Progressive Greetings December 2018

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WE COULDN’T DO IT WITHOUT YOU!

Merry Christmas

from all of us at

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winner 2018

Best service c to the independent retailer

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Leader

On The Cards As PG went to press (November 22) the final Christmas frenzy had yet to start, but from what I can gather we were only days away from lots of very happy waggy tails and purrs of contentment.

Advent calendars for cats and dogs have been around for years, but it does seem as though their take up has reached new heights this year. Mark Janson-Smith, managing director of Postmark, revealed its stock of Battersea Dog and Cats Home Advents for pets from Woodmansterne sold out in two weeks and House of Cards’ Miles Robinson also highlights it as one of the Home Counties’ biggest Advent sellers this year too.

You only had to go by the ‘nods of agreement’ from those at the recent GCA AGM and Conference when Moonpig revealed that searches for pet-related cards had gone through the roof - up 194% over the last year - to see that many of us have elevated our furry (and feathered) companions into our family circle - if there are greeting card and Advent calendar sales to be had as a result, all the better!

My PG colleague Gale went to Rose Hill Designs’ Make My Pet Famous event where doggy ‘parents’ were lapping up the opportunity to have their pet’s ‘pawtrait’ taken and made into art.

Meanwhile, I had the good fortune to see the canine and greeting card combo in action recently when I went to visit the delightful Jo Sorrell, owner of Retas-award winning store, Cardies, in Stevenage (see pages 47-49). I discovered how her ‘Ponks’ (aka her pack of Labradors) are earning their keep as ‘meeters and greeters’ at the shop as well as ‘models’ on their own Tracks cards. Now there is a lady who is barking up the right tree!

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Above: The Ponks, Jo Sorrell and PG’s Jakki Brown in Cardies in Stevenage.

Right: Hallmark UK’s incumbent managing director Amanda Del Prete with PG’s Warren Lomax and Jakki Brown in the publisher’s Bradford HQ. Below: PG’s Gale Astley with Rose Hill at her Make My Pet Famous event.

Moving on to ‘felines’ close to my heart, after what has been a ‘purr-fect’ match for 20 years, the lovely Sharon Little, ceo of the GCA, with whom I have shared an office for the last two decades, is days away from heading off on her globetrotting adventure (see page 23). What Sharon has done for the GCA during her time in the hot seat is amazing, leaving it in very good shape for Amanda Fergusson, who I am delighted to say is taking up the role and will have to get used to Warren’s terrible office jokes (well, they say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks!)

PS. Thanks to everyone who was in the ‘secret squirrel club’ about PG Live January 2020. The response we have had from retailers and publishers to this second show has been wonderful.

(See pages 12-13).

Merry Christmas to you and your two and four legged friends!

THE HOME OF MARKET LEADING TRADE AWARDS

Max Publishing Ltd, United House, North Road, London N7 9DP Tel: 020 7700 6740 Fax: 020 7607 6411 www.progressivegreetings.co.uk PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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curious world a new range of contemporary cards designed by

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Contents

What’s Inside?

With This Issue: FOCUS ON KIDS’ CARDS

43

31

9-23

43-45

News

Face To Face

Hallmark’s First Lady 24-25 Cardsharp

Hold Onto Your Hats!

Cardsharp muses over topical events happening in the industry.

PG meets up with Amanda Del Prete, the new managing director to head up Hallmark UK.

56-57

What’s Hot? 58-70

47-49

Classified

Retailer Focus

Barking Up The Right Tree

27-31 Viewpoints

Festive Feelings Retailers share how Christmas sales are faring for 2018?

As community focused, Stevenage-based Cardies celebrates its 30th anniversary, owner Jo Sorrell reflects on her retail journey and her love of Labradors.

71

Appointments

50-51

32-33

Jeremy’s Journal

Point Of View

Brexit’s Impact On The Cards?

Sherwood Group’s ceo Jeremy Bacon draws on his wealth of industry experience to predict some possible ramifications of Brexit.

Step By Step Jeremy Corner of publisher Blue Eyed Sun looks back on The Ladder Club, an event to help new card publishers avoid mistakes.

53-55

Art Source

35-41

Innovations

Top: A new Quentin Blake design from Woodmansterne.

Above: A beautiful starfish created by Lily Brook, daughter of Marina Brook of publisher Marina B.

Progressive Greetings is a monthly business magazine.

SUBSCRIPTIONS:

UK subscription: One year £50 Two year £85 Three year £110 Overseas subscription: One year £75 Jakki Brown

Warren Lomax

Gale Astley

Michelle Board

Editor

Advertisement Director

Deputy Editor

News Editor

jw@max-publishing.co.uk

warren@max-publishing.co.uk

galea@max-publishing.co.uk

michelleb@max-publishing.co.uk

Copyright© 2018. While every effort has been made to ensure the information in this magazine was correct at the time of publication, the publishers cannot accept legal liability for any errors or omissions, nor can they accept responsibility for the standing of advertisers nor any organisation mentioned in the text. Views of contributors do not necessarily reflect those of the publishers.

SUBSCRIPTIONS ENQUIRES: maxsubscriptions@marketingreinforcements.co.uk Tel: 020 8943 9541

Use your smartphone app to scan the QR code to visit our website.

PG is the official magazine for the Greeting Card Association GCA: Sharon Little 0203 370 4865 Email: gca@max-publishing.co.uk www.greetingcardassociation.org.uk PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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EX IC A N A

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NEWS TOP STORY

Hallmark on the road

Hallmark’s Royal Albert Hall Debut Exhibition marks 175th anniversary of Sir Henry Cole Christmas card Hallmark is marking the 175th anniversary since Sir Henry Cole introduced the first Christmas card with a major greeting card exhibition in the Royal Albert Hall, which is running from now until early January.

In addition to introducing the first ever commercial Christmas card, back in 1843, Sir Henry Cole was also a founder of the Royal Albert Hall.

The exhibition illustrates how Christmas card designs have reflected societal trends and aesthetic tastes over time. In addition to including some original cards from the 1800s from Hallmark’s archives in feature display areas, 26 huge canvases adorn the main corridor of the Albert Hall which wraps around the perimeter of the auditorium, each of which is focused on a decade between 1910 (when Hallmark started) and the current day, outlining how Hallmark designs were inspired and influenced by the various art movements.

Commenting on the exhibition, Amanda Del Prete, Hallmark’s creative and product director said: “Our partnership

with the iconic Royal Albert Hall is a great celebration to mark the 175th anniversary of the very first commercial Christmas card, by Sir Henry Cole. Our exhibition shows the history of Hallmark cards, from 1910 to today and celebrates the evolution of cards over the last 108 years.

We are proud to celebrate our Hallmark heritage and share with the public our creative talent in this wonderful snapshot of how trends and culture have changed over the decades.”

Hallmark has also created a bespoke Christmas card featuring the Royal Albert Hall, which is available to purchase exclusively in the shop at the Hall, with all proceeds going to the Royal Albert Hall charity.

Above: The bespoke Christmas card featuring the Royal Albert Hall that Hallmark has developed and is being sold by the Hall to raise funds for its charitable causes.

Left: The exhibition canvases look at the decades from 1910 when Hallmark was founded.

Paucity of agents issue In his enlightening talk at the recent Ladder Club, Ged Mace, managing director of The Art File highlighted one of the UK greeting card industry challenges, common to both newbie and established publishers, is that the demand for sales agents outstrips the existing agent base.

A longtime fan of agents, “We owe so much to our agents, I really believe they are the very best in this industry,” stressed Ged, paying tribute to his loyal salesforce. “I do however have a concern over the future of agents. We have had a very stable team of agents, but one of our agents has just retired while another Above: Ged Mace, md of The Art File giving his impromptu acceptance speech at The Henries is due to retire. I received these two phone calls within two 2018 at which he was presented with the weeks of each other,” Ged told the audience to illustrate the Honorary Achievement Award. point. “It is concerning that there are fewer agents coming through the system, despite the fact that card sending is still strong,” Ged added.

The Art File’s reaction to the recent news from two agents is that it is now investigating appointing a full time sales rep to cover the North-West area that Robin Hill covered (the agent who has recently retired after 28 years in the industry).

Ged however, was keen to stress that this is not the start of The Art File’s wholesale move to reps. “We have no intention of stopping working with our agents, why would we, they are the best in this business!” he reinforced.

Hallmark is thinking big about its annual January Roadshow programme. “We are doing more large shows than in previous years,” confirms Amy Banks, Hallmark’s trade events and marketing manager about the 12 locations in the UK and Ireland it has selected to showcase its 2019 Christmas collection and other products.

Kicking-off on January 9 (in Aberdeen), the ‘tour’ extends to January 23 with a finale in Dublin.

Other cities hosting the roadshow include Edinburgh, Newcastle, Bradford, Birmingham, Manchester, Exeter, Watford, Norwich, Belfast and Cork.

The theme of this year’s Roadshow is The Magic of Christmas for All. Alongside the Christmas collection, Hallmark will also be launching its new range of everyday gift presentation, the third phase of its Hallmark Studio range as well as an extended licensed product offer.

Below: The theme of Hallmark’s January Roadshow is The Magic of Christmas for All.

The Works shows 3.8% increase like-for-like Card Factory founder, Dean Hoyle, who is now chairman, shareholder and non-executive director of The Works, is building up to a good Christmas with the value retailer.

The multi-channel retailer delivered an impressive trading update, the first since its successful flotation on the London Stock Exchange. Its sales grew 15% year on year for the six months to 28 October and the all important like-for-like sales were up 3.8%.

While its broad base of products means that greeting cards are not a main focus of The Works, since Dean’s involvement (in 2015), not surprisingly there has been a noticeable improvement in the retailer’s card offering.

Below: The Works has upped its game on the greeting card front.

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“Personally, for me this will take a lot of stress out of going to bigger shows trying to cover cards and gifts in huge halls in a limited amount of time. PG LIVE January 2020 will cover my Christmas ordering and exciting new editions to Spring in one so enjoyable hit!”

Andrea Pinder owner of Unit 7 and Presentation

Buyers, publishers and distributors enthuse about the new early January 2020 PG LIVE focusing purely on

CARDS, WRAP & CALENDARS The success of the JUNE PG LIVE, the only dedicated greeting trade show in the world, which celebrated its 10th anniversary this June, has in the last few years, led to numerous requests from buyers, overseas distributors and publishers, for a second PG LIVE show, to take place at the very beginning of the year, just when retailers have empty shelves that they are keen to fill. And on hearing the news announced last month about PG LIVE JANUARY 2020, many have got very excited, as you can see!

It’s not just the delicious free hot lunch, free hot drinks and fab post show party that makes PG LIVE shows so popular with buyers, but also the array of publishers’ stands and new products.

“I’m really excited that a second PG LIVE will be launching in January 2020. It’s great timing for looking at new launches and speaking to publishers in the post-Christmas peak. We plan our Christmas cards in March and this will be a super opportunity to explore newness in the category before our key planning days take place.”

Lisa Rutherford partner and buyer of stationery and seasonal events for John Lewis & Partners

“a second PG LIVE show comprising cards, wrap and calendars provides buyers with a fantastic opportunity to catch up with suppliers. From a personal perspective, it couldn’t be a more effective as it will effectively be a one-stop shop for my three product areas!”

Claire Quinn buyer at Waterstones

PG LIVE JANUARY 2020

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“Such exciting news!

I can’t think of a better way to start the new year, especially as it will coincide perfectly with the timing of our buying for the new season.”

Hazel Walker senior buyer of cards and wrap for Paperchase

“What a great time to start the new year with a fab greeting card, wrap and calendar show in London. It will be great to see the best of the new ranges just at the right time!”

Paul Taylor owner of Card Zone and Paper Kisses

“Having a second PG LIVE in January is perfect timing for our single Christmas card selections. It is much easier to review the ranges on display in two days and have so many publishers all together.”

Claire Castle senior buyer of greeting cards for WHSmith

“What great news to hear of a PG LIVE trade show so soon after Christmas, when the minds are fresh and raring to go. nothing beats filling the shelves after Christmas with fresh new products and giving your lovely customers an exciting new offering. We will be there for every minute of the PG LIVE JANUARY 2020 duration!”

Mark Janson-Smith managing director of Postmark

a VIEW FrOM OVErSEaS...

“I am so excited about the second PGLIVE JANUARY 2020 and have already marked it on my calendar.

I feel this show will give me a jump start into both new publishers, as well as seeing all the new products from my existing trading partners.”

Alan Harnick owner of Notes and Queries (leading US distributor of UK greeting cards)

anD THE EXHIBITOrS...

Scores of publishers have already booked their stands for PGLIVE January 2020, including top names like The Art File, Danilo (with two stands!), Pigment, Paper Salad, Wendy Jones-Blackett, Brown Trout, Flame Tree, Teneues, rush Designs and many more.

“We at Danilo are delighted to support the event! PG LIVE in June has become our most successful trade show over the past few years, and this new event is ideal timing to showcase our calendar and diary ranges alongside our greeting cards” Daniel Prince managing director of Danilo

“We’ve been looking for suitable January show for ages. We love PG LIVE in June and until now, it is the only trade show at which we exhibit. So marrying that successful formula at a time of year when so many of major refreshes are happening is going to be brilliant.”

a

Wendy Jones-Blackett joint owner of Wendy Jones-Blackett

“PG Live June is by far our best and most enjoyable trade exhibition of the year, and we are so excited about PG LIVE January 2020 so much so, that we have nearly doubled the size of our stand for what should be a blockbuster!”

Claire Williams and Karen Wilson joint owners of Paper Salad

PG LIVE JANUARY 2020 is another exciting celebration of the greeting card industry. Please get in touch now to be part of the exciting first event!

Call: +44 (0) 1635 297070 or email: warrenl@max-publishing.co.uk @PGLiveLondon www.progressivegreetingslive.com

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CHERRY ORCHARD Would like to wish all our customers a very

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Look out for your Prize Raffle Ticket in your Memory Lane 2019 orders this December Winning Tickets to be drawn at Spring Fair

PRIZE DRAW 1st £500 2nd £250 3rd £150 4th £100

CHRISTMAS 2019

Call Customer Services Tel: 01684 295500 Email: info@cherryorchardpublishing.co.uk www.cherryorchardpublishing.co.uk Follow us on Twitter @CherryOrchardP Facebook: Cherry Orchard Publishing 14_PG_December 2018.indd 1

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NEWS TOP STORY

David Robertson A High Street Hero PG columnist wins top retail award, plus meets The Boss PG’s regular columnist David Robertson, md of Scottish independent card and gift shop business JP Pozzi/Bijou, has been proclaimed the official High Street Hero of Scotland in the Great British High Street Awards, run by the Daily Mirror and Visa.

