22-23_Cardsharp.qxp_Layout 1 08/04/2024 18:19 Page 2
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Clintons Is Visible at Last Cardsharp joined many in the greeting card community to breathe a huge sense of relief when the news hit that Paul and James Taylor of Cardzone had finally clinched a deal to acquire the rump of Clintons’ stores last month. PG’s columnist ponders on the integration process ahead for this leading specialist multiple and looks back at Clintons’ past glories. At the time of writing Cardsharp had scant details of what was involved financially, but it would appear all 163 Clintons’ stores were acquired as a going concern. That a deal that has been in gestation for years was one of the worst kept secrets in the greeting card trade, but its culmination came as a welcome relief, and there were no adverse views, in fact quite the opposite, especially given what might have been the scenario. Some in the trade had worried that Clintons might go into administration again, leaving a trail of debt behind, although having said that, right up until the sale deal was finalised Clintons had been more than prompt in paying its suppliers.
22 PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
Cardsharp wonders why the deal took so long to be completed. The Weiss family, Clintons’ former owners, on the surface seem to have had little interest in the business and under its management of the last ten years, Clintons seemed to operate under a degree of opaqueness that made MI5 headquarters look like a school fete! The story of Clintons’ rise and its long slow demise has been documented on many occasions by Cardsharp. There were of course the glory
Above: There was a general sense of relief when Clintons passed into the ownership of the Taylors. Below left: Cardzone directors, father and son duo Paul and James Taylor. Below right: Cardzone’s acquisition of the Northampton-based Mooch gift group adds to its retail options for Clintons’ stores.
days when the PLC was headed up by founder Don Lewin, when its 1,000+ stores bestrode the greeting card industry like a colossus, and Clintons was effectively a generic term for a card shop. However conversely it has undergone various business failures and rationalisations to arrive at the 163 store rump that PIllarbox Designs, the parent company of Cardzone, has now acquired. The acquisition makes Cardzone a real force to be reckoned with as “the only quality chain of major greeting card shops in the UK,” a phrase coined by Paul T. With the Clintons addition, its own stores plus its Mooch gift shops and its joint venture with Mark and Leona Janson-Smith on the Postmark brand - Paul and James are heading up a huge force in UK greeting card retailing, with the acquisition taking the store portfolio to around 360 stores. This is all highly impressive, especially as it doesn’t seem that long ago that Paul had just one store. It has been some journey and one he has travelled unfaultingly displaying a huge amount of integrity and humanity, not to mention a highly apparent love of the greeting card industry and many of the characters within it. How Clintons will be integrated into this