Funky Monkeys Newport Swings Into Action!
The excitement has been building over the last few months and we’re happy to announce that our brand new Funky Monkeys Soft Play Café in Tesco Newport Spytty Extra is now open for business.
Located on the 1st floor of Tesco Extra, our soft play centre provides the perfect environment for little monkeys to let their imagination run wild, with a wide range of climbing frames, ropes, slides, soft obstacles and much more.
Our new centre will offer our interactive activity programmes, starting from the New Year, as well as our range of funky party packages, designed to make your little one feel like King or Queen of the Jungle. And don’t forget our healthy eating café, providing tasty treats for parents and children alike!
To celebrate the launch of our new centre in Tesco Newport Spytty Extra, there will be a range of fun activities over the coming weeks, including a Monkey Treasure Hunt, taking place in store from 25th November, where you could have the chance to win a year’s free membership at Funky Monkeys Newport.
As always, keep an eye on our Facebook and Twitter for all the latest Funky Monkeys news.
Funky Monkeys Larne Named Netmums Soft Play Runner-Up
Funky Monkeys Larne has been honoured in the UK’s first national Soft Play awards.
The centre was crowned runner up in the competition to find the top soft play centre for children in Northern Ireland. The popular centre beat off fierce competition from a number of rivals around the region to clinch the prestigious award.
The competition run by parenting site Netmums, saw over 1.6 million mums and dads eligible to vote for their favourite soft play centres across the UK.
Larne Centre Owner Patrick Hughes said: “We’d like to thank all the local parents who voted for us. Being voted a runner up in such a big national awards is so exciting. We are delighted all our hard work has paid off.”
The centre will now receive a special certificate to display in their centre along with a one-month gold listing on the Netmums website.
Only four centres around the region were awarded runner up prizes.
For more information visit www.netmums.com
Funky Monkeys expands their jungle kingdom with Tesco!
Northern Ireland’s leading indoor play franchise, Funky Monkeys Soft Play Café, have swung into action with Tesco, in a move that will see them open two new UK centres in November of this year.
Based in Newport, Wales and Stockton, England, the move signals a change of pace for the soft play brand with the new centres located within Tesco Extra stores.
Mark Simpson, Director of Funky Monkeys commented “We’re extremely excited to be partnering with Tesco for the launch of two new Funky Monkeys Soft Play Café centres in mainland UK. We’ve established a great brand and reputation within Northern Ireland and the move across the water seemed like a natural progression for the business.”
“We pride ourselves on providing the perfect environment for children to let their imaginations run wild, have adventures, get active, make new friends and simply have fun, while for parents and grandparents, our centres offer a welcome break, providing a chance to relax over a great cup of coffee. We hope that these key values, as well as our newly established links with such a well-known brand as Tesco, will help to quickly establish the Funky Monkeys name in the rest of the UK.”
James Wiggam, Corporate Affairs manager for Tesco said ‘We’re looking forward to working with Funky Monkeys. The soft play centres will give busy families in Newport and Stockton the opportunity to combine the weekly shop with some fun for their little monkeys, making our two stores even better destinations for customers. ’
Established in 2008, Funky Monkeys Soft Play Café opened their first centre in Lurgan and since then, the brand has gone from strength to strength, now with 8 centres across the province. Aimed at children aged 8 years and under, the business aims to provides a fun, active, inspiring and family friendly centre for children to learn and develop their minds through play.
Funky Monkeys set to launch new ASD sessions
After a lot of customer feedback, Funky Monkeys have swung into action and are now launching new ASD sessions for autistic children and their families.
Teams from centres across the Funky Monkeys group also recently attended a training evening hosted by Autism NI in order to help develop their knowledge of autism and understand better the needs of autistic children and their families.
Claire Toner from Funky Monkeys commented, “We are delighted to be able to offer these sessions after a lot of feedback we have received from our customers. We hope to see this as a positive step that we as a business can make to provide a more understanding environment and one in which parents can develop support from other families attending.”
The sessions will be held once a month in centres throughout Northern Ireland. They will be outside of normal opening hours and there will also be a limited and controlled number of children able to attend.
Standard admission prices and policies apply. Places at the sessions are limited so must be booked in advance by telephoning or calling into your local centre.
To view the upcoming ASD sessions schedule please click here -> ASD SEssions Timetable A5
Fundraising gets funky for local children living with cancer
Mark McClintock, a member of the Funky Monkeys team in Lurgan is hoping for a warm and dry summer this year. This is because he has recently shaved his head in a bid to raise money for ‘Cash for Kids’ the charity that helps thousands of disadvantaged children across Northern Ireland. Funky Monkeys, with soft play centres across the North pledged their support to Cash for Kids day 2013 in which much needed funds were raised and donated to the Northern Ireland Cancer Fund for Children. As well as Mark’s head shave, teams from across the Funky Monkeys group held raffles, competitions and also joined in on the ‘Funsie in a Onesie’ theme by wearing their onesie to work. The total amount raised was a fantastic £3500 for Cash for Kids.
Claire Toner, marketing manager for Funky Monkeys commented: “We are delighted to have been able to support Cash for Kids day this year and we had lots of fun activities happening across all our centres in a bid to raise as much as money as possible for Cash for Kids and the Northern Ireland Cancer Fund for Children. At Funky Monkeys, we love that children can visit one of our centres and play happily and safely on our equipment. However, we realise that not all children are as lucky and may not be just as care-free due to a variety of circumstances.
“We are very grateful for the support that Funky Monkeys has had in each of its areas and as part of our charity partnership with Cash for Kids we want to give something back that will directly benefit children and their families who may need a little extra support within our communities. Supporting Cash for Kids is the perfect way for us to do this and we have been getting up to a lot of ‘Funky’ fundraising this year in a bid to achieve our overall goal of raising £10,000 for the charity this year!”
Lorraine Rice, proprietor of Funky Monkeys in Lurgan stated “On behalf of the entire group at Funky Monkeys, we are so grateful for all the continued support that our customers have given us as well as other local businesses. We realise that financially times are not easy at the minute, but we have been overwhelmed by the generosity of our customers in all centre areas.”
Claire concluded: “It is lovely to be able to come to work at one of our centres and to hear the sound of happy laughter and children having fun. I hope that the money we raise will go towards helping the many young people living with cancer in Northern Ireland.”