“David helped his parents turn their newsagent’s into a gift shop,” explained the Mirror newspaper in coverage of the award. “Then nine years ago, he and his mum bought a former nightclub and converted it into a shop, café and beauty salon. He also helped to set up the local Business Improvement District - BID which transformed a street in Elgin where half the shops stood empty in 2008.”

Wendy Jones-Blackett at Widdop Show

was very happy to pose for a selfie with the plucky Scot.

For David though, after all these heady happenings, it was “meeting Boss that tops it all!”, referring to his one-to-one with Bruce Springsteen following a concert in the Big Apple.

And it was the photo of David with Jamie Redknapp that trounced the image of him with his hard earned trophy, according to ‘likes’ on his social media channels.

“I had 306 likes for the Jamie photo and 281 for the trophy!”, exclaims David.

While David says he feels honored to have received the High Street Hero award, he feels it should be extended to the other members of the BID team and his parents. “In truth, my success is really down to the drive and ambition that I see in my parents. It was my mum who said to me before the BID was even formed that I should get involved and without them this award or any of the recognition I have ever had would not be possible.”

But this is not the only excitement for David recently. Just prior to the lavish awards event, he had taken a rare holiday (to New York) during which he met his own personal superhero Bruce Springsteen - and then just after leaving the awards ceremony (held in Lancaster House in London’s St James’s), bumped into footballing celeb Jamie Redknapp who

Above: David with The Boss!

Above left: David Robertson has long championed improving business in Elgin.

Woodie’s high brow and low brow There has been some impressive ‘high brow’ and ‘low brow’ charity action going on at Woodmansterne.

The Watford-based publisher - which has raised £3 million for charity through the sale of its charity Christmas cards over the years - has officially opened its Woodmansterne Art Conservation Awards 2018.

This special charity initiative, which has been running for 23 years, is now inviting submissions from art galleries, museums and heritage sites looking for much needed funds to conserve their works of art, as well as encouraging post graduate conservation students to apply for bursaries to fund their important work.

Meanwhile, from fine art to the follicles, a trio of the Woodmansterne team have embraced the Mo-vember charity challenge to raise funds to help men's physical and mental health issues - notably prostate cancer, testicular cancer, mental health and suicide prevention.

While managing director Paul Woodmansterne and creative director Lee Keeper are growing rather dashing moustaches as part of their fundraising activities, senior greeting card designer Helen Dennis, their ‘Mo Sista’ is running 60km during the month.

“That’s 60 kilometres for the 60 men lost to suicide each hour, every hour,” Helen told PG. Left: Three Woodie Mo-uskateers (left-right) Lee Keeper, Helen Dennis and Paul Woodmansterne.

Greeting card publishers Wendy JonesBlackett and Carte Blanche Greetings are participating with Widdop and Co by showcasing their new 2019 collections alongside the major gift company’s offering at its annual January Show, which takes place at its Manchester showrooms.

Always attracting a high retail attendance, keen to see the company’s start of the year launches, Widdop and Co is hosting its annual January Show from January 2-23, with Wendy Jones-Blackett and Carte Blanche Greetings showcasing their respective new 2019 collections during the week beginning Monday January 7, for one week only.

A key attraction of Wendy JonesBlackett participating in the show is that it coincides with a major launch of Quicksilver mugs, being produced under licence by Widdop and Co.

“I am a firm believer in working in collaboration with companies who specialise in their specific gift areas rather than trying to do it ourselves,” Wendy Jones-Blackett commented. “We’ve also got around 300 new card designs coming out between now and Christmas, so the timing of a show which attracts independent gift shops is just perfect,” she added.

It was a licensing link-up that also prompted Carte Blanche to recognise the potential of participating with the Widdop and Co January Show. “Following our successful licensing collaboration with Widdop on our Hotchpotch brand, we're thrilled to be exhibiting at the Widdop show this year with our wider range of products and brands,” said Grace Elphinstone, marketing manager of Carte Blanche Greetings. “Very simply it’s a chance for us to connect with our independent customers based in the north.”

Top: The Wendy Jones-Blackett Quicksilver mugs and cards.

Above: Carte Blanche is inviting retailers to the Widdop and Co show.

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NEWS Inaugural Indie Week

TOP STORY

“The Key Is Cards”

Below: The title of Paperchase’s Timothy Melgund’s Ladder Club talk was The Key Is Cards.

Paperchase is on course to sell over 20 million cards this year “Without card publishers like you, we are nothing,” Timothy Melgund, deputy chairman of Paperchase told delegates at The Ladder Club Day 2 seminar, which took place recently in Westcliff-on-Sea. With a presentation title of ‘The Key Is Cards’, Timothy reinforced the importance of greeting cards to the Paperchase business and to human beings.

“If you ask anyone, they are likely to say that greeting cards are expensive, but they also rate very highly on being seen as great value for money. There are not a lot of products out there that are seen as expensive as well as value for money, but that is because they have real value to a consumer’s life.”

Addressing the audience of entrepreneurial publishers, Timothy looked back 22 years when, together with Robert Warden, he acquired Paperchase, which at that time was only trading from nine stores, through an MBO. “We thought that we would only be able to grow it to 25 stores - now look, we have 250!”, he said, amassing the company-owned stores, the concessions in other retailers (such as Selfridges and Next), international stores and the growing franchised operation in the Middle East (with four more stores in the pipeline there).

As he stressed, that while Paperchase now sells a wide variety of products, greeting cards remain the key traffic driver in all its stores. They account for 30% of its sales overall, but that percentage rises to 40% in its train station stores.

Firm in his belief that greeting cards are still incredibly important in the human psyche, Timothy revealed: “We are selling more cards than ever before, despite the fact that footfall in the high street continues to fall.”

Praising the UK publishing fraternity as a whole, Timothy said, “The UK has an extraordinary base of incredibly creative publishers - who are 15 years ahead on design of anywhere else in the world. This is a fantastic business to be in that is all about imagination and emotion.”

Above: Timothy Melgund, deputy chairman of Paperchase with PG’s Jakki Brown at The Ladder Club.

Speaking out at The Ladder Club The Cliffs Pavilion in Westcliff-on-Sea is renowned for attracting a surprisingly good line-up of performers - but The Ladder Club seminars, which took place at the venue, recently trounced this.

Attendees of the two one day seminars were treated to presentations from Timothy Melgund, deputy chairman of Paperchase; Andy Pearce, ceo of Thortful; Mark Janson-Smith, md of Postmark; Ged Mace, md of The Art File; Megan Purdie, md of Megan Claire; Andy Paterson, sales director of Woodmansterne; Jeremy Corner, md of Blue Eyed Sun; Midlands agent Ian Bradley, as well as information galore from The Imaging Centre’s business development manager Julie Brightley; GF Smith’s greetings consultant Mark Jessett; the GCA’s Sharon Little as well as PG’s Warren Lomax, Tracey Arnaud and Gale Astley.

“When Lynn [Tait, now sadly no longer with us] and I first had the idea for The Ladder Club over 20 years ago, to help would-be and newbie publishers get on the ‘first rung’ of the greeting card ‘ladder’ there is no way either of us ever envisaged it growing in the way it has,” commented Jakki Brown, joint managing director of PG. “The support from great people willing to selflessly share their knowledge, as well as the ongoing commitment from suppliers and the GCA, has enabled The Ladder Club to help many hundreds of greeting card publishers.”

“Why have black when you could have Technicolour?!” exclaimed the ebullient Sarah Hamilton, founder of the Just A Card campaign which recently launched its first Indie Week (November 19-23). “It was great to work together to celebrate small businesses in the run up to Christmas - and remind everyone to shop independent this year,” said Sarah of the recent initiative.

Part of the activity was a ‘5 day Instagram Challenge’, which encouraged a different task for social media activity every day during the week to promote independent retailers, makers and creators.

With Just A Card window vinyls already on display in 3,000 independent stores and galleries (helped by support from the GCA, Cardgains, Top Drawer, as well as individual publishers, including The Art File and Gemma), the campaign looks set to grow further, thanks to backing from the ethical small business lender, Funding Circle. The support not only means that another 7,000 Just A Card window vinyls are now in production, but the costs of these being disseminated to interested indie retailers will be covered.

Designer Sarah Hamilton, who has spearheaded this significant grassroots campaign, is delighted that the extra funds will mean more can be achieved.

“We've worked our socks off on this campaign, because we care passionately about independent shops, small businesses, artists, and designers,” Sarah said. “Our message is making a big difference, but we need to spread the word to the wider public to be truly successful,” elaborates Sarah.

Commenting on its involvement, James Meekings, managing director of Funding Circle, explained the company “was born from the belief that when small businesses succeed, everyone benefits.”

Above: Just A Card’s Indie Week kicked-off last month to promote sales in independent shops for Christmas.

Right: Over 80 people attended The Ladder Club Day One seminar.

Left: Woodmansterne’s sales director Andy Paterson (who gave a talk on brokerage) with (right) Julie Ashworth of Yoojoo and Rhian Ap Gruffydd of Gruff Pawtraits.

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NEWS TOP STORY

Pooch pop art show

UK Greetings Reshapes Card publisher consults over restructure UK Greetings is instigating a company restructure, in order to ensure the business remains in line with customer needs and expectations.

“The goal of our proposed structure is to reset and build a sustainable business that is fit for the future, delivering maintainable sales and contribution margins,” James Conn, ceo of UK Greetings told PG. The publisher is now in consultation with UKG’s employees, all of whom have been informed of the planned changes, which is expected to be finalised by the end of February 2019.

The proposed structural change, which is likely to have ramifications across all departments, has come about as a result of a review of the current size of the business, the number of products it creates and the services it provides.

Above: UKG ceo James Conn.

“As a result, we are proposing a significant change to our business structure, redesigning, resizing and reshaping many areas of the business,” confirmed James.

Meera Santoro is magazine Darling Meera Santoro, the co-founder of Santoro, has not only been hailed as ‘Wimbledon’s secret powerhouse’ in a two page article in the Darling glossy magazine, but also featured as its front cover model.

In what Meera hopes will provide inspiration for other young entrepreneurial women, the article details how, together with her husband Lucio, back in 1985 they took what was a modest collection of fun art and have turned it into what has become a global sensation through its brands and products.

In the article Meera pays tribute to her father for making her think that everything is possible.

Newly arrived in the UK from her native South Africa, aged six, Meera clearly remembers her dad driving the family into London ‘to have tea with the Queen - only if she’s in.’

She may have had to wait a few years, but Meera Above: Meera Santoro on the front was recently invited to Buckingham Palace, not just for tea, but to cover of the Darling magazine. be presented with a Queen’s Award for Enterprise for International Trade, notably for the global expansion of the licensed activity of its Gorjuss brand, among others.

The article also covered some of the worthwhile charity causes which Meera actively supports, including the KwaZulu-Natal Children’s Hospital in Durban in South Africa, which is in the epicentre of the HIV epidemic globally.

Reflecting, Meera told the magazine’s journalist: “We live in time of such uncertainty”, saying that she feels privileged that her professional success means she is in an opportunity “to give back… it’s a wonderful feeling.” l Santoro has recently established an Italian subsidiary. Santoro Italia is based in Milan as a sales, warehouse and distribution centre for the Italian market.

Enveco has the Poppy Appeal licked Specialist envelope company, Enveco, ran a charity campaign for the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal throughout November. For every 1,000 Poppy Red envelopes sold (in any of its six stock sizes) the company donated £1.

Right: A poppy emblem made out of Enveco envelopes.

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Top dogs and their proud owners crowded the pop art panelled room last month when Rose Hill Designs teamed up with the Old Diorama Arts Centre in London for the second Make Your Pet Famous pop-up event. As well as showcasing graphic artist and card publisher Rose Hill’s new pop art geometric style and new murals, a professional photographer was on hand to capture the pooch guests’ characters, with a complimentary ‘on set’ photoshoot a perfect ‘lead’ in for owners to commission Rose Hill Designs to create their own made-to-order pet portrait.

“I couldn't have asked for a better #Makeyourpetfamous event! Everyone literally had a wonderful time. There were the best looking dogs I have ever seen and all were so well behaved! Drinks were flowing, dogs posing and everyone smiling, laughing and making friends.”

Above: One happy customer and her canine chum at Rose Hill’s #Makeyourpetfamous event.

GBCC’s Greenfingered charity recognition The Great British Card Company (GBCC) has been presented with an Outstanding Support award by the Greenfingers Charity in recognition of the publisher’s commitment and donations made to the cause through the sales of its Floreo photographic greeting card range.

Chris Wilcox, managing director of GBCC, and national accounts manager Michael McGunnigle, attended the Greenfingers Charity Thanksgiving Dinner in London, attended by leading figures in the horticultural world at which the award was presented from Greenfingers.

This year alone, GBCC has presented the Greenfingers charity with a cheque for £19,102.05 as a result of sales from its photographic Floreo greeting card range. In addition, the 10p that is given to Greenfingers from the sale of each card, another 10p is also given to horticultural charity, Perennial.

Above: GBCC’s Chris Wilcox (right) with colleague Michael McGunnigle and Greenfingers Charity’s Linda Petrons at the charity’s recent event.

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NEWS PEOPLE

TOP STORY

How’s Trade For Indies?

Below: The Welsh town of Crickhowell has been feted as a High Street Hero for indies.

Indies urged to log on to PG and Cardgains’ Annual survey “The inaugural Just A Card Indie Week [November 19-23 November], which serves to prompt consumers to support independent retailers this Christmas, was a wholly appropriate time for us to launch our annual Retail Barometer survey which will shed light on the health and wealth of the independent card retailer,” commented Warren Lomax, joint managing of Max Publishing (which owns and publishes Progressive Greetings).

This annual survey, which drills down into how trade has been over the year for indies, their highlights and lowlights and their boons and banes have been undertaken by Progressive Greetings and buying group Cardgains for the last 13 years - and this year the scope is being further broadened.

Hitherto, the respondents were confined to just Cardgains members, but this year all independent card stockists are being encouraged to take part.

“It is in all our interests to gain as clear an understanding as possible of what life is really like as an independent card retailer so that we can all pull together to do what we can to help overcome the challenges and highlight opportunities,” commented Penny Shaw, Cardgains’ marketing director. “Although we will be disseminating the online survey to our members too, it is in everyone’s interests that as many indies as possible participate, irrespective of whether they are a Cardgains member or not.”

The survey (the submissions to which will remain highly confidential) this year will be online only.

“If you are an independent retailer who stocks greeting cards, please can you take a few minutes of your time to complete the survey - we really have made it as easy as possible!” assures PG’s Warren Lomax.

To participate, tap in this code into your browser www.surveymonkey.co.uk /r/6SHBHQTa or email PG’s Jakki Brown (jakkib@max-publishing.co.uk) for a link.

As an extra incentive there is a gorgeous Fortnum and Mason hamper up for grabs.

