Awards don't make us who we are. But we're rather chuffed with them all the same.
Each trophy, certificate and ribbon tells a little story about Cosy. Stories of inspiring spaces, happy children, and a team who care deeply about what they do. From sustainability honours to industry accolades, we've been lucky enough to catch the eye of some wonderful organisations along the way.
None of it would have happened without our customers, our suppliers, and our brilliant Cosy team. So here they are, in all their glory. Have a nosy — we're rather proud of this lot.
Queen's Award for Enterprise: Sustainable Development 2022
Well, this one we're especially proud of.
In 2022, during the Queen's Platinum Jubilee year, Cosy was one of just 226 organisations in the country to receive a Queen's Award for Enterprise. Ours was for Sustainable Development — the one that recognises businesses doing right by the environment, society and the economy all at once.
It's the most prestigious business award in the UK, and we still pinch ourselves a little.
The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester came to present it to us in person. A lovely day, and one we won't forget in a hurry.
Why this award means so much
Plenty of companies talk a good game on sustainability. We wanted to do the work and let someone else decide if it counted. The Queen's Award is judged on hard evidence over at least two years — environmental impact, social value, commercial success. All three, not just one.
Winning it told us we were on the right track. It also reminded us there was still plenty of road ahead.
Sustainability isn't a badge we bolted on
It's been at the heart of Cosy from day one. Real, quantifiable sustainability — not the single-use-plastic-with-a-green-leaf-on-the-label kind.
That means UK and European manufacturing for 95% of our products. Plastic-free packaging projects. Solar panels generating 60,000 kWh a year. Rainwater harvesting for our tree nursery. A living roof. Motion-sensor lighting. And a team of cycling, car-sharing, EV-driving, bee-keeping, carbon-literate brilliant humans.
We redesign around 200 products every year to cut carbon in deliveries. We even keep a "free wood" crate at the warehouse for local carpenters. Waste not, want not.
A team effort, always
The Queen's Award isn't a trophy for the people at the top. It belongs to everyone who helped get us there.
That includes our 100-strong team at Cosy HQ. The 200 small, independent suppliers we co-develop products with. The 1,000+ educationalists who share ideas and road-test our resources. The charities and community groups we support through the Cosy Foundation.
It belongs to them as much as it does to us.
Five years of the emblem. Plenty more to do.
We get to use the Queen's Award Emblem until 2027. We'll make every one of those years count.
Carbon neutral targets. New product redesigns. More apprenticeships. Deeper partnerships with the community. The award was a brilliant moment — but it wasn't the finish line. For us, it was more of a nudge to keep going, and keep going properly.
King's Award for Enterprise: International Trade 2024
And then we went and did it again.
In 2024, Cosy was one of just 197 organisations in the UK to be recognised with a King's Award for Enterprise. Ours was for International Trade — the one that recognises businesses flying the flag for Britain and doing rather well at it.
Two Enterprise awards. Very few companies have them both. We're one of them.
A quiet export story that got rather loud
Cosy products now reach children in 38 countries around the world. Not bad for a company that started life fifteen years ago in a tiny loft office with two people and a very big idea.
Our export team has grown into one of four stellar growth divisions at Cosy, with a brand-new team, new offices, and staff based in the Netherlands. Turns out inspiring natural environments for children is a language that translates rather well.
Why this one matters
The King's Award isn't handed out lightly. You have to show sustained, outstanding performance in international trade over several years. Real growth. Real export success. Real impact overseas.
For a Derbyshire-based business that still designs, manufactures and ships 95% of its products from the UK and Europe, breaking through in 38 countries feels like something worth celebrating. Our 6,000-strong product range is out there in nurseries, schools and early years settings across the globe.
Our team made this happen
This one belongs to the team. All of it.
We invest in the people who make Cosy, Cosy. Every single staff member receives personalised training. Every single one gets three days of paid volunteering time each year. 10% of our team are apprentices. 7% are prisoners on day release — and we're pushing that figure to 10% in 2025.
