New Zealand’s biggest childcare operator has nearly finished buying itself from the family that founded it. The Wright Family Charity Group’s latest accounts show the related-party loan created when Kidicorp was sold to the family’s own charity in 2015 has fallen from $332m to $53.9m. That is roughly $278m in tax-free payments to a private family trust, funded mostly by a business that runs on taxpayer subsidies.
None of this is illegal. That is the point. The question for business readers is not whether the Wrights did well, but whether a charitable structure should be able to do this with so little independent oversight.
A charity that pays its founders first
In the year to March 2026, the group lifted revenue 3% to $433m, of which $317m came from government early childhood funding and $115m from parent fees. Best Start runs more than 250 centres with 3750 full-time equivalent staff.
The charity posted a $42m surplus. Charitable donations rose to $10.4m from $7.5m. Meanwhile, $28.8m went to Wright Family Trust interests to pay down the vendor loan. Put plainly, the founders’ trust received almost three dollars for every dollar the charity gave away.
The herald’s broader framing of $36m-plus flows to the family includes related-party arrangements beyond the loan itself. Rent is the obvious one. Back in 2022, the foundation paid $13.4m in rent to Wright family property entities, about 35% of Best Start’s total rent bill. The 2026 coverage does not itemise this year’s rent, so the $28.8m loan paydown is the firm number.
How a private sale became a decade of payments
The structure dates to 2015, when the founders sold Kidicorp to their new charity for $332m, funded by an interest-free vendor loan originally repaid at about $20m a year. By the 2022 accounts, $153m had been repaid. In the year to March 2024, repayments jumped to $37.2m, helped by $25m in property sales, which the late Wayne Wright attributed to a one-off cashflow spike.
In 2025, he described the model as “a uniquely New Zealand model of social enterprise” combining charitable objectives with commercial operations. Uniquely New Zealand is accurate. Few comparable jurisdictions would let a family sell a business to a charity it controls, then collect the purchase price out of tax-exempt earnings.
The warnings were made and ignored
This is not a new concern. In 2020, Tax Working Group members Andrea Black and Craig Elliffe questioned the structure and flagged that New Zealand has no legal requirement for private charitable foundations to have arm’s-length governance. Wayne Wright said at the time that everything was “open and legit, and done with the knowledge of IRD.”
In 2022, the Department of Internal Affairs questioned a further $84m in short-term loans the foundation had made to family entities, including $68m to the Wright Family Trust. Then, the trustees were Chloe Wright, two of her children and a single independent lawyer.
The governance gap the Tax Working Group identified remains open. Successive governments, including this one, have chosen not to touch it.
A new generation inherits the keys
Chloe Wright died in 2023 and Wayne Wright in March 2026. Son Samuel Wright, formerly head of IT at Best Start, is now chairman, and his brother Ollie has joined as a trustee. Their official bios lean on golf, guitar and gaming rather than board experience. The new chairman did not respond to the Herald’s questions.
That matters because this is no small charity. In 2025, Best Start was reported as the third-largest charitable employer in the country, with around 75% of revenue from government. Any listed company of this size, with this much related-party money moving, would face disclosure rules, independent directors and shareholder pressure. Best Start faces journalists reading the Charities Register.
What happens when the loan hits zero
At current rates the loan clears within a couple of years, freeing more than $30m a year for charitable purposes. That is genuinely good news, if it goes where it should.
But “if” is doing the work. A pro-business case for charity reform is not about punishing success. It is about a level playing field: commercial childcare operators competing with Best Start pay tax and answer to independent boards. A charity that takes $317m in public funding should meet at least that standard. Requiring arm’s-length trustees and tighter related-party rules would cost honest charities nothing. The Wright structure is close to finishing its job. The next family to copy it should not find the door still open.
Sources
- NZ Herald: Best Start’s $332m related-party loan falls to $53.9m after a decade of repayments (2026-10-08)
- NZ Herald: Rich-lister controlled charity Wright Family Foundation posts $41.6m surplus after Govt funding boost to BestStart childcare (2025-10-03)
- NZ Herald: New Zealand’s highest paid charity bosses gain pay rises (2025)
- NZ Herald: Best Start payments to rich-list founders Wright family trust rocket to $37m (2024-10-21)
- NZ Herald: Charity BestStart $84m loans to rich-listers questioned (2022-11-04)
- NZ Herald: Kidicorp’s metamorphosis to Best Start Educare raises tax questions (2020-07-10)
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