p154-157 Santoro.qxp_NEW LSB 2008 GRID 20/09/2018 18:35 Page 154
WINNING WAYS: SANTORO
Inset: Gorjuss pyjamas from Benetton. Below right: 273 miles of Gorjuss fabric have been sold to date from licensee Cranston. Below: Poppi Loves is the new brand on the block from Santoro.
Queen and country As a brand that literally started from a germ of an idea back in 1983 (and a £4,000 bank loan), Santoro this year scooped the Queen’s Enterprise Award. LSB discovers what this accolade means for the creative company and whether the ceremony went by in a whirlwind of pride.
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LICENSING SOURCE BOOK EUROPE 2018
“I spotted a range of Hollywood postcard printing samples at a printing company in Milan that my partner Lucio was working with,” begins Meera Santoro, co-founder and creative director, explaining the inception of Santoro. “Being a huge fan of such memorabilia, I had a feeling that there was a niche market for them. When orders started coming in around the £100 to £400 mark I had to issue invoices, so I headed them with ‘Santoro Graphics’, because it was the first name that popped into my head.” From this hobbyist starting point, Meera then began approaching some big film companies for the rights to use their images to develop a greeting card collection. “A deal was agreed with Fox, who then sent me a box of 500 film stills for me ‘to play with’,” she recalls.