Published: February 24, 2026 at 8:37 am
Elaine Sagar has built a fast-growing early years business, supporting around 180 children a day across two nurseries in Greater Manchester.
The founder and CEO of Sunflower Childcare Group says one setting cares for roughly 70 children and the other around 110 – with 67 staff employed across the nurseries.
Alongside this, Sagar has begun moving into residential care, with a children’s home team of seven in place as she explores growth beyond early years.
She doesn’t present herself as a typical childcare founder.
“I’m basically a hairdresser,” she says, explaining that she has experience lecturing on hairdressing rather than early years.
Sagar describes three phases that shaped the way she now leads Sunflower: entrepreneurship and teaching in hairdressing; international auditing work assessing quality in hospitality; and education and childcare.
She explains: “The skills that I’ve got from those three areas have come together to make me what I am now really.”