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In Conversation with... IC&G
Golden Moments
Left: There are high hopes for the new Christmas range, which include many double captions. Below: It was definitely a ‘golden moment’ when it was announced that IC&G had won the Gold Best Service to the Independent Retailer award for the second year running. Simon (holding the trophy) went on stage with his brother and co-md Ian (far right), joined by their father Clive (next to Simon), Ian’s wife Claire (far left) and other members of the family company Below left: IC&G is broadening its portfolio to incorporate more contemporary designs. Bottom: Having fared well with its flower months range, IC&G has launched a ‘year you were born’ range, the tri-fold cards incorporate facts and trivia about the year featured.
Hard to believe that it is only six years since IC&G came into the mainstream greeting card world and, testified by its recent win at The Henries, where it was awarded the Gold trophy for Best Service to the Independent Retailer for the second year in succession, its impressive upward trajectory continues. PG popped in to see Simon Wagstaff, who together with his brother Ian, runs the Dorsetbased publisher to find out what’s on the cards for the coming year. Uber did it to black cabs, Airbnb did it to hotels - they disrupted the market with an alternative to the norm, which had the customer at heart. To some extent IC&G has done the same in the traditional greeting card scene, coming in from the left flank and trouncing more established players. And winning the ‘Gold’ Best Service to the Independent Retailer award at The Henries, for the second year in succession at the event in October, shows that it is not losing its lustre. IC&G has not upset the status quo by offering a radically different new product. In many ways, especially when the company was starting out, the designs it proffered were not as sophisticated as those already in the market. Yet the team listened hard, learned fast and delivered even quicker. And where it has really scored, day by day, month by month, year by year is in its steadfast customer service to independents. Any indie ordering by 3pm have come to know that, exceptions aside, they will receive their stock the very next day. 36
PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
Moreover, requests retailers make to any of the publisher’s long serving agents for specific captions are not only fed back to IC&G HQ, but more often than not will make their way into the line. By going against the industry norm, in that it has always printed virtually all of its cards in-house, IC&G has been able to respond to requests for double captions (eg Grand-daughter on her 3rd birthday) that would just not be economical or practical for many other publishers to be able to offer. However, rather than being cock-ahoop over The Henries win, Simon Wagstaff, who shares the managing director role with his brother Ian, said it was an “overwhelming feeling of relief” rather than sheer jubilation when it was announced that IC&G had triumphed in the coveted Best Service award. “Nothing is guaranteed. We were up against companies that are far larger and more experienced
than us,” says Simon, with a humility that he and Ian inherited from their parents Clive and Glynn and the Christian beliefs they all share and upon which the company is run. (The company still publishes pocket bibles and is involved in many charity initiatives). The win does however reinforce the pattern of growth the company has enjoyed pretty much since the day it entered the sector, redirecting their skills from publishing bibles and products for the Christian market to the secular. In the first year of trading, IC&G came 5th in the poll for Best Service, the next year it was ranked 4th, then 3rd, then 2nd, before reaching the pinnacle of first place in the whole industry in the 2016 Henries. “ We were very fortunate that we were able to secure some really good agents to represent us right at the start. And then, a year in, we joined the Cardgains buying group, which was another important step in our growth,” says Simon looking back. “Independents have