Franchise Focus Success story
Monkey Puzzle Day Nurseries offers its franchisees help and support to build a successful business in popular and friendly child-care services
INVESTMENT LEVEL: £30,000
prominent role as the local proprietor and the facility to establish good relations with parents. She adds: “It’s rather different to some nursery chains which appear very impersonal.”
The first-year franchisee Mandy Griffiths, St Albans After previously working as a primary- school teacher, Mandy now runs a Monkey Puzzle Day Nursery in a Grade 2-listed former railway station. With guidance from franchise director Mark Crosby and support of local parents keen to have a Monkey Puzzle Day Nursery, change of use was granted, and the building was sensitively restored and converted into the children’s day-care facility. Mandy praises the support she receives: “I could not have done all this on my own and I have certainly found this to be an exceptional franchise”, she says. “Our OFSTED inspection went very well indeed. The children were seen to be happy and contented, and it was gratifying to receive some very positive comments regarding the way things are run,” Mandy says. In business terms the operation is totally satisfactory with good levels of turnover and profitability, to such an extent that Mandy has recently opened her second site in January this year.
network among the top UK childcare brands. Interestingly, much expansion has taken place during the past two to three years when many businesses found trading difficult due to the recession. Monkey Puzzle continued to develop regardless, with bank-financing packages made available to newly established franchisees – proving that banks will lend where they see strong evidence of feasibility. Franchisees come from all walks of life and Monkey Puzzle follows their development throughout the various stages.
M
The recently established franchisee Patsy Monahan, Warwick Formerly an executive with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Patsy had a long-held ambition to go into business rather than remain an employee. First she considered some stand-alone ventures but rejected them
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onkey Puzzle Day Nurseries is seen as a great franchise success story, with healthy growth that now rates the
due to various risks and uncertainties. She went on to explore the franchise sector and discovered Monkey Puzzle Day Nurseries. Following an exploratory visit and detailed discussions, she had, as she puts it, “not a moment’s doubt. It was to be Monkey Puzzle or nothing.” Having taken the decision to go ahead,
“I could not have done all this on my own and I have certainly found this to be an exceptional franchise”
the next step was to find suitable premises, not an easy task in Warwick. However, things began to move forward quickly, thanks to development manager Sanjeev Singh, for whom Patsy has high praise. “Thanks to Sanjeev we soon found premises in a very good position opposite the castle”, she says. Patsy is very pleased with the Monkey Puzzle franchise format as it provides her with a
The mature franchisee Richard Irving, Reading A former IT manager, Richard was among the first to sign up as a Monkey Puzzle Day Nurseries franchisee in 2006. A robust trading position was soon achieved and with a consistent parent enquiry rate, Richard is now contemplating expansion to a second nursery. A particular strength that Richard sees in the Monkey Puzzle format, concerns the overall ambience of the nursery itself. He says: “Some multi-outlet children’s nurseries may appear to have everything in place, but they can come across as being distinctly uncongenial, not at all conducive to good relations with parents or, most importantly, with the children themselves. Monkey Puzzle create the right atmosphere and communicate well with parents, which they greatly appreciate.”
MONKEY PUZZLE
WEBSITE:
www.monkeypuzzlenursery
franchise.com EMAIL:
info@monkeypuzzledaynurseries.com
PHONE: 01442 878 887 CLASSIFICATION: Children’s franchise
Investment: £20k-£50k
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