We also work with organisations that help young people with learning disabilities step into meaningful careers. Because growing a business internationally shouldn't mean leaving people behind at home.
Two awards. One mission.
The Queen's Award recognised how we do business. The King's Award recognised how far that business now reaches. Two sides of the same coin, really.
We get to use the King's Award Emblem until 2029. Another five years to keep pushing, keep growing, and keep bringing inspiring natural resources to children wherever they happen to be.
The loft office feels like a very long time ago.
Education Resources Awards: Supplier of the Year 2024
If the King's and Queen's Awards are the national nods, this one's the industry applause.
In April 2024, Cosy was named Supplier of the Year (£10m+) at the Education Resources Awards. The ERAs are the big one in our world — the awards recognised across the teaching profession as the benchmark of excellence for education suppliers.
We won. Out loud. In a room full of our peers.
Judged by people who really know
The ERAs aren't a popularity contest. They're judged by people deep in the education sector who know exactly what good looks like — and what doesn't.
The panel praised the whole Cosy culture. Our sustainability work. Our staff wellbeing initiatives. The way we do business, not just the products we sell. That meant an awful lot, coming from the people it did.
The fastest growing large education distributor in the UK
We've grown rather a lot. Cosy is now the fastest growing large education distributor in the country, supplying sustainable nursery and educational equipment to 33 countries around the world.
Growth is lovely. But growing in the right way — sustainably, ethically, with the team and the planet in mind — is lovelier still.
It's the team. It's always the team.
We've said it before and we'll keep saying it. Awards don't happen because of a logo or a strategy deck. They happen because of people.
One hundred passionate, dynamic, brilliant humans turning up every day to make Cosy what it is. Designers, customer service advisors, warehouse teams, account managers, apprentices, sustainability champions. Every single one of them has a hand in this award.
What it means going forward
Being named Supplier of the Year sets a bar. We intend to keep clearing it.
More innovative products. More teacher-led research. More thoughtful design. More of the things that made the judges sit up and take notice in the first place. That's the plan — same as it ever was, just with a rather shinier trophy on the shelf.
East Midlands Chamber Awards: Environmental Impact Award 2024
A local win, with a rather lovely meaning behind it.
In 2024, Cosy took home the Environmental Impact Award at the East Midlands Chamber Awards, sponsored by Futures Housing Group. It's an award that recognises businesses making a real, measurable difference to the environment — right here in our own backyard.
Winning on home turf feels particularly nice.
Why the local recognition matters
National and international awards are wonderful. But there's something special about being recognised by the business community on your doorstep.
The East Midlands is where Cosy lives, breathes and works. It's where our 100-strong team clock in each morning. It's where our warehouse sits on a lovely greenfield site on the Derbyshire/Staffordshire border. It's where our solar panels soak up the sun, our rainwater fills the tree nursery, and our bees get on with their very important business.
Being honoured by the region we call home? That's a proper Cosy moment.
The Cosy take on environmental impact
We've said it before — real, quantifiable sustainability is the only kind worth shouting about.
That means 95% of our products made in the UK and Europe. Plastic-free packaging projects. A "free wood" crate for local carpenters. 200 products redesigned every year to cut carbon in deliveries. Motion-sensor lighting. A living roof. Nothing to landfill.
The Environmental Impact Award recognises all of it — the small daily choices and the bigger strategic ones, working together to make Cosy one of the greenest education businesses in the country.
Getting children outside. Keeping them there.
There's another environmental angle to Cosy that often gets overlooked. Our whole reason for existing is to get children outdoors, active and engaged with the natural world.
Every reading shelter, mud kitchen and climbing frame we sell is a tiny nudge towards a generation that grows up loving — and looking after — the planet. That matters to us every bit as much as the solar panels.
Home wins hit different
We're part of this region. Our team, our suppliers, our story. To be recognised as an environmental champion by the people who know us best feels like the warmest kind of win.
Onwards — with the goats, the bees, and everyone in between.
Nursery Management Today Awards: Supplier of the Year — Equipment & Services 2024
The early years sector has its own awards. And in 2024, they pointed at us.
