A Norwich mother has launched her nursery play enterprise - Mini Monkey Gym - as a franchise.

Experienced pre-school teacher Penny Holbrook, 37, of Earlham Road, set up her business in 2009 and it has grown rapidly to take in four weekly venues around Norwich.

She developed soft play gym equipment, now manufactured as her own brand, and drew on her experience teaching in the US and Germany to design lesson plans.

Mother to Jemima, seven, and Wendy, two, she saw the potential in franchising her personal success story.

'I wanted to give other like-minded mums and dads the opportunity to have their own family friendly business and achieve that all important work-life balance,' she said.

'We launched our franchise opportunities at The Franchise Show and The Work and Family Show both at Excel, London in February. The response at both shows was fantastic and we met some really motivated, like-minded people who will be helping us grow the Mini Monkey Gym network throughout the UK.'

The franchise offers unique structured soft playgym classes, soft play parties, nursery sessions and corporate event entertainment.

Mini Monkey Gym playgym classes place great emphasis on fun structured physical play, as well as sensory play and musical movement.

The first franchisee, Sarah Simpson of Scarborough, in Yorkshire said: 'I'm really excited to be joining the Mini Monkey Gym Network. It's going to be brilliant to meet all the Mini Monkeys in North East Yorkshire in September.'

Visit www.minimonkeygym.co.uk to find out more about Mini Monkey Gym and how to become a franchisee.