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Spotlight On... Spring/Easter
Leaping Into
Spring With Valentine’s and Mother’s Day done and dusted in February and March respectively, the arrival of Easter in mid-April, and the Spring season in general, affords gift retailers an exciting opportunity to renew and refresh both products and displays. With Easter eggs and chocolate bunnies already enticingly on the shelves in many of the major supermarkets, gift companies have wasted no time in bringing out ranges that reflect the season. There’s something very special about the arrival of Spring. The fabled ‘green shoots’ and signs of renewal signal the shaking off of a long winter, with the days getting longer and the weather milder and brighter, evoking an overall desire for a fresh new approach to the coming season. At Wrendale Designs, founder and creative supremo Hannah Dale says the company is excited to be launching several brand new giftware products this Spring, to include a range of compact mirrors featuring nine of Hannah’s best-loved designs. “The pastel colours of the collection are ideal for Spring/Easter and make an excellent gift idea,” she highlights. Other new products from the company include illustrated watches, with designs that include a hedgehog and bee, as well as Wrendale’s best-selling hare. Adds Hannah: “Keepsake gift tins make a great alternative to gifting chocolate at Easter, with our flower jugs, herb pots and a seed tin well timed for a bit of Spring gardening. Additionally, we’ve released new designs to add to our range of clocks, glasses cases and scarves.” As Gisela Graham’s sales director Piers Croke points out: “Easter goes on growing as a second season for gift shops, and at Gisela Graham we have again seen good growth
Above: Gisela Graham’s Natural Easter collection. Left: Madame Treacle eggs from Elite Tins. Below: Two of Dunoon’s colourful Cairngorm Whoops! mugs . Below left: A brand new Wrendale Designs compact mirror.
this year. It’s a terrific opportunity for display - a mini - relaunch heralding Spring - with our myriad of display items including faux flowers, hay bales and wood cut-out display pieces, with egg-hunt accessories another very good display concept.” For Easter impulse and home gifts, the company is offering five co-ordinated themed ranges in 2020: country style, pretty pastels, vintage and a bright and buzzy bees range. “It’s been our surprise ‘star’,” adds Piers. At Elite Tins, owner James Brierly confirms that all of the company’s Easter ranges are new this year. “Chocolate filled tin eggs are a staple and best-selling line for us, with 2020 seeing five new products that develop on past designs, retaining the traditional warmth of gifting while ticking both newness and on trend boxes. These include Emma
Bridgewater designs on medium and small tin eggs, and we are also introducing Madame Treacle, a blend of paper collaged vintage images.” “We are aware that Easter is a growing market,” comments Lesser & Pavey’s managing director Julian Hunt. “And while we don’t offer any specific Easter products we do have many items which are highly suitable for Easter and Spring sales, such as our Busy Bees and Lavender ranges, plus our new Cockerel & Hen range. Other products, such as our Bright Eyes brightly painted planters and animals, as well as our highly collectable Reflctions bronzed hares, suit this market extremely well.” Meanwhile, using bold splashes of colour to reflect the Spring season,
Dunoon, is continuing to introduce mugs with bright spots, splashes and dots. “For Spring 2020 we will be continuing this theme with the introduction of Cairngorm Whoops!, a set of three fine bone china mugs, made in England,” comments sales director Peter Smith. From a gift retailer’s perspective, with a long gap between Easter (April 10 - April 13) and Father's Day (June 21), Easter is clearly a Spring occasion to make the most of. Progressive Gifts & Home Worldwide
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