Company founder among UK’s most ambitious business leaders

The entrepreneur who set up Cosy Direct to help get children outside to experience nature has been recognised as one of the UK’s most ambitious business leaders.

Peter Ellse, Cosy’s co-founder and chief executive, was recently named in the 2025 line-up of the LDC Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders.

At an event in London, Peter was also awarded the People Award for his commitment to going the extra mile for his employees and customers, having created a business which fits around people’s lives.

Peter’s inclusion celebrates his drive to establish Cosy, based in Fauld, on the Derbyshire/Staffordshire border, as a world pioneer in the design and supply of sustainable nursery and educational equipment.

To date, that drive has seen the company, which Peter set up in Derby nearly 15 years ago with his wife, Amanda, grow its annual turnover to nearly £30 million, sell more than 6,000 different products to nurseries and schools in 50 countries worldwide and employ 130 people.

It has also won a host of awards, including a Queen’s Award for Enterprise for Sustainable Development and a King’s Award for Enterprise for International Trade this year too.

Ten per cent of its profits are donated to good causes in the UK and around the world through the Cosy Foundation, and Cosy also owns a farm and campsite, which it lends to the charity Derby Kids Camp every year.

Peter came up with the idea for Cosy when he was playing with his young children, having recently built and sold education supplier TTS Group.

Worried that children at nurseries and soft play were only being given technology or mass-produced plastic toys to play with, he decided to start a new venture which would sell natural, hands-on resources that would spark creativity, imagination and learning through open-ended play.

Peter said: “I’m incredibly honoured to be named alongside some of the country’s most inspiring business leaders and getting the People Award means the world to us.

“But like every one of the other winners, I know that our successes and awards can’t happen without the support of an exceptional team both at our HQ and, increasingly across the world.

“I’m hugely fortunate to work with colleagues who share the vision and go above and beyond every day.

“And I’m incredibly grateful to Amanda, who has been by my side every step of the way.”