Cosy was named Supplier of the Year (Equipment & Services) at the National NMT Nursery Awards — the largest awards recognising excellence in the UK early years sector. A rather lovely feather in the Cosy cap.
Another 2024 win. We were on a bit of a roll.
The awards that nursery people actually watch
The NMT Awards are the big night in the early years calendar. The nurseries, the nursery groups, the educators, the suppliers — they all turn out for this one.
Being named Supplier of the Year by this crowd means something. These are the people who work with our products every single day. Who see what children do with them. Who know the difference between a resource that lasts a term and one that lasts a decade.
Their vote of confidence is one we'll happily frame and hang on the wall.
Built for the people who use them
Everything Cosy makes starts with a simple question. Will this actually work in a real nursery, with real children, on a real Tuesday morning in February?
Our products are developed with teachers, by teachers, for teachers. Over 900 teacher-developed resources sit in our catalogue. Each one has been shaped by the people who know early years inside out — not a marketing team guessing what might sell.
That's why this award matters. It says we're getting it right where it counts.
A thank you to our customers
This one is as much yours as it is ours.
Every nursery owner, manager, practitioner and early years lead who picked Cosy when they could have picked anyone else — thank you. Every piece of feedback, every product request, every "have you thought about making one of these?" email has shaped who we are.
We don't take that trust for granted. Not for a second.
Onwards into the early years
Winning Supplier of the Year isn't a finish line. It's a reminder of what we're here to do.
More products designed with real children in mind. More teacher-led research. More thoughtful, sturdy, sustainable resources that make early years settings better places to learn, play and grow. That's the work. We'll keep at it.
East Staffordshire & South Derbyshire Business Awards 2024: Business of the Year AND Employer of the Year
Two awards. One night. Same company.
In 2024, at the East Staffordshire and South Derbyshire Business Awards, Cosy did something rather unusual. We walked away with both Business of the Year and Employer of the Year — two of the biggest categories on the night.
A sold-out Pirelli Stadium. Over 300 guests. Eleven category winners. And Cosy up on stage twice.
Business of the Year
The judges recognised Cosy for exceptional levels of growth, innovation and sustainability. Three things that don't always sit easily together — but that we've worked hard to make rather good friends.
Growing the business while shrinking the carbon footprint. Innovating in a sector that can sometimes feel stuck in its ways. Building something that's commercially strong and genuinely kind. That's the Cosy balancing act, and we're proud the judges saw it.
Employer of the Year
This one matters to us more than we can easily say.
Cosy is only Cosy because of the people who work here. 100-plus of them, turning up every day to design, pack, ship, support, sell, sustain and generally make the whole thing tick.
We've worked hard to build a business that works for them, too. Flexible "carer-friendly" hours for parents and grandparents. Three days of paid volunteering time for every team member. Personalised training for 100% of staff. Apprenticeships that open doors. Roles for prisoners on day release who deserve a genuine second chance. Roles for young people with learning disabilities who deserve a genuine first one.
Employer of the Year isn't a title you can buy. It's one your own team earns for you. Ours did.
A regional celebration
There's something particularly nice about being recognised by your own region.
The East Staffordshire and South Derbyshire business community is full of brilliant companies doing brilliant things. To stand among them as both Business and Employer of the Year — on our home turf, in front of 300 local leaders — felt like one of the warmest wins of the year.
To the team. Again.
We'll keep saying it. None of this happens without them.
Every award on this page belongs to the Cosy team as much as it belongs to the business. Two trophies in one night just happens to be a rather emphatic reminder.
Creative Play Awards 2024: Winner — Imagineering Wooden Blocks (25pk)
Sometimes an award is for the whole company. And sometimes it's for one very specific, very brilliant product.
In 2024, Cosy's Imagineering Wooden Blocks (25pk) were named winners at the Creative Play Awards. Now in their 17th year, these awards celebrate the best creative play toys, games, books and resources available in the UK.
One product. Twenty-five blocks. A rather big win.
