A packed series of events have been lined up to celebrate the opening of the new Jollyes pet store in Southport.
They include the search to find Southport’s cutest pet and the planned arrival of Jollyes’ specially designed “stroke squad” vehicle where visitors will be able to meet and stroke local friendly dogs.
Taking pride of place at the stroke van will be Dennis, the two-legged local celebrity mini dachshund, helping the store open at Unit 3 on the town’s Kew Retail Park in Scarisbrick New Road, at 10am on Saturday 2 July.
Excitement is building ahead of the opening of the 6,000 square feet store which will employ 10 colleagues.
To celebrate, three Southport organisations are jointly searching to find Southport’s cutest pet, whether it’s a dog, cat, guinea pig, rabbit, parrot, fish or any other pet.
The competition has been launched by Sandgrounder Radio, Stand Up For Southport and the Southport Dog Friendly Facebook Group. Five lucky winners will each get a £50 Jollyes voucher.
Entering is simple – owners just have to post a picture of their pet on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter pages of one of the groups and tag in Jollyes.
Stand Up For Southport founder Andrew Brown said: “We’re delighted to be able to team up with Jollyes to offer £50 vouchers to five lucky winners through this great competition, working closely with Sandgrounder Radio and Southport Dog Friendly.”
Jollyes has lined up a fun-packed opening for the new store to give Southport’s pet lovers a warm welcome from the UK’s “Pet People” including:
- The official opening will be performed by the Mayor of Sefton, Councillor Clare Louise Carragher
- Jollyes’ “stroke van” will be there so visitors can meet and stroke dogs – an idea inspired by research during the pandemic which showed pets make a positive contribution to owners’ physical and mental well being
- Sandgrounder Radio will be on site on the morning
- Local two-legged celebrity canine Dennis the mini dachshund
- Entertainment will include a magician, stilt walker and balloon artist
- Visitors will have the chance to win instant prizes on the wheel of fur-tune
- Jollyes will be offering free sample testing, with goody bags for the first 100 visitors
- Barklays, the local dog-friendly café will be offering free puppachinos
Jollyes also announced more details of the ranges available at the new store, including dog and cat food, toys and accessories, food, treats and accessories for small pets, birds and fish.
It will include Jollyes’ exclusive Lifestage dog food range, including dry food, trays and cans. The store will also offer the premium Lifestage Artisan dry food, made by a local pet food manufacturer, including new flavours Scottish salmon with dill and spinach, and haddock with peas and parsley – all traceable back to dedicated farms.
Sarah Farrar, Jollyes regional manager, said: “It’s great to see such a buzz around the opening of the new Southport store and we’ve got a fantastic line up of events to make the opening day something special.
“Our colleagues have worked hard to make sure the store shows off our fantastic ranges at their best so that pet owners in the area can pick up what they need.”
Jollyes has more than 70 stores across the UK and the 6,000 square feet Southport store will complement its popular outlets in North West including Ashton-under-Lyne, Bolton, Eccles, Ellesmere Port and Runcorn.
Recent openings include Stirling, Wrexham and Cookstown. New stores are due to open this summer at Stockton, Poole, Glenrothes and Edinburgh.
Pictured: Southport’s legendary two-legged mini dachshund Dennis and Jollyes’ “Fur-th” Emergency ‘Stroke Squad Vehicle’. (Dennis credit: Rob Ryan, RSA photography)