The results will be published in the February edition of Progressive Greetings.

Card Factory is approaching Christmas “with confidence” Shortly after addressing the greeting card industry at the GCA AGM and Conference, Karen Hubbard, Card Factory’s ceo, was back facing City analysts, giving assurances of the robustness of the category in the all important run up to Christmas.

A Trading Update covering the nine months to October 31 saw Karen convince the City crowd that card sending is not dead. The update reveals that Card Factory’s sales grew by 3.4% in the first nine months of this year. More telling, it reports a slight improvement (0.1%) in Card Factory’s like-for-like (LFL) sales in its third quarter, citing the improvements it has made to its everyday card ranges as having helped to increase the average spend. In her statement, Karen also revealed that sales from the Card Factory online operation has also seen significant growth, up 71% year on year, albeit from a low base.

“Despite the continuation of challenging high street trading conditions, we delivered positive LFL sales in the third quarter, marking a slight improvement on the LFL performance seen in the first half.

This reflected further growth in average spend and improved performance of our redesigned everyday ranges, in addition to our growing Card Factory online business,” Karen states.

Although Card Factory will not be revealing how Christmas sales stacked up until January 10, Karen is approaching the “Christmas trading period with confidence”.

She revealed at the recent GCA AGM that Card Factory expects to serve 46.3 million customers in the Christmas run up and remains a vital card sending event.

Above: Karen Hubbard, ceo of Card Factory, addressing the audience at the recent GCA AGM and Conference.

Left: Card Factory now accounts for almost a third of all greeting cards sold.

l Next March sees Julie Driscoll take over the helm of Spring and Autumn Fair, becoming the UK regional director for the ITE Group. This follows the announcement that the current managing director Louise Young is leaving the business in January. Julie is currently managing director of the Fashion Portfolio and has been working in the events industry for over ten years.

Top: Julie Driscoll is taking over the helm for Spring and Autumn Fair from March 2019.

Above: Louise Young leaves the business in January.

l Emerald Expositions, which owns New York’s NSS (National Stationery Show), has announced that Aaron Hazard, a 10-year veteran sales executive on the show is taking the helm as sales director for the repositioned event. The show is being co-located as an independent event with the NY NOW Winter Market in February 3-6, 2019. l Kelly Bristol, previously of the NSS has joined the Dallas Market Center as vp/trade show business development. Kelly will be responsible for the strategic planning, merchandising and leasing of the temporary exhibits at the Dallas Total Home & Gift Markets.

Above: Kelly Bristol, formerly of NSS has joined the Dallas Market Center as vp/trade show business development.

Sad loss Well-loved and respected sales agent, Rachel Gibson, has sadly lost her battle against cancer, aged 38.

Rachel joined Expressions (UKG) in 2004 and was crowned Sales Person of the Year in her time there. She also worked for Lagoon, Russ Berrie, K2 Greetings, GBCC, Wishing Well and Words ‘n’ Wishes.

Rachel had suffered from AML (Acute Myeloid Leukaemia) since June 2016 and had undergone chemotherapy, bone marrow transplants and had survived Sepsis, but sadly lost her fight on the 23 October.

Rachel leaves behind two children Alice (aged 7) and Cameron (aged 6), two stepchildren and husband Scott, who is a sales agent in the greeting card industry, covering the South East.

“Rach was loved and respected by her customers,” Scott told PG about his wife. ”She was renowned for being friendly, cheerful and her fun attitude. She always had a smile and customers talk about how they’d laugh and joke when she visited.”

Scott extends his sincere thanks to everyone in the industry “who’ve been incredibly supportive and for all their love and thoughts over the last two and a half years,” during Rachel’s illness.

Above: Sales exec Rachel Gibson has sadly lost her battle with cancer.

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NEWS NEWS IN BRIEF

TOP STORY

Joining Forces Cardies mark Remembrance Day in a number of ways Greeting card publishers Belly Button Designs and Marina B, indie card retailer Cardies (see pages 47- 49) and envelope company, Enveco (see page 11), all instigated activities to mark Remembrance Day last month.

Belly Button Designs galvanised its ‘troops’ to help raise awareness of Remembrance Day (which fell on Sunday, November 11, marking 100 years since Armistice and the end of World War I) with activities both in the UK and Germany.

The Manchester-based publisher created a special greeting card, featuring the Remembrance Day message ‘Lest we forget’, with printers Windles covering the cost of the production.

Building on its Thinking of You Week activities and connections with army bases in Germany (Charlotte Hamilton, one of Belly

Button’s financial team is currently based there as her partner is in the forces), 200 of the cards were sent to the Army schools on three bases as well as being used at a SAAFI charity event, plus by a padre on one of the bases.

“The schools used them to teach the children about Remembrance Day and what it means,” explains Rachel Hare, md of Belly Button Designs.

Belly Button also sent some of the greeting cards to some of its retail customers for them to sell and donate to charity.

Above: The Lest We Forget card design that has been produced by Belly Button Designs.

Left: Belly Button is building on its activities with army bases in Germany that it started with Thinking of You Week.

Marina B’s Design a Poppy card challenge Marina Brook, founder of Leicestershire-based greeting card publisher, Marina B Designs, linked up with local card stockists Solutions (in Market Harborough) and Weltons (in Great Bowden) as well as few other local parties to spearhead a Design a Poppy Card competition among her community to raise money for the Royal British Legion.

Marina revealed the inspiration for the competition came from Great Bowden church's tribute to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of WW1, which involves creating a cascade of 5,000 poppies adorning the building.

“The image of the vivid red colour and delicacy of the poppy, as both a flower and a symbol of thanks, made us want to pay our own tribute and help others do the same,” Marina explained.

Marina enlisted the support of local stockists Solutions and Weltons as well as The Paint Pottle and Sarah Lovett (who all donated prizes) and the winning design was transformed into an actual printed card (published under the Marina B brand) to raise funds in aid of this year’s Poppy Appeal.

Left: Marina B launched the Design A Poppy Card competition to raise funds for the Royal British Legion.

Blue Rose helps Children In Need Beverley Heyworth, co-owner of Blue Rose Gifts & Balloons, made sure that the recent Children in Need fundraising push was marked good and proper in the Greater Manchester enclave of Heywood where the indie retailer’s shop is based.

The BBC and local radio lapped up the bonanza of activities that Beverley instigated - from making Pudsey Bears out of balloons, engaging with local schools, decorating the shop, and even donning a Princess dress she made out of balloons for the occasion, not to mention raising £hundreds in the process.

“The BBC contacted me to ask if I wanted to be part of its ‘marathon’ for Children in Need. Well, you know me… I grabbed the opportunity with both hands!”, Beverley told PG. “We set about raising money for Children in Need. John [Beverley’s husband] contacted all the local schools to tell them that we were making balloon Pudseys, encouraging them to tell the parents so they could bring children down.”

Beverley was also interviewed by BBC Radio Manchester.

Above: Indie retailer Beverley Heyworth surprised the BBC Children in Need crew when she appeared in her princess dress made of balloons.

l Greeting card FF 40% ONG! publisher Davora RYYTHI EVER got in the Black BLACK Friday spirit by Y FRIDASALE launching a 40% off everything two week promotion for retail customers in the run up to the event.

“This is the first time we've ever instigated a Black Friday offer,” said Raj Arora, managing director of Davora. “For us it's was a way to get new customers to set up accounts and give our cards a try - and help us reduce some of our inventory to make room for new products next year,” he explained.

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Above: Davora offered retailers a two week Black Friday promotion.

l As part of its Christmas card line-up in all of its stores, Clintons not only includes a wide range of charity Christmas card packs (notably supporting Marie Curie, The British Heart Foundation and children’s charity, Rays of Sunshine), but also the winning entries to its first ever Design A Christmas Card competition that encouraged children to come up with festive depictions.

Above: A winning entry to Clintons’ Design a Christmas card competition.

Out of the ordinary Top Drawer’s new ‘out of the ordinary’ marketing campaign will be focusing on what sets the show apart, with organisers Clarion Events citing ‘expert curation, dedication to new talent and innovation, along with the exceptional quality, originality, breadth and depth of choice across the lifestyle landscape’.

“Stores are increasingly challenged to distinguish themselves and provide something special and different,” states event director Alejandra Campos. “As we continue to push boundaries and define trends, our ‘out of the ordinary’ message reflects the need to provide something unique,” she adds.

Top Drawer January will be take place at London’s Olympia from January 1315. Sectors include: Gifts, Home, Greetings & Stationery, Fashion, Food Emporium, Play, Craft and Spotted, which features emerging talent. Visit www.topdrawer.co.uk Above: Some of the marketing for Top Drawer.

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NEWS Big plans for Sharon Little

TOP STORY

Thortful Helps On Mental Health Online card operator commissions ‘Are you Ok?’ cards Andy Pearce, founder of Thortful, the online greeting card brand, is convinced that greeting cards have a positive role to play on the mental health front - and has put his money where his mouth is.

Thortful put its weight behind national mental health charity Chasing the Stigma by issuing a challenge to 17,000 leading creatives to come up with greeting card designs which would be appropriate for an ‘Are you OK?’ send.

Louise Rowands, Thortful’s marketing and PR maestro, issued the design challenge via the One Minute Brief’s network of 17,000 creatives. Of the submissions (that were aired on Twitter), three designs were selected to be launched on the Thortful site, with 100% of the profits from their sales being donated to the worthy cause.

As Andy Pearce pointed out: “Studies have shown that receiving a handwritten

card is far more personal, creates a positive boost and makes people feel far more special than receiving texts, emails or social media messages.”

Jake Mills, ceo of the Chasing the Stigma charity, said that the launch of the new card designs from Thortful played a part in helping to remove “the stigma around mental health issues and normalising the topic.”

Andy Pearce shared his forwardthinking approach with attendees of The Ladder Club recently. Andy revealed his innate entrepreneurial bent, which has served him well since his first business venture (a wheelie-bin cleaning company) when he was a teenager through his journey, which led to his launch of Thortful a few years ago, sparked by his frustrated attempt to buy his mum a suitable Christmas card.

Above: The three Thortful Chasing the Stigma card designs, created by (left-right) Phil Isaac, Gary Lewis and Lizzie Owen.

Left: Thortful founder Andy Pearce at The Ladder Club with Megan Claire’s (right) Megan Purdie and Gill Purdie.

Somewhere over the rainbow Rachel Church, founder of Rachel Ellen Designs, was actually in the middle of painting a rainbow when she heard the news that her company had been heralded by John Lewis & Partners as a leading example of one of the exponents of ‘the emblem of the year’ - a rainbow.

In its ‘How we shop live and look 18’ report, John Lewis & Partners picked out rainbows, yellow, the leopard print dress, sustainable water bottles, thongs, vegan beauty products, the robotic lawnmower and the white trainer as being up there as things Above: Some of the rainbow filled designs from Rachel Ellen Designs. we have loved in 2018.

Pronouncing the rainbow as emblem of the year, the report says: ‘Whether it was celebrating diversity or making a fashion statement, the rainbow was a popular trend this year and an instant mood booster.’

It details that sales of the Rachel Ellen Designs’ rainbow range in JL&P stores were up by 38%.

Sharing her views on the current rainbow trend, Rachel said: “Rainbows symbolise many things including hope, luck, promise and fresh new beginnings, and then of course there’s that pot of gold at the end of them all! They are so beautifully colourful and seemingly magical in their appearance, inspiring a feeling of awe and wonder whenever we catch sight of them, transporting us to another world. This is particularly apt right now in this era of uncertainty and negative news - we all need to escape a little I think!”

After 20 years of sitting in the GCA ‘hot seat’, at the end of last month the association’s ceo Sharon Little packed up the many bon voyage cards she has received from members and planned to set off on an extended globetrotting adventure.

Having missed the opportunity to say goodbye to many at the recent GCA AGM and Conference (which Sharon didn’t attend due to ill health), she was asked to share some of the highlights of the last two decades heading up the association at The Ladder Club.

“When I joined we had six archive boxes of musty old papers, no online presence, no database as such and (once we’d weeded out who weren’t paying!) only 60 publisher members,” Sharon said looking back. “I knew nothing about greeting cards or the industry back then - just that I enjoyed making and sending cards,” she told the audience.

Sharon explained how she always knew there was great potential to grow the membership as “there was a huge need for help, advice and industry-focused information.” In response to this she set about building the GCA’s resources. “And hey presto - the more info we provided the more we grew! In fact we grew so quickly that we didn’t have to increase the membership fees for 17 years!”

Another big step forward was widening the breadth of the association by allowing the specialist suppliers, trade fair organisers and retailers to be involved. This has “made the GCA truly representative of the industry.”

Developing all the different events and toolkits for Festive Friday, Thinking of You Week and more recently the Spring Seasons toolkits has helped the GCA to engage with retailers and grow its retailer membership.

While others may have recoiled from high profile media interviews, Sharon has lapped them up, appearing on the BBC breakfast sofa twice (see above), on outside broadcasts, as well as Channel 4 news, ITV news and Radio 4’s Today programme a few times and Radio London, all to promote the industry.

She cites one of the best parts of her last two decades with the GCA has been getting to know everyone in the industry, “It has been a real honour to represent such a great industry - an industry like no other, full of positive, creative people, whose job is to help people express their emotions,” summed up Sharon.

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CARDSHARP

Hold Onto

Your Hats!

Brexit, Brexit, Brexit! Cardsharp knows we are all sick of it, but it casts a long shadow over our economy and our retail economy in particular. And we are no nearer a resolution! Moreover, as far as Cardsharp can make out, whatever the result, even the unlikely one of PM Theresa May getting her withdrawal plan through Parliament, the ‘Deal Dividend’ could prove illusory as this would be just a ‘Withdrawal Agreement’.

From what Cardsharp can make out, our long-term trading arrangement with the rest of the EU will be subject to years of discussion, before we get guarantees of frictionless trade. As Cardsharp braces himself for many more twists and turns on the long road to Brexit, he considers what else is peppering the landscape as this year draws to a close.

Away from Brexit, but related to a certain extent, Britain’s high streets are having a difficult time. Although the British people show no signs of ending their love affair with greeting cards, the fact of the matter is they are going less frequently to the high street locations that sell them. With costs of retail being what they are, these shops in these locations need more than just greeting cards to be viable.

As Cardsharp sees it, there are two sides to this, which sometimes are logged together but really should be considered separately. First is the structural problem of physical retail is long-term and there are no long-term solutions that Cardsharp can see.

The other, the economic problem.

Cardsharp can at least see some light at

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PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

Above: Amazon enjoys an unfair retailing advantage.

Below: PM Theresa May has laid the Brexit plan on the table.

the end of the tunnel, although not before some more pain short-term.