Judged where it counts — in real homes, schools and nurseries
This is the bit we love about the Creative Play Awards. They don't judge products in a boardroom.
Every entry is assessed by independent testers in actual homes, schools, early years rooms and childcare settings across the country. Real children. Real play. Real verdicts. You can't game that, and you can't fake it.
Which makes winning feel particularly genuine.
What the testers said
We could tell you all about the Imagineering Blocks ourselves. But the testers said it better:
"A great open-ended loose parts resource that fostered collaboration, turn-taking, imagination, problem solving and critical thinking. Some excellent language development too."
Five things we care deeply about, in a single sentence. We couldn't have written it better if we'd tried.
A quick word on the blocks themselves
The Imagineering Wooden Blocks are a budget-friendly set of 25 hollow, large outdoor construction blocks. They interconnect cleverly, meaning children can build all sorts of creations without needing an adult on hand to help.
They're heavily weighted for stability. They're brilliant for critical thinking, problem-solving, and supporting those all-important characteristics of effective learning. They're the perfect way to start an outdoor construction setup, or to extend an existing one.
And they're an award-winner. As of 2024, officially.
Why this one means a lot
Company awards are wonderful. Product awards are different.
They say that somewhere out there, a child picked up this exact thing we made — and it did exactly what we hoped it would do. That they played, built, imagined, collaborated and learned because of it.
That's the whole point of Cosy. One product, recognised for doing its job beautifully, is a rather lovely reminder of why we do what we do.
Good Business Charter
We’re pleased to announce that Cosy Direct has recently achieved accreditation with the Good Business Charter!
This simple accreditation, open to UK businesses and organisations of all sizes, recognises responsible business behaviour across ten key components. We feel that it is important to be accountable in the way we do business, and by gaining accreditation we are demonstrating our commitment to our staff, suppliers, customers and the environment.
If you would like to find out more, please visit the GBC website.
Cosy Direct Achieves ISO 14001 Certification!
We are proud to announce that Cosy Direct has been awarded the prestigious ISO 14001 certification for our exceptional commitment to environmental management. By implementing best practices and continually striving to improve our performance, we are making a positive impact on the planet.
The ISO 14001 mark is an internationally recognised certification awarded by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), signifying that a company adheres to the highest standards of environmental management. Developed by a global network of experts, the ISO 14001 standard establishes a framework for organisations to manage their environmental responsibilities proactively, minimise their environmental impact, and promote sustainable practices. This prestigious certification demonstrates a company's commitment to reducing waste, conserving resources, controlling emissions, and mitigating its overall ecological footprint. Achieving ISO 14001 certification also involves implementing an Environmental Management System (EMS), a systematic approach to identifying, managing, and reducing environmental risks while continually improving overall performance. By attaining this certification, Cosy Direct has showcased its dedication to not only providing exceptional products and services but also to making a positive impact on the environment and setting an example for other businesses to follow.
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Key Achievements of Gaining ISO 14001 Recognition
1. Resource Optimisation: We have optimised our use of energy, water, and raw materials, reducing our overall environmental footprint and conserving valuable resources for future generations.
2. Waste Reduction: By implementing waste minimisation strategies, we have significantly reduced the amount of waste generated, both hazardous and non-hazardous, at our facilities. We also promote recycling and proper disposal to minimise waste-related environmental impacts.
3. Emissions Control: We actively monitor and manage our greenhouse gas emissions and other air pollutants, ensuring compliance with all relevant regulations and working to minimise our contributions to climate change.
4. Supply Chain Responsibility: As part of our commitment to environmental stewardship, we have established strict criteria for our suppliers to follow, ensuring that they too prioritise sustainability and adhere to the highest environmental standards.
5. Continuous Improvement: The ISO 14001 certification is not a one-time achievement; it represents our ongoing commitment to environmental excellence. We continually assess our operations, set new objectives, and develop action plans to improve our performance, making a positive difference for the planet and our customers.
Join us in celebrating this milestone and supporting our mission to provide environmentally responsible products and services. Together, we can make a difference for our planet and future generations.