Julius Rutherfoord cleans up at the home of Moshi Monsters

Mind Candy, the company that created Moshi Monsters, has appointed Julius Rutherfoord to clean its newly-refurbished office HQ in Bonhill Street, the heart of London’s ‘silicon roundabout’.

Moshi Monsters is an online world where children can adopt their own ‘monster’, go on adventures, play games, solve puzzles, be creative, and interact with their friends. Over 65 million children have joined the online community, and Moshi is now expanding into the offline world through books, magazines, trading cards, toys, video games, music, mobile apps, cartoons, and much more.

All this makes it one of the fastest growing children’s entertainment brands in the world, and its success prompted the company to move from the Old Lipton Tea Building in Shoreditch to its new Bonhill Street base earlier this year, to accommodate its rapidly expanding workforce and reflect the ethos of the brand through its surroundings.

No ordinary office space

As a company at the cutting edge of the technology sector, Mind Candy’s offices are anything but ordinary. Anyone familiar with Moshi Monsters knows that they live in a forest – so that’s reflected in the décor of the Mind Candy HQ. Split over two floors, covering around 30,000 sq. ft., and housing around 200 staff when fully occupied, the majority of the flooring is astro turf, the boardroom is a log cabin, and there is a stainless steel slide between floors! Velvet sofas in the breakout areas, a 16ft wooden dining table and an array of colourful bean bags are just some of the additional furnishings requiring specialist cleaning techniques.

Taking care of these different surfaces and materials is all in a day’s work for Julius Rutherfoord, thanks to the knowledge and know-how of their well-trained staff, but a deeper understanding of how a brand works is also important, as Andy de Sallis, Sales and Marketing Director for Julius Rutherfoord, explains.

“Hi-tech, highly creative environments such as the Mind Candy offices need cleaning regimes that intuitively know how they work. For example, their offices have huge expanses of white walling – called ‘scrum walls’ – that are used by software companies to project manage software and product development. As a consequence, they are covered in coloured sticky notes, each of which details a task to be completed within a given timescale. Our staff know only to clean these areas when the client tells us it’s safe to do so – thus guarding against the loss of some key piece of coding or the next big product idea!”

Henry mutates into a Moshi!

The ability to ‘get under the skin’ of the brand was, de Sallis believes, one of the reasons that Julius Rutherfoord won the contract. As part of the tender, they re-branded a Henry Hoover as the Moshi Monster character Diavlo – an idea that instantly struck a chord with Mind Candy’s management team. The scuff-proof graphics on all the hoovers make them a perfect fit for the surroundings, but also deliver fantastic cleaning results for all the flooring surfaces.

Another Julius Rutherfoord innovation – mobile phone and tablet cleaning wipes – also made an impression. Research has shown mobile phones can harbour potentially harmful bacteria and germs, so Julius Rutherfoord offers cleaning wipes, specially developed to sanitise mobile devices, as a way for technology companies to keep their tech clean.

These ingenious elements undoubtedly helped Julius Rutherfoord to stand out from its competitors, but the quality of its service was the major factor in winning the contract.

“Julius Rutherfoord offer a ‘gold standard’ service, which delivers great results for our clients,” concludes Andy de Sallis. “We pay more than the basic wage which increases staff loyalty, allowing us to make a long-term commitment to training and developing our employees, and to retain their skills and knowledge for the benefit of our clients. Our stringent security vetting procedures also set us apart. We use a unique four-step process to verify documents and identify individuals, and work closely with the UK Border Agency and other organisations to give clients total peace of mind.

“Winning the Mind Candy contract is a fantastic development for us. Moshi Monsters is a leading brand in the world of interactive entertainment, and a great way for Julius Rutherfoord to showcase our capabilities in the technology sector.”

Divinia Knowles, COO/CFO of Mind Candy, said: “Julius Rutherfoord really understood our brand and culture, offering a level of added value and innovation that set them apart from other cleaning companies, making them a perfect partner for Mind Candy.”

For more information on Julius Rutherfoord’s services call 020 7819 6700,

email sales@julius-r.co.uk or visit www.julius-r.co.uk