The structural problem, the challenge to bricks and mortar by online retailing, has been dealt with by Cardsharp and many others ad nauseum. Until the government deals with the problem of punitive business rates, and prohibitively expensive parking, as well as the clearly unfair competitive advantage enjoyed by Amazon and the like, the problem will not go away. The Chancellor payed lip service to this in his recent Budget, with his pathetically inadequate big tech tax and by returning a few crumbs over business rates, but it did not really get to the hub of the matter. Until there is more of an equal playing field, traditional retailing will continue to suffer.

There have been some reports, that Cardsharp has read, predicting that 40% of all UK retail sales will have moved online by

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CARDSHARP

2020, and although Cardsharp thinks this is probably an overestimate, who knows.

Certainly not all card retailers are losing out completely. Both Paperchase and John Lewis & Partners, whose greeting card brand identities are pretty strong, have reported a big increase in internet sales, while even value retailer, Card Factory has reported a massive 71% increase year-onyear, admittedly from a very low base.

Cardsharp could also see a distinctive retail brand like Scribbler benefiting from this trend through its online side.

And the new online greeting card disrupter, Thortful, whose millionaire founder, Andy Pearce has gone for a business model that eschews greeting card personalisation, is aiming high - going as far as to state his aim of a 10% market share of the entire greeting card market. Whether he ever achieves this, the amount of free publicity he received from his appearance on BBC’s Dragons’ Den on Boxing Day last year, certainly did not do his sales any harm.

Up to now many people in the greeting card industry have tended to think that online sales in the greeting cards would be restricted to personalised greeting cards, but clearly this is not the case, although how far this trend will go, no one can predict, and certainly this is not something that will benefit the vast majority of independent shops or small chains.

In brief, UK households have used up all their credit and run down their savings as much as they can. They are also suffering from a prolonged squeeze on real wages.

The housing market has been flat, meaning that there has been little spending, which normally results from a healthy level of property transactions. The mini-spurt of retail sales increase, that came from the

Above: In the Dragons’ Den, Andy Pearce of Thortful.

Below: Toys R Us closed its doors for the last time this year.

lovely sunny weather and the World Cup has abated. We have all now come back down to earth. Volumes in October fell 0.5%, while even more worryingly, household goods fell 3.0%. Over the last three months’ sales growth (and remember this includes internet sales) has been only 0.4%, whereas in the three months to July, it was 2.3%.

This is not good, reflected Cardsharp, but it’s not all bad news. There are signs on the economic front that things will start to improve. Inflation is starting to stabilise around the 2.5% mark, and could drop further as the anticipated fall in the oil price feeds through into a drop in petrol prices.

Wages’ growth has accelerated to a ten year high of 3%, and so for the first time in a couple of years this is an increase in real terms! And the Chancellor’s increase in the personal allowance to £12,500 and the higher rate threshold to £50,000, which comes into effect in April, will benefit households.

But of course by then retailers will have endured what is likely to be a challenging Christmas not helped by the horrible US import of Black Friday, in which only the internet retailers and certainly not bricks and mortars retailers or arguably even the consumer, many hoodwinked into buying de-spec-ed products), seem to benefit.

So far, notes Cardsharp, we in greeting card retailing have managed to avoid any high profile bricks and mortar business failures that have really affected the equilibrium. When Toys R Us went pop

(although it sold cards) it massively affected the toy trade, and likewise the electrical sector winced when Maplins short-circuited, while the demise of House of Fraser (which also included cards in its line up through Paperchase concessions) obviously bruised other sectors.

While Card Factory divides opinion, Cardsharp takes comfort from the fact that the latest financial results from what is, after all, the sector’s biggest retail player, were very positive. Card Factory’s sales grew by 3.4% in the first nine months of this year. More tellingly, like-for-like sales showed a 0.1% increase in its third quarter.

The new opinion divider is that greeting cards are growing in other value players, most recently Aldi, which is trialling greeting cards. Is the ‘greeting card butter’ to be spread thinner?

Sadly Cardsharp has heard of many card and gift shop independents who have simply closed their doors, often fearful of renewing a lease at unviable costs while the threat of at least one major casualty or CVA in the next year hangs over the industry. If that were to happen Cardsharp can predict what the media headlines will be: “Britons fall out of love with greeting cards” although no one suggested they have fallen out of love with toys or electricals when Toys R Us or Maplins went belly up.

So where does all this leave us in the greeting card industry? Certainly, thinks Cardsharp, we are never going to go back to the days of glorious golden footfall. But, barring a real Brexit catastrophe, the future financial conditions for consumers are going to improve over the next few months, and so with a hopeful loosening of consumers’ purse strings, conditions for retailing should improve too. But before then, concludes Cardsharp, we all better hold on to our hats for what might well be a blustery old Christmas!

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Festive

Right: John Lewis has predicted that rainbows will be a big Christmas trend this year.

Feelings Despite the general feelings of uncertainty, Rudolph and his chums will be out in force delivering gifts and munching carrots on December 24, but what of the Christmas card run up?

PG delved into the Christmas stockings of greeting card retailers to sense the strength of the festive feeling.

John and Jennie Procter co-founders of Scribbler: How’s Christmas trade faring?: “As with last Christmas, trading is a bit of a roller coaster... the footfall is certainly down on the high streets, and while the sales do continue to decline year-on-year on packs, sales remain strong on our Christmas singles.

We have made a point of promoting our own brand cards and the range has increased. The margin we make on these compensates (in some part) for the increased costs of wages, rent and rates and we have the added benefit of being able to print on demand. The days of large forward orders are behind us and we are able to be nimble in handling our stock.

We do not import any cards from overseas!”

Buying habits: “The sales data is not showing any particular changes in customer buying habits - all remains relatively stable with last year, but pack sales are down.”

Promotional antics: “We will be introducing a ‘3 for 2’ initiative on all Christmas cards, perhaps for a limited time, but we will monitor sales.”

Who/what do you hope to find in your Christmas stocking?: John: “A Gretsch G613T-59 1959 Falcon guitar.” Jennie: “Bradley Cooper, looking as he did in ‘A star is born’. We do not seem to be growing old gracefully!”

Top: One of Scribbler’s festive windows.

Above: John and (second left) Jennie Procter with colleague Henri Davies (far left) and Tigerlily’s Suna Sor at the recent GCA AGM and Conference.

Left: Scribbler’s John Procter hopes to find a Gretsch guitar in his stocking!

Graham Fraser owner of Alba, Oban: How’s Christmas trade faring?: “We have been working on Christmas instore since late August when the first batch of Christmas cards went on sale. This was followed in early September with more cards. By mid September, the ‘Christmas Decorations Island’ was created. The start of October saw giftwraps delivered and I have picked up our real Christmas trees from two miles deep in a very remote forest.

Three of our shop windows out of five have now been completed, and over 2,000 fairylights were switched on by Santa who came to town on November 17 to switch on our Christmas lights.

Since then it’s been onwards and Above: Alba in Oban is well in the festive spirit. upwards all the way to Christmas Amazon, Lidl and Aldi not withstanding!

Sales are already coming from all sections of the store.

Christmas cards and related merchandise have sold as soon as it goes on sale. I’m pleased to report that cards are selling in all formats - packs, boxes, singles - especially relations and Across the Miles.”

Promotional antics: “Following on from last year, we are selling packs and boxes from The Great British Card Company to raise money for our local charity, Mary’s Meals. As part of this, we affix a label in the shape of a 50p piece to show how much from each sale goes to our area’s Mary’s Meals charity, which is run from a tiny shed in a local village but feeds over a million children every day, with a school meal in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe - in fact, wherever the charity identifies a need.

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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VIEWPOINTS We have designed specific Point of Sale material to head up the Mary’s Meals window display to promote our involvement.

We also have unique Oban Christmas card this year.

Over the years different Scottish artists have painted a picture of our town at Christmas and we turn it into the exclusive Alba Christmas card. Last year we had ‘Santa’s Seaside Sleigh’. This year the same artist, who has a strong local following, has painted us Oban Winter Waterfront. We price them on a sliding scale - one card sells for £1.49 up to 40 cards for 99p each.

We take part in the town’s Victorian Market, which is part of our Santa’s Big Reindeer Parade Day. The following week will be late night shopping as part of Oban’s Winter Festival when there will be lots of goodies. In December will have free sweets for our customers - 26 tins of Quality Street in 24 days!! And, of course, let’s not forget the special seasonal graphics on the Alba van, which fanfares us as ‘The One Stop Christmas Shop’.”

Below: Alba raises money for Mary’s Meals charity through the sale of Christmas cards.

Mark Janson-Smith managing director of Postmark:

Hazel Walker senior buyer cards and wrap of Paperchase: How’s Christmas trade faring?: “Christmas has been mixed and quite inconsistent during the first few weeks of launch, but online it’s been fantastic - we had sold over 15,000 units online by the first week of November. Interest in Christmas has definitely picked up among our customers.”

Approach for this year: “We’re hoping to inspire customers to get creative with lots of ‘Christmas packs’, both instore and online, as part of our ‘created by you, made by Paperchase’ campaign.

Buying habits: “We’ve seen the trend for Advent calendars grow over the past few years. We have listened to our customers by launching our very own limited edition Paperchase Advent calendar that’s full of lots of great stationery and gifting lines, as well as our erasers and accessories Advent calendars.

On the Christmas card front, our innovation cards (musical and pop-up) got off to a great start. We’ve also seen strong sales on rollwrap - our customers are getting organised! As always, our quirky decorations are working well - something the Paperchase customer comes back for year after year - and customers are reacting well to our fun character designs on all product areas.”

How’s Christmas trade faring?: “Christmas has started well, with like-for-like sales around 15% up.

We have experienced a strong start from our single card sales, which is surprising as they haven't been out long. Pack sales are a little down, but I think these will pick up.”

Customer buying habits: “We have seen some very strong Advent calendar sales, including the Battersea Dog and Cats Home Advents for pets from Woodmansterne, which sold out in two weeks.

As always, our MoMA cards are selling particularly well, especially online.

The Art File trio boxes are doing well and are gorgeous!

We didn't buy into any new captions this year as we are so limited by space, but people are starting to look for these more and more, so for us it is a tricky one. Once you start, where do you stop?”

A Christmas wish: “My Christmas wish would be for all business rates to be cancelled for 2019 and to wake up on Christmas Day and find out that Brexit was just a bad dream!”

Top: Paperchase is on for a magical Christmas.

Above right: Paperchase’s stationery Advent calendar was a real winner this year.

Below Paperchase’s Hazel Walker (right) with colleagues (left-right) Emma Clooney and Kate Culpin at The Henries 2018.

Above: Postmark’s Instagram feed shows customers buying the Caltime from Woodmansterne Battersea Dogs and Cats Home pet Advents.

Left: The Henries’ award-winning Christmas trio from The Art File are selling well for Postmark.

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VIEWPOINTS

Miles Robinson co-owner of House of Cards: How’s Christmas trade faring?: “Christmas will still happen of that we can be sure, so even if sales end up being down, we will all have to adapt to that.

Time, money and uncertainty are all factors affecting trade.

The biggest problem facing the high street is lack of footfall.

According to some stats I’ve read, 40% of retail will have moved online by 2020. This is monumental and is one reason why retail is suffering so much.

Business rates are not fit for purpose, plus way above inflation increases for the NLW, and the introduction of pensions, are all straws that test the camel’s back. But the main factor affecting bricks and mortar retailers’ Christmas trade is footfall/online.

We are all doing things differently and it’s changing fast, but overall we’re embracing the challenge!”

Our Christmas approach: “We have approached our Christmas stocking pretty much the same as previously, based on careful analysis of our previous year’s sales and are trying to hone our selections as much as possible, based on this, trends and our gut feeling.

There have been some slight tweaks to our caption selection, but no major shifts. While we have seen growth in some captions, it is relatively modest.

We have stocked cat/dog cards ever since they became available and these are very much a permanent fixture that generate good sales.”

Customer buying habits: “Although some winners are emerging, so far, early sales are no better than last year. We’ve reduced the number of boxes this year, but kept charity cello packs about the same.

Advent calendars (non-chocolate) have definitely caught the consumer’s attention, with many publishers now producing some

Lizzie Batchelar assistant buyer of cards, giftwrap and seasonal events at John Lewis & Partners: How’s Christmas trade faring?: “Christmas cards are performing brilliantly for us at the moment. We are currently tracking at +11% on last year. It’s great that customers are getting into the festive spirit already!”

Aproach for this year: “We are really excited about Christmas this year and some of the newness we have introduced. As from November 17, for the first time, we expanded our relations category into more branches so we are excited to see what this will drive.”

Customers’ buying habits: “While my buying remit does not include packs of cards, I know that our single sales are outperforming

great designs and concepts. I think the consumer is still happy to purchase that ‘something different’ and certainly Advents for pets (which we’ve stocked for years) are really seeing a spike in growth.

So far our Advents winners are Sally Swannell from Wrendale, Woodmansterne’s dog Advent and Real and Exciting’s designs.”

Promotional antics: “We will be participating in the Victorian/late night shopping evenings, which usually have a great atmosphere. We give out mince pies, punch etc, and these evenings really help with the Christmas spirit. In addition, a couple of branches are doing their own local traders’ evenings, whereby we give local shop owners/staff a discount at a private shopping evening complete with wine etc, which adds to the festive feeling! We also run internal staff incentives with, for example, the highest customer spend, who upsells the most stamps, the best Christmas jumper and the best window display among them.”

Top: House of Cards has stocked products aimed at pets for Christmas.

Above: The Sally Swannell from Wrendale Advent calendar reached the finals of The Calies 2018 awards.

boxes and cellopacks. Brands that always perform strongly for us in the Christmas category are Woodmansterne, Five Dollar Shake and Susan O'Hanlon. It’s also brilliant to see Caroline Gardner and Rosie Made A Thing performing strongly in this category.”

Our Christmas approach: “Our Christmas Advert always drives customers into branches and gets everyone in the Christmas spirit! This year we are running even more experiences in branches, including workshops and demonstrations, with specific experience desks in some of our stores. We always receive great customer engagement from these experiences as well as our My JL Events, and it is great to drive all the additional footfall to branch. As a category, cards always benefit from this additional traffic.”

Caption action: “We are excited to offer 'From the cat' and 'From the dog' Christmas cards this year from Cardmix. The dog caption has outperformed the cat so far (selling almost double!), but both have been popular with our customers, and personally, I have also bought a couple to send from my dogs!”

Who/what do you hope to find in your Christmas stocking?: “My mum always ensures I have a Terry's Chocolate Orange in the bottom of my stocking, so I always look forward to that on Christmas morning!”

Above: Lizzie Batchelar is feeling optimistic about Christmas singles sales this year.

Left: Christmas cards are displayed in three areas in John Lewis & Partners’ store – in the stationery department (pictured), the Christmas ‘shop’ and in the new Find Keep Give zone.

