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The unexpected death of their daughter, Bonnie, in 2020 inspired HR manager Hayley and self-employed electrician Charlie Murtagh to focus on something new. The couple threw themselves into creating an ambitious business plan, finding the perfect building and investing a lot of their personal savings into creating Bonnie Bear Day Care. Happily they also gave birth toa son and spent their maternity leave transforming the former pub into a welcoming setting for 42 children.
They opened three rooms on the building’s ground floor with just three children. Word of mouth about the setting’s high-quality provision led to increased numbers and within six months they had the funds to also completely renovate the first floor and double their registration numbers.
Bonnie Bear now works with 131 local families and has a waiting list pending the recruitment of additional staff.
The owners started paying staff wages from their personal savings and are continuing to reinvest in the business to better the quality of care and service they provide. This includes a soft play centre to enhance children’s physical development while indoors, which is a unique selling point for the nursery. They now employ 27 staff members, including two qualified SENCOs to support children attending with SEND, and an early years nutrition qualified onsite chef who prepares daily homemade meals. Professional development is valued and they have progressed staff through apprenticeships, along with Hayley completing a Level 5 Early Years Leadership qualification. In just two years from opening, Bonnie Bear’s current expected revenue for the year 2023 is close to £700,000.
Parents highly value the nursery, with one parent whose daughter started soon after it opened commenting how staff have gone ‘above and beyond for us as a family’ after she was diagnosed with cancer, ensuring their daughter received a ‘home from home’ experience during a very challenging time for the whole family.
The nursery building features an 1800s clock tower, which was broken, but through a fundraising campaign they have successfully raised more than £14,000to restore it back to a working clock for the community. Each clock face is lit blue and pink in honour of baby loss awareness.
Hayley and Charlie hope to open an additional nursery setting in the future and are currently looking at developing their services into providing breakfast and after-school clubs to further support the needs of the local community.
FINALISTS
• Family First Nurseries
• Little Adventures Nursery Group
CRITERION
For a new launch of, or significant expansion to, an early years business or service since 1 January 2022.