Rapid expansion by a family-owned day care business for pampered paws has presented an exciting opportunity for a local mental health and learning disability charity.
The Doggy Day Care Centre has appointed Blyth Star Enterprises’ Woodwork Department to complete all of the carpentry works at its soon-to-launch unit on Blyth’s Riverside Trading Estate.
Launched in Morpeth in 2018, The Doggy Day Care Centre is now the UK’s second largest provider of day care services for dogs, with a team of 30 full and part-time staff caring for up to 300 animals per day across its four current locations.
More readily comparable to a children’s nursery than a centre for pets, the five-star rated Doggy Day Care Centre prides itself on its innovative, high-quality approach to animal day care – something which the business owners are keen to have reflected in the quality of the environments that the dogs get to enjoy, with a range of large indoor and outdoor areas at each site filled with multi-level loungers, puzzle trays and play equipment designed to keep the dogs fit, happy and mentally stimulated.
Having already established a layout for the proposed centre at Blyth based on the success of its counterparts in Pegswood, Alnwick and Whitley Bay, Andrew and Jenny Cairns, the husband and wife team behind The Doggy Day Care Centre, set about trying to find local contractors who could bring their vision to life. It was a recommendation through a family connection who helped to make the introduction to Blyth Star.
“Getting a new centre prepared and ready to launch is a huge task and we have struggled in the past to find contractors who were not just capable, but willing to go that extra mile to ensure that every inch of fencing was just the right height and that every edge was completely smooth to ensure the safety and security of the dogs,” Jenny explained.
“What we wanted this time around when we started looking for tradespeople to help get the Blyth site up and running was to find a company that we could establish a long-term working partnership with, who could support us with the initial build, but also any maintenance work we needed going forward.
“When we first heard about the Woodwork Department at Blyth Star, we immediately knew that we wanted to find out more. I think I went down to see the factory the very same day and Andy went a day later! We were just blown away by what we saw. The staff and service users were all so knowledgeable and so lovely and we loved the idea that instead of just hiring a contractor, our work could support a charity and really give something back to the community. It just felt right.”
Established in 1987, Blyth Star Enterprises is a specialist provider of living support and day services for individuals living with complex mental health needs and learning disabilities.
Through its day services like the Woodwork Department, which reflects as closely as possible a real working environment, Blyth Star aims to provide its service users with a meaningful way to spend their time where they can socialise, learn new skills and access endorsed packages of vocational training.
Neil Hedley, Day Services Operations Manager at Blyth Star Enterprises, commented:
“We’re absolutely delighted to be working with The Doggy Day Care Centre.
“The project is by far the biggest commercial assignment that the Woodwork Department has ever taken on. While the work in itself is quite simple, the scale of the project has seen the entire team of staff and service users engaged in the production of indoor and outdoor fencing, dog beds, pet-safe play equipment and feeding trays, providing lots of new experiences for our service users which they wouldn’t typically have access to.
“The sense of camaraderie in the workshop through the duration of the project has been wonderful and we’re really looking forward to seeing the new centre up and running.”
For more information about The Doggy Day Care Centre, visit www.thedoggydaycarecentre.com or click here to learn more about Blyth Star’s Woodwork Department.