Above right: It’s a Terry’s Chocolate Orange that hits the spot for Lizzie!

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Point Of View

Brexit’s Impact On The Cards?

As the Brexit situation continues to evolve, Sherwood Group’s ceo Jeremy Bacon draws on his wealth of industry and economic experience to predict some possible ramifications for the UK greeting card sector.

As ceo of leading greeting card printer and packaging business, The Sherwood Group (which was recently crowned Best Social Stationery Printer in the PrintWeek Awards), Jeremy Bacon knows a thing or two about the greeting card ‘economy’, with his natural analytical bent coming to the fore when it comes to predicting likely outcomes of complicated situations.

It was no surprise that the high-powered workshop that he led at the recent GCA AGM & Conference during which he shared his considered opinion as to the likely implications of Brexit on the greeting card industry was well attended.

Here he shares some of his notes…

It generally takes between seven and Above: People came out in their droves to campaign for a ten years to negotiate a trade agreement, reversal of the Brexit decision at the People’s March at the end of so we are in for a long period of October. uncertainty. We should not rely on a deal Below: Sherwood’s Jeremy Bacon (left) with GCA Council being done before the end of the member Raj Arora, md of Davora, at the recent GCA AGM. transition period.

What are our red lines and the EU red lines?

Our Red Lines are: l Northern Island cannot stay in the EU, even as a backstop.

The EU Red Lines are: l The UK cannot be better off outside the EU - therefore we must be worse off. l No cherrypicking of the EU four principles. l The reason we joined the EU in 1973 was to improve growth in our economy. l Our trade moved away from America and the Commonwealth and moved towards Europe. Today 60% of our trade is with Europe and we now want to leave to improve growth!

What does this mean for the economy?

When will we get a Brexit Deal or will we have a cliff edge Hard Brexit?

As PG goes to press ‘a deal’ was still being hatched, but even this will only be a basic stripped down agreement to keep the planes flying and the ports open.

If a deal is not done by Christmas then we should prepare for the worse.

The big issue is the government has not even talked about trade, which will not start until we have entered the transition period at the end of March 2019.

If we get a deal on the basics when will we know about trade?

Business hates uncertainty and the economy has deteriorated since the referendum on the 23 June 2016.

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I will cover key economic indictors - GDP, interest rates, inflation, employment and exchange rates.

Gross Domestic Product l In June 2016 we (the UK) was the fastest growing economy in Europe, we are now one of the slowest. l I think we can look at the recent past to predict the future. The European economy is growing at 2.5% to 3% and our economy is growing at 1.5%. The consensus of forecasts predicts our growth at being 1.5% lower being out the EU. Inflation l Inflation increased after the referendum to peak at 3% in early 2018 as the cost of imports rose with a fall in £Sterling. The rate has since fallen to 2.4%. l If we have a hard Brexit it is widely predicted that exchange rates will fall, increasing inflation.

Employment l The one positive sign from the economy has been the growth in the percentage of the workforce in employment and the fall in unemployment from 8% in 2014 to 4.0% now. Economists argue that this is below the rate of full employment.

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Point Of View

l Any restrictions on the free movement of labour are likely to

result in skills shortages and wage inflation.

Exchange Rates l Sterling has fallen against both the Euro and the $Dollar since the referendum. l This has caused inflationary pressures within the economy. l On the eve of the referendum £Sterling was at $1.50 before falling to low of $1.20 and $1.30 today. l The Euro has fallen from 1.33 to 1.1 since June 2018. l This has been during a period of global currency devaluation to reduce debt as a proportion of income caused by the financial crisis of 2008.

What does this mean for the greeting card industry?

The UK greeting card market is robust and relatively immune to the economic climate.

People will continue to give and receive greeting cards after Brexit, but there will be changes.

If we are going to be poorer as forecasts suggest, there will be a continued move to value cards.

It is likely we will see more Top: Jeremy explaining some of possible outcomes of Brexit to Really retail failures if the economy Good’s Lisa Shoesmith in the GCA AGM and Conference workshop continues to decline and online session. shopping continues to grow. We Above: Sherwood Group produced the 3D menu card for the recent GCA could see business failure in the AGM and Conference, featuring the venue, Knebworth House. whole supply chain.

Exchange rates create opportunities for export sales, but also causes cost inflation pressure.

What does this mean for my business?

At Sherwood we wrote a contingency plan within 100 days of the referendum. We identified a number of opportunities and threats and concluded that Brexit could be good for our business if we had no nasty surprises. We updated the plan after a year and again more recently.

I would recommend having a short-term and a long-term plan.

If we do not conclude a basic agreement by Christmas then I would encourage publishers to increase stock holdings if we get

disruption to supply. We have customers in China who are already building everyday stock to accommodate Brexit and Chinese New Year. In the financial crisis of 2008 the greeting card market was extremely resilient as publishers converted their warehouse to cash. This could be a good strategy.

The largest impact is likely to be cost inflation if £Sterling continues to decline.

The largest element of cost in making a greeting card is board, this can be between 25% on coated boards and 45% on uncoated boards. We import most of our board from Europe and have already had cost increases. We may face import tariffs if we conduct trade under WTO guidelines. This may also affect UK manufactured board that is used by the greeting card industry as the largest cost of paper is wood pulp, which again could be subjected to WTO tariffs.

Greeting cards are still a high margin product where the raw material costs a few pence and the average retail price is £1.75.

As an important supplier to the greeting card industry we can work with publishers to mitigate inflationary cost pressure and produce product faster allowing stock reduction.

Recruitment is also likely to get harder and more expensive after Brexit. European workers will certainly gain employment in higher growth European economies and may lose the right to work in the UK after the transition period.

Full employment is likely to increase wage inflation.

In conclusion, the UK greeting market is a vibrant and resilient industry - and people will give and receive greeting cards after the Brexit comes into force on 29 March 2019. The market will change but there will opportunities and threats for all of us.

We just need a plan to deal with the change.

15th anniversary celebrations In tandem with his focus on the situation in Europe, Jeremy Bacon has good reason to broaden his gaze eastwards too.

The group’s Hong Kong subsidiary, The Sherwood Press Hong Kong (SPHK) celebrated its 15th anniversary on the 19 November 2018.

The SPHK office, run by managing director Derek Lam, aims to blend the best of East and West, providing global manufacturing to the Group’s UK customers.

Semplice, the group’s manufacturing plant opened in Xiegang town, Guangdong Province of China to produce greeting cards, gift bags, gift packaging and social stationery.

Jeremy Bacon commented: “A lot of our UK customers still have a need for our services in the Far East, including blue chip companies. As the uncertainty over Brexit continues, we are working with our customers on reengineering their products to meet their needs, promoting shared workflow and product knowledge.”

Above: Jeremy Bacon (left) and Derek Lam celebrating the SPHK’s anniversary recently in Hong Kong.

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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PG showcases a selection of new product launches

Designs Of The Times Design by Violet is a new premium collection from Partisan Products of coordinated giftbags, mugs and luxurious stationery accessories. This design-led range offers superior levels of detail for the wholesale sector, such as colour printed interiors on the gift bags.

The Design by Violet 2019 collection is ready for delivery from January 1, direct from Partisan Products or via one of its wholesalers/distributors.

Partisan Products +44 1942 409 409 www.partisanproducts.co.uk

Skin Deep

The Country Life

Tracks’ saucy Naughty by Nature range continues to reach parts other ranges cannot reach. Subtle but not offensive, this collection has been part of the lineup since the company started, and the publisher has kept it ‘fresh’ by adding a clutch of new photographic images of the older naked person in suggestive and humorous scenarios. The cards are 159mm square and are individually cellowrapped with white envelopes.

Fanfared as the perfect cards for all the green-fingered folks, Tony Fernandes Designs has extended its best-selling whimsical Country Living Collection to include an additional 36 funny flower, fruit and veg designs. The cards depict unusual fruit and veg produced by manic allotment dwellers, County Show winners and folks who just love to show off their ‘green credentials’.

The cards are blank, 5” x 7” and come with a white envelope.

Tracks Publishing 01480 435562 www.tracksltd.com

Tony Fernandes Design 01142620899 www.tonyfernandesdesigndesign.com

Taking In The Views Lanternfish Publishing has launched a new collection of art cards featuring the work of renowned British artist Jonathan Sanders. Entitled Wiltshire, the designs celebrate the wide horizons of this beautiful county, with mystical chalk white horses and sweeping green fields. The cards are 15cm square in size and come individually wrapped with a quality white envelope.

Lanternfish Publishing 01263 825280 www.lanternfishpublishing.co.uk

Tou-can Play At That Game Pink Pig has added a menagerie of new designs to its Cutie Crew range, including some cheeky toucans, puffins, and the cutest unicorn ever! This takes the collection up to 33 designs in the range, that covers birthdays and occasions. Printed on high quality FSC board, the cards are 150mm square in format, cellowrapped with a textured eco kraft envelope.

Pink Pig 07795 574548 www.pinkpigcards.co.uk

A Tale Of Tails Yoojoo has launched Bookbarks, a collection of woofing dog greeting cards. Integral to the design is a simple ‘fold and tear’ element, which transforms the card into a bookmark. Designed and printed in the UK on high quality 350gsm paper, the cards come with a recycled kraft envelope in a cello bag with a sticker, which highlights their transformational nature.

Yoojoo 01274 621419 www.yoojoo.co.uk PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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Shakies, Rattle And Roll James Ellis’ Shakies range has just got even better – it has been augmented with 5” x 7” designs covering more occasions, bringing it up to 54 designs. Joining the line-up are designs covering bon voyage, thank you, engagement, graduation and its twins! Designed by artist Klara Hawkins, all the cards measure 127mm x 176mm and are hand-finished and filled with silver glitter/stars or hearts and coloured dots or hearts.

James Ellis 0117 927 7667 www.jamesellis.com

Real World Truths Food For Thought Forever Funny has added a whole new clutch of designs to its popular Forever Yummy collection, featuring various foodie treat characters in different hilarious situations – cheerful ice-creams, lovely avocados, happy hot dogs and many more.

All the designs in the range are finished with gold foil, measure 105mm x 110 mm, are blank inside and come with assorted colourful envelopes.

Everyone loves a good old proverb, and Rusty Pencil has created a range bringing those lovely old proverbs up to date with a contemporary twist. The 20 designs in the Real World Truths range are colourful, witty and strike a chord with modern life. Cards are 150mm square, come with a white envelope and are cellowrapped.

Rusty Pencil 07970 950541 www.rustypencil.com

Forever Funny 07512304391 www.forever-funny.com

Going To Toon

Blooming Lovely

Heart Of The Matter

Digital artist Belinda Morris, founder of 1790 Cards, has turned her creative attentions towards flora. Entitled Flowery, the card range debuts with flower and leaf designs in her distinctive modern colour block style that features muted tones and additional detailing to create a delicate look. The cards are 150mm square, blank inside and come individually cellowrapped with a grey envelope.

With wider sending opportunities than just Valentine’s, Paper Bird’s Heartfelt collection has been extended, welcoming another eight designs. The new additions include adapting its bestselling Madame et Monsieur design to create two same sex designs, that are perfect for civil weddings and other celebrations. The cards are 150mm square and come with a white envelope.

Cardinky’s Toon Kids children's birthday range takes its inspiration from classic cartoons, featuring hand-drawn characters rendered in traditional ink and watercolour, coupled with accents of bold, vibrant digital colour and a healthy splash of cheeky humour. Designed by illustrator Dannyboy, the cards are 120mm x 170mm, are printed on a luxurious 350gsm heavyweight FSCaccredited silk board and come cellowrapped with a white envelope.

1790 Cards 01904 448130 www.1790cards.co.uk

Paper Bird 0208 613 8085 www.paperbirdpublishing.co.uk

Cardinky 07745031247 www.cardinky.com

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CDU Dimensions: Height (Including Header) - 613mm Width - 332mm Depth - 80mm

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Ear Ear Crumble & Core has come up with a great idea of combining its stunning greeting cards with a gift. Over 50 of Jilly Mercer’s beautiful watercolour cards are available giftboxed with a pair of Sterling Silver earrings.

The designs cover a diversity of subject matters – from unicorns to lucky pants – making them suitable for all manner of occasions.

Crumble & Core 07767 778446 www.crumbleandcore.com

Words To The Welsh

Rural Artistry

Greatly admired for its way with words, Dandelion Stationery has turned its linguistic talents in the direction of Wales with the launch of two ranges, The Rhossili Collection and the Blodau Collection, comprising almost 70 designs. The Rhossili Collection is the publisher’s new Welsh everyday card range in which the 140mm square card designs are all foiled in copper and supplied with a burnt orange envelope.

The designs in its Blodau Collection are all foiled in matt gold with each featuring a beautiful hand-drawn floral image.

With the agreement of Munnings Art Museum, Isabel Scott is publishing a greeting card collection featuring the artwork of Sir Alfred James Munnings. Munnings’ timeless style of capturing rural and equestrian life is now brought to life on a range of British made greeting cards – the 16 7” x 5” designs are printed on quality vellum board.

Isabel Scott 01476 247077 www.isabelscott.com

Positive Messages

Dandelion Stationery 01332 695359 www.dandelionstationery.co.uk

The Sentiments range from hh designs comprises 30 designs, all of which are simple but upbeat statements or messages in on-trend colours. The cards lend themselves to send messages of support to friends and family or whether you want to tell someone they are a Super Trouper, want to drink Champagne with them... it's all covered! Each card is 140mm square and comes cellowrapped with a hessian style envelope. hh designs 07864 376144 www.hhdesigns.co.uk

All That Glisters Kate Guest’s Rose Gold Luxe Collection is being launched to compliment the publisher’s Rose Gold Birthday ages (18-90) already available. Following demand, the 30 new Rose Gold Luxe designs are in a larger format (120mm x 170mm) and cover all occasions, from birthdays to new home, sympathy and beyond.

Kate Guest 01279 214304 www.kateguest.com

Puffin Along Puffins and other birds and animals feature in the new designs added to the Cameo Creatures Collection of greeting cards designed by Janice Daughters.

These non-gender specific cards will be launched at Harrogate Christmas and Gift Fair, and also seen at Scotland’s Trade Fair, Glasgow in January 2019.

Janice Daughters 07860 633490 www.artbyjanice.co.uk

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PG showcases a selection of new product launches

Into The Fold Graphique de France (available from BrownTrout UK) has added some new hobby-related designs to its collection of gold foil embellished boxed notelets. New additions include an anchor, a music note and a golf bag. Each box includes 10 cards, 8cm x 12cm in size, printed on textured cream board with envelopes.

BrownTrout UK 0117 317 1880 www.browntroutuk.com

All Mapped Out

Off To A Flying Start

Atlas & I has come up with a great concept, combining sporting interests with regional reference. The publisher’s Vintage Map Sporting Cards collection features sporting silhouettes printed over a vintage map. From cycling to hiking, rowing to running, retailers can choose from a range of stock silhouettes and specify the local region they would like to feature on the vintage map background.

