TWO enterprising mums are expanding their children’s entertainment centre following a £50,000 government-backed loan to grow their business.

Kathryn Fraser and Kate Horner launched Dragonflies Durham in July last year after spotting a gap in the market for a more one-to-one led play centre to cater for mums, babies, toddlers and pre-school children in need of interaction, play and educational activities.

After a busy year, creating seven new jobs, the pair have now moved to bigger premises at the Belmont Industrial Estate in Durham and launched a new 2,700 sq ft soft play centre with additional role play rooms and café facilities.

The new facilities have been funded by a government-backed, low-cost business loan of £50,000 from Virgin StartUp following additional help and guidance from TEDCO Business Support.

The children’s centre will continue to offer a wide range of scheduled classes and activities designed to entertain children in a fun and sociable environment but will be expanding to offer role-play and soft-play facilities following feedback from parents keen to entertain children beyond pre-school age. The centre now caters for children from birth up to aged eight with the brand new soft play facilities available.

Kathryn said: “We have been absolutely overwhelmed with the support for Dragonflies in the local area.

“We did have hopes when we first started the business that one day, we would perhaps look at expanding our space and our offering but never dreamed it would be so soon after launching.”

She added: “TEDCO Business Support and our business advisor, Mark Johnston, have been fantastic in helping us understand just what options were available to us to capitalise on the success of the business over the past year and expand our premises and services to meet the needs of our customers looking to entertain older siblings in a larger, less-restrictive space.”