Monkey Puzzle sees senior management reshuffle to help achieve expansion plans

One of the UK’s largest childcare franchises has made Richard Blunden its franchise director

As the nursery group continues its UK expansion, Richard Blunden will be in charge of driving the head office, as well as supporting growth and excellence within the franchise network.

Blunden said: “I’m delighted to join Monkey Puzzle at such an exciting time. The strength of the network and the ambitious plans from the head office to not only grow but drive excellence and sustainable profitable growth is the reason that I have joined.

“I’m looking forward to adding value to Monkey Puzzle and getting out to meet as many of the franchisees as soon as possible”

Blunden is an experienced name in the UK franchising community having worked predominantly in the motor trade—he has represented some of the largest manufacturers in the business management arena. He spent the last seven years working for Volkswagen Group in the UK and Republic of Ireland.

Rebecca Crosby, co-founder and director of Monkey Puzzle said: “At a time when we are looking to expand our business, we thought it really important to bring in someone with a corporate background and extensive experience in rolling out the franchise model.

“Most importantly for us, in Richard, we’ve also found someone who shares our values of giving our current and future franchisees ongoing support and training, so that they can make the very best of their businesses.”

Joy Wood will also be joining Monkey Puzzle as operations manager. She brings almost three decades of experience working in various childcare settings.

Starting out as a registered childminder, she then moved into schools, focusing on Special Education Needs and/or Disability (SEND) and English as Another Language (EAL) children. Joy made her first move into management in 2002 and joined Monkey Puzzle’s Highbury branch six years ago, where she led the nursery to be deemed ‘Outstanding’ by Osted.

In addition, Monkey Puzzle has also welcomed a new operations coordinator, Chloe Rackham, who has extensive nursery operation experience, most recently at Asquith in the property acquisition team. In this role, she helped acquire and brand 11 childcare settings in six months.

Monkey Puzzle will open a further ten new franchised nursery settings in 2019, and has plans for further expansion in 2020 and beyond.