Flying Twigs’ new range of 16 Valentine's Day designs are in, what it describes as a 'Magic Carpet' style, where the background of each card is a whimsical rectangle in an appropriate matching colour to the main elements. The cards are 120mm x 170mm Europa size, are individually cellowrapped and come with a white envelopes.

Flying Twigs 07790 459290 www.flyingtwigs.com

Atlas & I 0208 9442123 www.atlas-and-i.com

A Stitch In Time Catherine Kleeli Cards’ has added new additions to its Winter Wonders collection, which combines the two artistic techniques of watercolour and stitched collage. Being produced in a similar vein is its new ‘fledgling’ capsule range ‘Heron Highlights’. Printed onto a beautiful GF Smith 300gsm board, the 150mm square cards come cellowrapped with a complimentary brown ribbed envelope.

Catherine Kleeli Cards 07814 293155 www.catherinekleeli.co.uk

Monkey Magic Combining the designs of Steve Bridger and the hand-finishing of its in-house team, Moodimonkey has produced a new funky and contemporary range of cards.

Using the finest boards, foiling and carefully sourced components, the birthday cards cover all ages and family members. The cards are offered in three sizes, cellowrapped and packaged with coloured envelopes.

Moodimonkey 07739352427 www.moodimonkey.co.uk

Animal Magic Tapping into how we love our pets and our pets love us back, we tell them our thoughts and they tell us theirs, Miko Greetings is launching a new, warmly zany Pets range of eight designs initially.

The designs feature (among others), cats, dogs and snakes! Size 127mm x 177mm, the cards come with pastel coloured envelopes.

Miko Greetings 0208 6931011 www.miko-greetings.com PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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Face To Face

Hallmark’s

First Lady

Below: Amanda Del Prete takes over officially as managing director of Hallmark UK from Steve Wright at the start of the New Year.

For the first time ever, from the start of next year Hallmark UK is to have a female managing director and again, for the first time, someone from a product background.

After 22 years with Hallmark, Steve Wright is to retire from the company, handing over the responsibility for the day to day running of the business with Amanda Del Prete, who’s up for the challenge and raring to go.

PG went to meet Hallmark UK’s ‘first lady’.

For all the utterance of ‘change is good’ there is invariably some degree of nervousness when the news breaks that someone who has been in charge of a business for a long time is leaving. And when that ‘someone’ has successfully headed up a world leading company in the sector for a long time, the jitters increase somewhat.

Steve Wright has been a popular ‘man in charge’. Like many heads of business, yes he has had some tough calls to make over his tenure, not least a company restructure and move from its beautiful (but very costly) headquarters in Shipley into its current site the other side of Bradford, adjacent to its distribution centre, but there have been plenty of triumphs too.

Winning the Tesco account; securing extra business from Waitrose; gaining a stocking commitment from Cardzone; refashioning how its creative resource works; growing its business in the value and convenience space; reinvigorating its sales team and beefing up on its marketing would be some of the key highlights - and that just covers the UK achievements under his leadership.

No pressure then for Amanda De Prete!

“From January 1, it’s my job to lead the UK business, I am looking forward to it!” she told PG, her uplifting Aussie twang matching her open body language. “I am inheriting the business in good shape and have a team of people here with more collective talent and

Above: Amanda cites Hallmark UK’s creativity as a key strength.

Left: As Tesco’s card category partner, Hallmark is supporting the launch of the grocer’s new Jack’s value retail concept with a card range.

knowledge than I could ever have wished for.”

There is no denying Amanda’s Hallmark credentials, having started with the company 25 years ago, she spent 18 years with the Australian and New Zealand business, latterly as marketing director.

“Interestingly, we [Hallmark Australia] reported into the UK so got to know the team here and gained insights into how the markets differed. We had a small creative team in Australia, but were able to tap into the phenomenal creative force of Hallmark UK and US,” reveals Amanda.

However, it was seven years ago that Amanda was able to really prove she is a lot more than just a pretty face, relocating her family to the States to join the parent company in Kansas City. Tapping into her natural ability “to think differently”, Amanda was initially tasked with the challenge of running the everyday card business of the US parent company, something she did to great success for three years before moving into a sales director role, responsible for some of the publisher’s powerhouse national accounts.

“I did take this as a real show of faith in me,” recalls Amanda. “They were giving me, a brash Aussie, the chance to run their PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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Face To Face

everyday card business! It was not a responsibility I took lightly,” she assures.

The ensuing sales experience, which saw Amanda in charge of enormous retail chains, was invaluable in that it drummed into her, the absolute necessity of “understanding what makes different retailers tick, and even more importantly, what makes their customers, the end consumer, tick. Our job is to ensure that what Hallmark offers is tailored to these needs, right down to local tastes. It doesn’t matter if it is H-E-B [a large Texasbased grocery chain] or a small Gold Crown retailer, the approach has to be the same.

You need to focus on the consumer and work closely with the retailer.”

Hearing about the opportunity in the UK, Amanda had a different challenge on her hands - persuading her husband and 11year-old son to move to Yorkshire. Thankfully, her persuasive talents were up to the job on that front too!

Having been in the Hallmark UK team since June, initially with the title of creative and product director, Amanda has been able to form some early perceptions of the UK market and the task in hand for Hallmark and greeting cards generally.

While accepting that there is a need to cater for local tastes, to Amanda’s mind “a good card is a good card. One test for me is whether a card design can reduce someone to tears or show of emotion in just five words

Above: The Gold Crown ‘store within a store’ in Sheffield’s Atkinsons department store is part of the vigour behind re-energising the programme.

on the card. That is when the card makes that special connection, it’s very powerful,” she says.

As to her take on the UK greeting card scene, Amanda is amazed and inspired by the diversity of publishers that operate in the UK, as well as the level of engagement by the younger consumer towards cards. “This is a real positive and something we should all work on to encourage,” she says, having joined the GCA Council and is looking forward to having input on this score.

Amanda is candid about Hallmark’s increasingly broad base of retailers it is

Flexing the brand For the third year running, Hallmark has been officially hailed a Consumer Superbrand. Voted for by 2,500 members of the British public and ratified by a voluntary council of senior independent industry experts against the three core criteria of a Superbrand - quality, reliability and distinction - the greeting card brand is up there is the list alongside the likes of Apple, Lego, Coca-Cola, BMW and Disney.

This has given the Hallmark marketing team a great opportunity to leverage the brand, both within the trade and in the wider sphere, with relevant and meaningful initiatives.

Among the recent activity has been a launch of a range of cards produced in conjunction with the Bliss charity to meet the needs of parents whose babies are born prematurely.

The launch received some high profile coverage on ITV’s Good Morning Britain programme, with weather presenter, Laura Tobin, explaining from a personal perspective (her daughter Charlotte was born extremely prematurely) how such sensitive situations calls for a different type of baby card design as sending a ‘traditional’ baby card featuring a baby or cute

supplying, from upmarket specialists through value to online.

“We have to be where the consumer is shopping, we want them to be able to buy cards from us that meets their needs. You can view the changing retail landscape as a threat or as an opportunity,” states Amanda.

“Retail here is certainly tough, like everyone else I have had to of course try and get my head round Brexit and what that could mean for us all - who knows?!” she says, clearly understanding the madness of the UK situation. She’s a keeper!

Right: As mother of a premature baby, ITV’s Good Morning Britain weather presenter Laura Tobin launched Hallmark’s Bliss range on air.

Below: Hallmark put a lot of effort behind its Thinking of You Week activities this year, both working with retailers as well as bloggers who are focused on improving mental health.

images “may be upsetting to parents of premature babies as it reminds them of what they are missing out on - a baby at home.”

The Hallmark team also got behind Thinking of You Week this year again in a number of ways. “Thinking of You Week gets to the very essence of why we send cards; to tell people we care about them,” commented Hallmark marketer Tamsyn Johnstone-Hughes.

The publisher’s activity around the Week involved a specific Thinking of You selection of cards for its retail customers, providing free cards for Gold Crown loyalty cardholders if they went into store, as well as a ‘desk drop’ of five cards to all Hallmark employees.

As part of Hallmark’s social media commitment to promote the Week, Tamsyn made contact with select bloggers who confront mental health issues. “We received such positive feedback from so many of the bloggers who reinforced the important role greeting cards can play in making people feel cared for,” explained Tamsyn.

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Retailer Focus

“Some customers come in for a card, but leave with a Labrador too,” is not something you hear every day from an independent card retailer, but then Stevenage-based Cardies does things a bit differently.

As this community-focused Retas awardwinning retailer celebrates its 30th anniversary, PG visited Cardies’ gorgeous four-legged meeters and greeters as well as their owner Jo Sorrell.

“My feeling is that as an independent retailer you are well-placed to instigate community initiatives - by working together you achieve a lot more,” has been one of Jo Sorrell’s longheld beliefs. And she certainly practices what she preaches. In the last few weeks alone, the ever-smiley owner of Stevenage-based card shop, Cardies, has spearheaded decorating the old town with poppy garlands (made from painted plastic bottles) to mark Remembrance Day; instigated a Trick or

Treat Halloween trail and went full steam ahead encouraging those in the Stevenage community to donate an unwanted Christmas bauble by hanging it on the railings to make for a great festive display.

For all this, Jo remains incredibly modest.

“I am only doing my bit,” she says. Jo has been ‘doing her bit’ with Cardies for the last 30 years to great effect, with the shop’s win at The Retas 2018 crowning Cardies the Best Independent Card Retailer - Home Counties adding some extra sparkle to the milestone.

“I was absolutely over the moon to win a Retas award - and felt rather sad when I had

Right: Jo Sorrell and some of her Ponks outside Cardies.

Below left: One of the Ponks cards produced by Tracks for Cardies.

Bottom: Jo and her ‘other half’ Andy McReynolds at The Retas with their trophy.

to take the trophy out of our window recently to make room for the Christmas display!” said Jo. Cardies also came within a ‘whisker’ of winning another special accolade - the Dog Friendly Shop Award (missing out to fellow card shop Austin & Co in Malvern).

“Cards and dogs are my two obsessions - I am very lucky that I can bring them together in Cardies,” says Jo, looking at the wagging tails and soulful eyes of a couple of ‘Ponks’ (her pet name for her Labradors) who have padded into the shop.

It was greeting cards however, that were Jo’s first love. “As a child I was forever making cards - and even received an acknowledgement from Buckingham Palace

for the one I made for Princess Anne’s wedding!” recalls Jo. “Unlike other children who were keen to go to toy shops to spend their pocket money, I always wanted to go to the card shops and spend mine on Snoopy cards.”

Even when she started working, taking a secretarial job with British Aerospace, Jo could not contain her card bent. ”I didn’t do much secretarial work there, as I spent a lot of my time making cards for colleagues,” Jo confesses. She tried another job, but found that it too failed to hit the spot, so when an opportunity came up for a small shop unit in Stevenage’s old town, that 21 year-old Jo felt it would be perfect for a card shop, so she sped off to the bank manager clutching a scrap of paper containing her business plan.

“My dad was in retail and owned the kitchen showroom that I had worked in so I knew a bit about running a shop, but it was still a big step, but I felt the right one for me,” says Jo. PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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Retailer Focus

Three decades later and Cardies, still operating from the same unit, is very much a firm fixture in the Hertfordshire town, and what’s more Jo not only owns the shop unit, but the two adjacent ones too (that she leases out). Added to this, the home she shares with her long-term partner Andy (and lots of Ponks) butts onto the back of the shop, which makes it easy to bring in her ‘meeters and greeters’ when called for.

Jo started ‘fostering’ Labradors 15 years ago, and over the years some 400 of the lovable canines have been part of her ‘pack’ - six of which have been officially adopted by Jo as part of the family.

At its peak there could be as many as 17 Labs living with Jo and Andy, with many of the docile, child-friendly animals making their way at some time or other through to the shop.

“Not surprisingly we are known locally as ‘The Dog Shop’. Some customers come in to see the dogs and buy a card or two while they are here,“ Jo explains, revealing that sometimes customers go away with something a bit larger than a card, deciding to adopt one of the foster dogs!

“I only allow what I refer to as our ‘bomb-proof’ dogs anywhere near customers,” Jo assures, proud to have played a part in helping children overcome a fear of dogs.

“As long as their parents are happy with me to do so, I give wary children a Jellycat Bashful Bunny and ask them Right: One of the Cardies’ team with two Christmas designs featuring The Ponks.

Far right: One of Cardies’ USP is the handknitted selection, created by Jo’s aunt.

A blooming good poppy initiative The high street in Stevenage old town became a sea of red, thanks to Jo’s community efforts.

Keen to mark Remembrance Day, Jo joined forces with like-minded folk in the Hertfordshire town to create garlands of poppies made from plastic bottles that she and others had collected.

Jo and others spent hours cutting and painting ‘poppies’ from the bottles, which were then put on display on a pub fascia, shops and on railings, including those outside Cardies.

“We also worked with other groups in the town who are made poppies from other materials, from wool to paper plates,” Jo explained.

Inside Cardies the poppy trail continued as poppies, knitted by Jo’s aunt, were also sold to raise funds for the Royal British Legion.

Above: Orberry, suitably attired next to the poppy garlanded railings outside Cardies.

Left: Jo in the shop with one of the poppy garlands, made from plastic bottles that she made as part of the Remembrance Day initiative.

to see how soft it is. I then take the child to feel one of the Ponks’ ears and ask which is softer - the dog normally wins! After that the child invariably drags their parents back to the shop to see the dogs, and the parents hopefully buy something too!”

Jo admits that while Cardies stocks a wide range of cards and gifts, that there is a strong selection of dog-related designs, including some familiar faces.

“In spite of the narrowness of the shop, we do offer a huge selection of designs to cater for tastes right across the board,” explains Jo, before highlighting one special collection of designs. “We have built up quite a following for our Ponks cards that Tracks very kindly publishes for us, based on photographs I take of the dogs, which is rather lovely,” says Jo.

Thirty years and counting As Cardies celebrates is 30th anniversary, owner Jo Sorrell looks back to the early days and what has changed.

What were the first cards you sold?: “When we started I used to sell some of the cards I had made, featuring Jo Jo, a little bear character I came up with.

Second Nature was one of the first publisher I made contact with, and I am still dealing with them today.

In the early years of Cardies it was the heyday of Andrew Brownsword, Pictura and of course Athena. I remember the excitement when Carte Blanche published its Miranda cards, introducing Tatty Teddy.”

What couldn’t you do without?: “My agents - and PG! I have such a great relationship with so many of the agents who call on me - from Andy and his son Alex Fletcher through to Steph and Justine Becci - you get the feeling they have my interests at heart.

