MiChild Group, leading provider of childcare and early years education
About MiChild
Celebrating its 5-year anniversary in 2024, MiChild has quickly become one of the leading and most innovative providers of childcare and early years education in the northwest. Set up in April 2019 when it purchased its first nursery in Manchester, MiChild has grown rapidly, even in the most challenging of business environments, with further acquisitions taking the total number of nurseries in the group to 14.
An accountant by trade, Adam Sage, Owner and CEO of MiChild, worked across the hospitality and retail sectors before joining the second largest nursery school provider, who had around 150 nurseries. A proud father, it was in this role that his passion for early years education was born.
With a clear vision for success gained from his previous experience, Adam has worked tirelessly to consolidate and improve MiChild’s nurseries, business practices, teaching methods, staff and brand. As a nursery’s food offering continues to be one of the most important areas of concern for new parents, no stone has been left unturned in Adam and his team’s pursuit for perfection.
Quotes from Adam
“Food and nutrition are hugely important, especially in early years learning and education and it is now the number one area new parents enquire about. They’re eager to find out about the variety, quality, nutrition, allergens, and religious preferences available,” says Adam. “It’s a big spectrum that we have to cater for but building good habits and relationships with food is so important.”
“When I first joined, there were seven or eight different ways of doing things and chefs were buying from all over the place. There was no measuring, quantifying and traceability so it was crucial that we had more uniformed and co-ordinated menus across the group. We now run the same standardised menu across all of our nurseries that changes with the season. This makes it easy from a staff, training and cost perspective but our cooks play a pivotal role in menu creation. After all, they are the heartbeat in every nursery and they know everything about what the children love, what they don’t eat and what is wasted. They regularly run tastings with the children and even involve them in the cooking wherever possible.”
Looking to the future, Adam is keen to retain the family values at MiChild but still has his eye on growth potential. “At the moment, we have 200 staff, and I can walk into any nursery and know every member of staff’s name and history and we are really building a strong family ethos and community spirit which is so powerful,” he says. “Staff also all know me, and they know they can speak to me whenever they want. It’s so important. It builds trust and highlights that we’re all in it together. Once you get too big, that goes missing and so does the personal touch. That’s not to say I’m not ambitious so 30-40 nurseries one day would be nice. That seems like a number I can still get my hands around and it can still have that family feel. It’s about growing in a sustainable way for me, my management team, staff and, of course, the parents and children.”
