The learn-to-swim franchise market is fairly niche, but Water Babies has been riding its own wave of success for more than two decades. With growing international ambitions, a tech-based customer experience, and a franchise network that mixes passion with structured performance, the business is shifting into its next phase under managing director James Brookes.
And while the business offering continues to evolve, it repeatedly relies on the same themes of quality, consistency, and a model designed to help franchisees grow with confidence. At the heart of that success, Brookes says, is a franchise operation that was built for agility rather than heavy infrastructure.
“One of the greatest benefits of the Water Babies model is the speed to market and low start-up costs. The flexibility of the pool rental model allows franchisees to launch quickly and get fast returns on their investment.”
It’s the kind of early-stage momentum a lot of owners depend on. But he’s quick to point out that operational ease alone doesn’t make parents sign up year after year.
He explains: “It’s our aquatics programme and the strength of our brand reputation that means so many customers continue to choose Water Babies as their first-choice swim school. We are constantly developing our programme to ensure it continues to deliver a fun and engaging learning experience, not just teaching children to swim, but fostering a life-long love of water.”
And much of that is supported by tools that keep the admin burden low and the customer journey smooth.
“To ensure our franchisees can remain focused on delivering an amazing experience in the pool, they are supported with bespoke digital platforms that make running their business as simple as possible. This means they don’t become burdened by admin tasks as the business grows and can keep a focus on delivering the best customer experience.”
How tech reshaped the Water Babies engine
Brookes arrived via a long career in digital transformation, and it shows. The philosophy is to make the tech invisible to the customer but indispensable to the business.
“At first glance technology may not seem to play much of a role in a swimming lesson,” says Brookes. “But technology is also an enabler for any business, and when it’s good it’s invisible to the customer, providing a frictionless experience that supports their journey at every stage.”
Parents aren’t just using it to book classes, they can navigate changes, track progress, and manage competing schedules. Behind the scenes, those systems manage a deeper layer of intelligence.
Brookes adds: “We also use a lot of technology in the background to ensure every child’s progress is tracked and our lesson plans are built around their individual requirements. Teachers use tablets to record progress and share this with our offices whilst carers can track their child’s progress in real time through their personalised ‘My Water Babies’ Parent Portal.
“Automation plays a big part of our bespoke CRM platform, ‘Ada’. Replacing a legacy system back in 2022, Ada has been built around the principle of making a franchise office easier to run. Whether it’s the automatic collection of franchise fees or the management of customer enquiries, it’s there to do the heavy lifting.”
Training, teaching standardisation
With more than 50 franchise territories and hundreds of teachers, consistency is important throughout the customer experience and that starts with the training.
“Our bespoke learning platforms, give teachers continuous access to updated resources, videos, and best practices,” says Brookes.
“Combined with regular quality audits and peer reviews, this creates a dynamic feedback loop that drives improvement and innovation across our network.”
The system also nurtures a strong sense of community through forums, webinars, and workshops, enabling teachers to share insights and celebrate successes.
Oceans of Imagination
Water Babies’ Oceans of Imagination programme is the brand’s creative heartbeat, part curriculum, part experience, and deeply commercial.
Brookes explains: “Oceans of Imagination turns swimming lessons into an immersive, exciting, and tailored experience, making Water Babies truly unique in a busy marketplace. It’s not just about learning to swim. It’s about storytelling, creativity, and emotional connection.
“With our own team of ‘Swimvincible’ characters, bespoke badges, and a reward and recognition system designed exclusively for us, we’ve created something families can’t find anywhere else.”
And for the little swimmers, collecting badges, stickers, and certificates, known as ‘Water Babies Treasures’ along the way, instils a sense of pride, achievement, and confidence that sticks.
“For franchisees, Oceans of Imagination is a game-changer. It’s easy to implement, reduces lesson planning time, and provides powerful marketing opportunities through themed campaigns and merchandise.”
The challenges of going global
International growth has been promising, but difficult. Brookes is candid about the difficulties “The biggest challenges of expanding Water Babies internationally have been around scaling the operation and adapting the model for regional differences in each territory.”
The team has been stretched across time zones, cultures, and regulatory environments. And the US, in particular, has been tricky.
“It is one of the most regulated franchise markets in the world and state-level regulations can often make it feel like you are launching in 50 different countries at the same time.
“In our endeavour to bring Water Babies to the US, we’ve made the most of local expertise such as franchising experts, a Franchise Sales Organisation, lawyers, and accountants all based in the US.”
Choosing the right franchisees
Getting the right people is crucial, and to make sure there is alignment, every potential new franchisee must do an ‘Essence of Me’ presentation.
“We want to know who they really are. And the more fun they can have in delivering their presentation, the better.”
The onboarding itself has modernised rapidly, Brookes says.
“Our onboarding process continues to develop through the ever-growing capabilities of technology (of course). We’re now able to use video sessions for our franchise discovery days as well as distance learning techniques to help fit around our candidates’ busy schedules.”
And with the new LMS (Learning Management System), franchisees can effectively track their progress and ensure the learning is absorbed.
From passion to performance
Many franchisees start as owner-operators, rooted in enthusiasm but not always experience. To plug the gap between teaching excellence and business admin, the firm is utilising EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) across the whole business.
“It has enabled us to provide much greater clarity around the vision and goals from a franchisor perspective, improving communication and alignment across the whole business,” says Brookes.
AI, data and the next frontier
The tech adoption isn’t slowing down either. Brookes sees AI as a vital structural shift. From learning pathways to predictive modelling, the network is preparing for smarter systems.
“AI use in Learning and Development (L&D) provides an exciting opportunity for Water Babies to build on our personalised progression for every child.”
And on the customer side, it provides an opportunity to transform the customer journey and improve the service that can be provided, while also generating plenty of valuable data.
Opportunities and risks
Looking ahead, Brookes sees possibility and problems in equal measure.
“The biggest opportunities for Water Babies are the expansion into the US market and the introduction of our Swimvincible programme, a unique and fun learning experience for older children.”
But the UK market is becoming more challenging. “The reduction of pool stock across the UK remains a challenge for our industry,” he says.
Recruitment is also a concern
“Recruitment of high-quality staff has been a challenge across many sectors since the COVID pandemic, and this is no different for swim teachers.”
But, flexibility and those updated training models are making a difference to that challenge.
And if Brookes’ vision holds, the next era of Water Babies will be bigger, deeper, and more global than anything that went before.