To survive as a small independent card shop in today’s climate you have to stand out, Jo Sorrell does this on many ‘legs’ and the good people of Stevenage quite rightly are wagging their tails about having such an enterprising community-minded retailer in their midst.

And I love PG, reading what other retailers are up to and what’s going on in the trade. In the first few years my only connection with the rest of the trade was through the magazine. While now we have social media and the internet, PG remains a constant - and I love going to PG Live!”

What have been the biggest changes on the card front over the last 30 years?: “The choice and the numbers of ‘go for it’ women running card publishing businesses.

This industry is now stuffed with an enormous wealth of choice of great ranges to suit ever consumer taste.

There has been a massively reduction in ‘stuffed shirts’ running card publishing businesses and lots more creative, passionate women in control - and it has been to benefit of the industry.”

Above: Jo (left) with her sister Tracey and first Labrador puppy, Poppy, in Cardies when it first opened 30 years go.

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JEREMY’S JOURNAL Business blogging by publisher Jeremy Corner of Blue Eyed Sun.

Step By Step Jeremy Corner, owner of greeting card publisher Blue Eyed Sun and distributor of BambooCup, looks back on The Ladder Club.

It’s been 20 years since industry friends Jakki Brown and the late Lynn Tait held the first Ladder Club seminar in Westcliff-onSea to help new publishers avoid rookie errors that had previously led to the demise of so many start ups in our industry.

Starting any business is tough and there are always risks. The pair felt that much of the heartache and loss of financial investments that goes with business failure could be avoided with a little heart-felt, loving guidance from those of us that have already been there and done it.

I’ve been privileged to have been a keynote speaker at The Ladder Club for three quarters of its existence, so I thought it would be nice to share some of the key lessons I’ve learned at the event over the years.

Successes The Ladder Club has had some fantastic success stories, with alumni including the likes of Paper Salad, Wrendale Design, Redback Cards and rising star Megan Claire, as well as a host of exciting and innovative publishers that have brightened up the offering available to card buyers globally. Ask most up and coming talents in our industry how they’ve managed it and invariably they will share the importance of The Ladder Club or the Greeting Card Association and the supportive ethos behind them.

Top: Lynn Tait (left) and Jakki Brown, founders of The Ladder Club.

Above: Wrendale Designs’ ‘A Christmas Cracker’ festive box of cards.

Right: Jeremy with Mark Janson-Smith (Postmark, London) who talked about card retailing at this year’s Ladder Club.

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PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

Failures The successes are still outweighed by those Ladder Club alumni that don’t make it.

It’s easy to see how the statistics for 80% of UK businesses failing in the first five years still holds true. I myself am so grateful to be in business with Blue Eyed Sun after 18 years as it’s no easy feat to survive and thrive in a highly competitive market like ours. There are a host of reasons for companies not surviving or continuing, but without The Ladder Club this number would surely have been greater still.

expanded their empire (originally from a market stall) to 34 shops.

Getting started is key, what happens after that is down to focus, hard work and luck.

Humble beginnings

Acorns into oaks

We all start small. Even the biggest companies in our industry came from humble beginnings. Woodmansterne started its card business with a tiny range of stained glass window images and has ballooned into a £14m business. The Art File launched on a 1m x 1m stand at Spring Fair in 1998.

Our first stand was a 2m x 2m at Top Drawer in May 2000.

All retailers start small too. I remember selling to a single Scribbler store on the Kings Road back in 2000 before John and Jennie Procter

Bill Gates famously said that “most people overestimate what they can do in a year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.” Timothy Melgund, now Paperchase’s deputy chairman, shared with us at The Ladder Club this year that when he and Robert Warden staged the MBO of the then embryonic group 22 years ago, they thought that they’d take Paperchase to 25 stores and he’s astonished that they now have 257 outlets.

After the many years I’ve been at trade shows it is remarkable to see the massive transformation of so many businesses. The sky really is the limit. I myself can’t quite believe how far Blue Eyed Sun has come and that we’ve been honoured by the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

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JEREMY’S JOURNAL Whoopsies We’ve all made mistakes. Ged Mace, md of The Art File, showed us an image of the collections he first launched, half of which were long rectangular designs that didn’t fit in most card displays. One of the best bits of advice people pick up at The Ladder Club seminars is on card sizing, both in relation to card rack space and stock envelope availability.

And we’ve all had typo errors. Despite checks in-house, with our production team and with our sales agents, ‘Happy Mohers Day’ still slipped through our net one year.

Watch out for poor font choices too. The most famous example of which was the ‘special aunt’ card with an incomplete ‘a’ that at a glance looked like a ‘c’, and changed the meaning completely! The lesson: be prepared to make mistakes, learn from them and move on quickly.

Opportunity There is no formula for the perfect card, other than staying different and being fresh and original. Which is easier said than done.

What works one year, may not work as well the next. The market is more diverse in its range of designs and looks than ever before. More and more retailers want to be different from one another and are demanding original content from card publishers to help them achieve this. White label work is growing and sub brands are popping up left, right and centre. That there is no formula is what is exciting for new publishers. At the same time, it’s also what is so challenging, with everyone (new and experienced) competing to stay relevant.

Link effect The whole supply chain is important. You hear and see this time and time again at

The Ladder Club. The seminar has received fantastic support from GF Smith, The Imaging Centre, Sherwood Group and Enveco over the years - all of it helpful advice rather than hard selling. Many of the publishers who speak at The Ladder Club also recognise how vital good relationships with suppliers are to our success. We are only as strong as our weakest link. And retailers acknowledge the value of great card suppliers with wonderful designs and good service.

Left: Paper Salad’s directors Claire Williams (left) and Karen Wilson have shared their card publishing ups and downs at many Ladder Club seminars.

Below left: Ged Mace, md of The Art File, with Georgina Fihosy of Special Touch Designs, who attended day 2 of the Ladder Club.

Below: At this year’s Ladder Club (day 1), Thortful’s Andy Pearce revealed his business story.

selling cards online with some personalisation on the inside. Both still make up a small percentage of the overall market with strong ambitions to change this. Most of my young team seem to buy their cards online, but the jury is still out for small and personal purchases like cards swinging fully online.

Social media Environment ‘Single-use’ was the word of the year for 2018. The ‘Blue Planet effect’ that I spoke about at Autumn Fair is having a massive impact on how we shop at the moment.

Generally speaking our industry has been very conscientious. FSC stock is the norm, as is recycling and the fundraising each year with Christmas card charity packs. Despite the fact that most cello-bags are made with quality recyclable polypropylene, recycling facilities do not facilitate them being recycled easily. Cello-bags are undoubtedly in the firing line and there is still confusion about what alternatives are best and the viability of compostable options. As one delegate said at The Ladder Club seminar this year, “you can’t be a start up and accept single-use plastics on your cards.”

Sometimes we learn from our delegates and for me this is a clear signal of things to come. Expect to see less spot UV, more compostable bags and more naked cards becoming the norm in the very near future.

The internet While the internet represents a significant threat and opportunity for retailers, it still appears that the majority of the card buying public prefer to shop in store for cards. Most of the main publishers and retailers have not been able to significantly grow their sales online. Moonpig has trailblazed personalised online card buying. Companies like Thortful are in hot pursuit with a focus more on

The real triumph for publishers making the most of the internet has been on social media. Companies like Dean Morris and Ohh Deer have generated massive social media followings and opened up significant B2C web-sales with up to one third of their trade being direct to the public. Growing your brand via social and then translating this into sales is a strong strategy.

Our industry has yet to fully harness the potential of influencers, but there are some great Ladder Club stories of celebrities buying cards and prints from designer-makers on internet marketplaces like Etsy and Not on the High Street and then sharing photos of them online which in turn boost sales, PR and website hits.

The future The Ladder Club has had a wonderful influence on our industry over the years and continues to grow from strength to strength.

We have had some incredible speakers give up their time and energy to put back into the industry that has treated them so well.

Next year the seminar will evolve yet again and I am excited to see what new designers the future has to offer us.

Read more on Jeremy’s blog at www.blueeyedsun.co.uk/blog PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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ART SOURCE

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ARTSOURCE SECTION OF PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS CONTACT TRACEY ARNAUD ON 01234 740 051

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Art Source PG helps to paint a pretty picture of freelance artists, designers, verse writers and photographers’ worlds in order to promote their talents to publishers and, conversely, make it easier for publishers seeking artists.

ARTIST IN FOCUS

Svetlana Aristova I am Svetlana Aristova, a 40 year-old artist from Moscow. My paintings are dreamy, peaceful, positive and painted by heart and soul. I truly believe that happiness comes with focusing on the good and kind sides of life. I see my art as a reminder of the magic of everyday, which I usually find in, well, the usual the small, the easy to ignore things, such as an umbrella, an old teddy bear, an oak tree in a park, or a cup of tea on a sodden Saturday afternoon. My artlife began with the birth of my daughter 16 years ago and that added a fairy-tale tone to my palette. I grew up in a family of book lovers, the fairy-tales and true tales that my parents instilled in me left a deep love of stories, and I hope the storytelling theme can be found throughout my art. Also, living in Burma and India as a child left strong impressions on me of those bright and colourful countries. My education in fashion design still influences how I see art.

I have been sharing my art with people online over the past

number of years. I have met a great number of kind and curious people from all corners of the globe and this influences my imagination and feeds my fantasies. I feel lucky to live in the now, which is full of great possibilities. And I try to use that energy to share with people the world of mine through my love of art in the hope that people might find something very special for them in it and just love my art too. l Email: svetlanaristova@yandex.ru

WANT TO BE FEATURED?

If you are an artist, photographer or verse writer and would like to be considered to appear in Art Source, please contact PG’s Emma Cain on emmac@max-publishing.co.uk. This is an editorial feature and as such is free of charge.

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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ART SOURCE

England

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From lifestyle accessories to traditional writing instruments and superior stationery products – the Stationery Trends segment at Paperworld offers the world’s largest platform for personal stationery products. The carefully tailored supplementary programme of events is a comprehensive source of information on the latest developments in the office supplies and stationery sectors. Pick up new ideas and benefit from the Business Matchmaking programme at the industry’s largest meeting place. paperworld.messefrankfurt.com info@uk.messefrankfurt.com Tel. +44 (0) 14 83 48 39 83

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Art Source

Joanna McConnell I'm an artist living and working in Surrey. Typical of many artists, I have always been creative. My efforts originally went into portraits, using oil paints to create life like images that portray something deeper than just brush strokes and oil drips. However, in truth, I found it hard to find willing subjects, so decided to branch out a little, and now focus mainly on animals.

I still enjoy creating realistic oil paintings, however recently I have discovered a love for water colours. I am inspired by our British wildlife and am lucky enough to have a husband who works for the British wildlife Centre. The animals here are my muse. I have always adored animals, so it's very fitting that I now paint them. I enjoy studying them, taking photos of them and doing little sketches to inform my work.

I studied art at London university of Art, mainly focussing on photography. However, even at this point in my life I was consumed by nature, with a fascination for fractals. I created images, drawn by hand then manipulated to look like cells. The results were some striking black and white prints, these can be viewed on my website, along with a selection of figurative work. I like exploring different avenues and techniques in art, I don’t want to limit my creative nature!

I have created my latest work using a unique watercolour technique, something I have largely developed myself. I like using tonal colours, shades found in nature.

I always want to make something new and better, however I’m thrilled with my new collection and envisage it all over cushions and curtains soon, watch this space! l Email: jomcconnell88@hotmail.co.uk

Tracy Churchill My passion for art has been with me for as long as I can remember. As a child I would press flowers and then make a journal with them surrounded by art. I have no degree in art, just a longing to keep creating and painting, and pushing my artistic abilities. Living in the beautiful Cotswolds countryside has certainly fuelled my enthusiasm - how could you not want to paint the rolling hills, honey coloured stone and stunning views that make the Cotswolds such an iconic English landscape?

Walking with my dogs along the hedgerows, I stop constantly to take a photo of the abundance of nature’s resources, and then rush home to paint what I have found.

My watercolours mostly consist of the wildlife and wild flowers that can be found in our landscape. I am particularly fond of painting birds, especially owls. And I am also partial to the odd hare and field mouse too.

I have been told that my work has a whimsical charm, which could lend itself to a child’s book. This is something I am keen to explore in the near future. For me painting is as much a part of my life as eating and sleeping, which I am sure is how many artists feel. To be able to re-create what I see, in the individual way that I see it, is a never-ending source of wonder to me, and the fact that I am building up a lovely following of fans just makes it all the more wonderful. l Email: tracychurchillDandelion@outlook.com

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PG asked a selection of card retailers for their ‘hot’ card sellers.

Rachel Loubser, owner of The Baobab, Mortimer Common, Reading A small shop in a village with a visitors and loyal locals customer base.

Category

Name of Publisher

Product/Name Range

Comments

Cute

Carte Blanche

Me To You

Humour

Redback Cards

Across The Board

Photographic

Museums & Galleries Woodmansterne Abacus

BBC Earth General Gardeners’ World and BBC Springwatch

Art

Ling Design

Gallery

Contemporary

Nigel Quiney

Pizazz

Traditional

Noel Tatt and IC&G

Across The Board

The designs have really nice sentiments without being too gushing or slushy.

Simple designs but the jokes are really quick and current; They’re great!

We are located in the country so wildlife and rural scenes are very relevant to people. And each range has its unique and different images not found on cards anywhere else.

Gentle scenes in a variety of themes, from a painter’s easel to a country cottage.

The designs are stunning. The application of foiling is beautifully done, including on the unicorns. The cards suit older people down to children. The Pizazz Male range is great too.

Just really good across sales. Lovely words and illustrations and a good selection of occasions and relations designs.

Right: A tentative squirrel on a design from Abacus’ BBC Springwatch range.

Sarah Morris, owner of Gazebo Gifts, Totnes, Devon A medium gift and home accessories shop in a market town with a visitors and loyal locals customer base.

Category

Name of Publisher

Product/Name Range

Comments

Cute

Laura Skilbeck

General

Humour

Modern Toss

Across The Board

Kiss Me Kwik

General

Petra Boase

Across The Board

Rifle Paper co

General

Hutch Cassidy

General

Schnucki Images

Lenticular Cards

Hype

Beatrix Potter, Thomas the Tank Engine etc General

Childlike illustrations of sweet characters enhanced with gorgeous gold block foiling. The new baby designs are so nice too.

Not for everyone, but I find the darkly funny humour cathartic.

I don't offer the really crude and rude humour designs, but there are quite a few that are sweet.

Ridiculously pretty designs, and I love the little gift element that many of Petra’s designs incorporate.

Really beautiful cards and giftwrap. I adore Rifle’s products. We stock all of its stationery and phonecases too.

Beautiful, colourful and unusual designs with a unique look.

