve worked with our franchised partners for a very long time and it isn’t our intention to end these valued relationships,” said Kell. “Several of our partners are talking to us about how we can work together in different ways. We are certainly open to continuing our partnerships, but it won’t be on a franchise basis.”

The company says it will focus on expanding its UK teacher training and young learner programmes and look to cultivate a “synergy” between Bell’s UK-based centres – responsible for teaching more than 100,000 students in the last ten years – and its overseas projects.

Operations already on the ground include a partnership with Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools, a chain of private schools, to help run children’s summer camps around different cities in Kazakhstan. It also launched its first overseas teacher-training campus in Macao last week catering to 200 teachers from Hong Kong, Macao, mainland China and Indonesia.

Bell launched its first overseas teacher-training campus in Macao last week catering to 200 teachers from across Asia

The company, which has a turnover of around £20 million per annum, also wants to establish long-lasting partnerships on a fees-paid or fees-shared basis with various organisations; or contracts with ministries of education in non-English speaking countries. It says it will focus on “only a few countries” to begin with.

It is also keen to increase uptake in its university pathways, and sees a natural recruitment pool in those who participate in its programmes abroad.

Kell said that the job of repositioning the brand overseas would be a challenge but worth it. “I respect the franchise networks that some of our competitors have but I really feel we’re on to something special here for ourselves with our educational partnerships. It won’t happen overnight and I don’t deny that what we’re doing is quite difficult, but that’s not a bad thing.”