Unique and fun lenticular designs that just sell and sell!

We have mixed in different publishers in our children’s section but Hype’s classic characters and Meri Meri’s cards with a little extra sell very well.

Contemporary

Children’s

Top right: ‘Bunny Band’ on a design from Laura Skilbeck.

Right: A dream-like colourful world of turtles on a card from Hutch Cassidy.

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Kim Snookes-Hathaway, owner of With love from Hoole, Hoole, Chester A medium shop in a city suburb with a local customer base.

Category

Name of Publisher

Product/Name Range

Comments

Cute

Carte Blanche

Me To You

Humour

Berni Parker

Ladies Who Love Life

Photographic

Noel Tatt

RSPCA

Traditional

Grass Roots

General

Handmade/ Hand-Finished Children’s

Sabivo Design

General

Tracey Russell

Across The Board

Giftwrappings Ancillary

Partisan The Puppet Company

General Finger and hand puppets

Featuring little grey bear, Tatty Teddy, the range is just great for any age.

It’s got to be Berni Parker - her designs have gentle humour and just fly off the shelves.

These blank animal cards sell really well - customers just love them!

Most of the publisher’s designs are very traditional, which our older customers love.

We’ve just introduced these cards and our customers are loving them… and they’re handmade in England.

I personally love Tracey Russell’s children range, and they are made in the UK. Good quality giftwrap that’s not over priced.

Above: A gorgeous black swan card from Sabivo A great gift for all ages.

Design, featuring hand-attached sparkle.

Helen and William Crawford, owners of The Old School Beauly, Beauly, Inverness-shire A large shop in a picturesque town with a destination shoppers and loyal locals customer base.

Category

Name of Publisher

Product/Name Range

Comments

Everyday

Caroline Gardner and The Art File

Across The Board

Humour

Cath Tate

Across The Board

Contemporary

Molly Mae

General

Art

The Pattern Book

General

Children’s

Roger la Borde

General

Meri Meri

General

The Old School Beauly Candles

Scented candles

Both publishers are a staple for us, but ticking different boxes. Caroline Gardner’s ranges, especially its Keepsakes range, are beautiful and feminine. While The Art File is very much for the gents with its top hat and brogues designs. Both create top class, quality designs.

Fab humour that makes you laugh out loud - you can’t beat it!

Very popular ranges with a variety of card sizes that generally have a hand-attached jewel. The publisher also creates a Scottish range, that’s been subtly done, Above: Beautiful geographical and beautiful and meaningful artwork from The Pattern Book.

Below: A honeycomb sausage Sympathy cards. dog card from Meri Meri.

In terms of cards that cover a specific particular interest, these cards have gone ballistic for us. Featuring template pictures from old pattern books, the images show, for example, rock formations or positions of dance.

The designs look like they are from another time. The characters are beautifully illustrated and thoughtfully done.

So cleverly done and interactive. We stock a lot of the publisher’s occasions cards but the children’s designs are also very nicely done.

One design has a beautiful baby mobile inside, and another some lovely bunting.

Our own in-house scented candles, which are based on our love of the Highlands and named after different parts, such as Glen Affric.

Ancillary

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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PRODUCT DIRECTORY

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To appear in the Product Directories contact

Warren Lomax

020 7700 6740

or email warren@max-publishing.co.uk or contact

Tracey Arnaud

07957 212 062

or email traceya@max-publishing.co.uk

To appear in the Product Directories contact

Warren Lomax

Abacus Cards Limited t: 01638 569050 e: info@abacuscards.co.uk w: www.abacuscards.co.uk

020 7700 6740

or email warren@max-publishing.co.uk or contact

Tracey Arnaud

07957 212 062

or email traceya@max-publishing.co.uk 58

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

01565 830 546 | bexyboo.co.uk @BexyBooLtd

BexyBooLtd

@BexyBooLtd

58-65_Product Directory_December 2018.qxp 21/11/2018 15:26 Page 59

PRODUCT DIRECTORY

l PRODUCT DIRECTORY

l PRODUCT DIRECTORY

To appear in the Product Directories simply contact

Warren Lomax on:

020 7700 6740

or email on warren@max-publishing.co.uk or contact

Tracey Arnaud on:

07957 212 062

or email on traceya@max-publishing.co.uk

Publishers of quality blank greeting cards Tel: 0115 929 4776 enquiries@bugart.co.uk Order Online

www.bugart.co.uk

Caspari Ltd Linden House, John Dane Player Court

East Street, Safffrron W Waalden Essex, CB10 1LR Teel: 01799 513010 T Faax: 01799 513101 F Email: inffoo@caspari.co.uk ww ww w.CaspariOnline.com

Products: Everyday cards - birthday,

www.cathtatecards.com

blank & occasions, charity Christmas cards, gifftt wrap, bags, tissue, ribbon, hankies, napkins, paper plate, candles, placemats, crackers,invitations, placecards, notecards,diaries, address books, journals, advent calendars and bridge gifftts.

Method of Sale: Direct to Retail

To appear in the Product Directories contact

Warren Lomax

Witty, gritty, switched on humour.

Cards and gifts with a real difference.

Unit 1, 45 Morrish Road London SW2 4EE Tel: 0208 671 2166 Fax: 0208 678 1119 info@cathtatecards.com

020 7700 6740

or email warren@max-publishing.co.uk or contact

Tracey Arnaud

07957 212 062

or email traceya@max-publishing.co.uk

One of the UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading suppliers of Greeting Cards since 19995 Products: High quality greetin ng cards with superb finishes. All maajjor and minor titles, covering traditio onaall to the latest in innovative design, n both Everydaayy and Seasonal. Providing an all NEW selection of Muggs and Notebooks. k Brands Include: Down Memory Lane, W Wo ot A Mug and T Tw wist & Shout Methods of Sale: Direct to retail Desiggners welcome contact beverley@cherryorchardpublishing.co.uk

Unit 10 Duddage Business Park Brockeridge Rd Twyning Tewkesbury GL20 6BY 01684 295500 info@cherryorchardpublishing.co.uk www.cherryorchardpublishing.co.uk

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

59

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;1b-Ѳbv|v |_mb1 u;;࢟m] -u7v "r S end i n g

A w o n d e rf u l

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Warren Lomax

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020 7700 6740

made with great imagination

@thecuriousinksmith

Tracey Arnaud

Ch C hin nese ese HE IS

Beautiful greeting cards from contemporary British artwork

THE

WAY

THE AND TRUTH THE

LIFE

01892 838 574

sales@thecuriousinksmith.co.uk

or email on warren@max-publishing.co.uk or contact

www.dryredpress.com

on:

07957 212 062

or email on traceya@max-publishing.co.uk

T +44 (0) 1273 241210 E info@dryredpress.com

Polissh Po h

Te T el: 0161 1 64 641 0 06 655 Email: m sales@da sales@d avora.co.uk av 135 Hea 13 135 eaton Moorr Rd | Stockp ock kpo port ort SK4 4HY 4 4H HY

High Quality Greeting Cards, Gift Bags, Gift Wrap & Ta Tags for every occasion.

*GCF 1HĆ&#x201A;EG +353 (0)404 20528 Email info@garlanna.com www.garlanna.com

Welsh and English cards

TM

GRASS ROOTS

INTERNATIONAL

G RASS R OOTS INTERNATIONAL

www.draenog.com Ç&#x2C6; 07815 153582

agents wanted

A U.K owned Greeting Cards Publisher.

Our everyday ranges for all occasions and relations include traditional, contemporary, cute, humour and photographic designs. We also have a full range of Christmas and Spring Seasons.

All products are designed and printed in the U.K on the finest quality board.

BRANDS â&#x20AC;&#x153;Write from the Heartâ&#x20AC;? brand includes; Corsage, Sentiments, Champagne, Celebrations and Jelly Beans.

M ETHOD OF SALE Direct to Retail

G RASS R OOTS INTERNATIONAL

To appear in the Product Directories simply contact

Warren Lomax on:

020 7700 6740

or email on warren@max-publishing.co.uk or contact

Tracey Arnaud on:

07957 212 062

Units 4 - 4A Valentines Buildin g Ra cec our se Bus in ess Par k Aintr ee, Liver poo l, L9 5 AL Tel: 0151 52 3 9600 Fax : 015 1 523 494 9 e-m ail: s ales@ writefr om th ehear t.co.uk

from the

Innovative high quality gift wrap, gift bags, tissue paper and accesssories galore for all seasons and occasions.

0127 74 4 655980 sales@glick.co.uk www.glick.co.uk Glick, Unit 1 Allenby House, European Ind. Park, Knowles Lane, Bradford BD4 9AB

or email on traceya@max-publishing.co.uk @glickgiftwrap

60

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• UK Market leaders with humour, art, photographic, contemporary and traditional occasions & relations cards, plus seasonal.

• 2΍HULQJ D IXOO SODQQLQJ VHUYLFH with merchandising and retail development opportunities.

• Specialists in garden centres and the independent trade.

Find The Great British Card Company on:

PHOTOGRAPHY SUPPLIER

www.greatbritishcards.co.uk Waterwells Drive, Gloucester GL2 2PH Tel: 01452 888970

glebecottage.co.uk 01626 369269 Estaab blished 1993

)

CHARITY GREETING CARDS

To appear in the Product Directories contact

Warren Lomax

020 7700 6740

or email warren@max-publishing.co.uk or contact

AR RT TISTS CARDS glebecottage.co.uk 01626 369269

Tracey Arnaud

07957 212 062

or email traceya@max-publishing.co.uk

One of the UK’s leading publishers of Charity Greeting Cards.

Impress offers a wide collection of images, including fine art, graphic, photographic and cute.

We also offer a bespoke design service for bulk orders and/or mail order fulfilment.

Impress Publishing Appledown House Barton Business Park New Dover Road Canterbury, Kent CT1 3TE Tel: 01227 811 611 Fax: 01227 811 618 email: info@impresspublishing.co.uk

Esta ab blished 1993 PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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60 years

Your Number One Supplier of Numerals, Name, Relation & Age Labels for Greetings Cards.

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Silk Screened Retro, Pop & Classic Cards Inspired by Music and 1960’s American Advertising.For all Vinyl & Rock n’Roll lovers

L E T U S TA K E YOU BAC K

Huge selection with immediate delivery y.. Buy direct or from your wholesalerr..

Listan Labels 3 Isis Court, Wyndyke Furlong, Abingdon Business Park, Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX1 5JN Te T el 01235 465489 Fax 01235 532118 www.listanpublications.co.uk sales@listanpublications.co.uk

For further details please get in touch.

info@vincentmcevoy.com

+44 (0)7779 578340

LING DESIGN The UK’s leading privately owned publisher of Greetings Cards and Stationery. ...The home for and

Products: Greetings cards for all occasions, Christmas and Spring Seasons cards, gift wrap and bags, charity cards, social stationery.

Bespoke service for charities and other fundraisers.

Ling Design Ltd 14-20 Eldon Way, Paddock Wood, Kent TN12 6BE Tel: 01892 838574 enquiries@lingdesign.co.uk www.lingdesign.co.uk

LING DESIGN

www.lingdesign.co.uk

01892 838 574

information@lingdesign.co.uk

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Products An exciting and innovative range of quality Birthday, Relations, Special Occasions, Art and Humorous greeting cards. Full range of Christmas and Spring Seasons merchandise. Comprehensive collection of handmade cards.

Pizazz Gifts.

Brand Names Pizazz, Pizazz Gallery, Pizazz Jewell, Pizazz for Men, What a Picture, Time Out, Bon Bon, Marshmallow Cloudesley House â&#x20AC;¢ Shire Hill â&#x20AC;¢ Saffron Walden â&#x20AC;¢ CB11 3FB T: 01799 520200 F: 01799 520100 www.nigelquiney.com

AG E N T S WA N T E D : Æ« Æ«Ä&#x2018;Æ« Æ«

Æ«Ä&#x2018;Æ« Æ«

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p p paperlink... the home of fabulous cards!

Design-led Stationery, Gifts, Calendars, Diaries and Cards Brands Laura Ashley, Roald Dahl, Lily & Val, Vintage Ladybird, Caroline Gardner, Monsoon, Born to Shop, Flash Gordon, Boofle and many more.

TRADE WEBSITE:

Ä&#x2039;

Ä®

Ä&#x2039; 01780 763 368

Our In-house design studio and established supply chain enables us to offer bespoke services.

356 Kennington Rd London SE11 4LD T 020 7582 8244 info@paperlink.co.uk k www.paperlink.co.uk Paperlinkcards

tel: +44 (0) 1225 329494 email: sales@porticodesigns.com website: www.porticodesigns.com

@ @paperlinkcards

Exquisite Design, Beautiful Cardss Key brands include Marzipan, Portobello, Mosaic, Daisy Patch, Aquarupella and Designers Guild, plus many more.

originalposter.com LUXURY GIFT PACKAGING All our cards are supplied on consignment, so you only pay for what you sell.

Tel: +44 (0)115 986 0115 Email: info@paperrose.co.uk www.paperrose.co.uk www.artgroupcards.co.uk PaperRoseCards TheArtGroupCards The_Art_Group

We also supply card fixtures and spinners free-on-loan.

We replace slow sellers and damaged stock free of charge.

We merchandise regularly, so you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to.

THATâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S WHY WEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;RE ORIGINAL!

01932 267 300

ICONIC LICENCED BRANDS

01892 838 574 www.pennykennedy.co.uk PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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Products:

Uk publisher of Greetings Cards with an extensive range of quality Birthday, Relations, Occasions and Seasonal product... available from

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Greetings Cards, Gift Wrap, Gift Bags, Social Stationery, Mugs and Glasses, Partyware

LING DESIGN

Brands: Card Essentials Designer Collection Greetings Impressions Inspirations In Touch ,VDEHO·V *DUGHQ Planet Happy With You In Mind

Our Brands: Laughter with Animals, Sporting Fun The Funny Side of Life.

Method of sale: Wholesale Distributors

Simon Elvin Limited Wooburn Industrial Park, Wooburn Green, Bucks HP10 0PE Tel: 01628 526711 Fax: 01628 531483 www.simonelvin.com mail@simonelvin.com

Method of sale: Direct to Retail 14-20 Eldon Way, Paddock Wood, Kent TN12 6BE Tel: 01892 838574 enquiries@lingdesign.co.uk www.lingdesign.co.uk

Sensations International Ltd Unit 6, Quad Road,East Lane Business Park,East lane, Wembley,MIDDLESEX HA9 7NE Tel. 0208 3854470 Fax: 0208 385 4471 Email: sales@sensationsinternational.com PRODUCTS: World’s leading publisher of high quality plastic greeting cards. Also an extensive range of quality greeting cards covering Everyday, Occasions, Christmas and Spring seasons.

BRANDS: Cherished Thoughts, Sweet Sentiments, Buddies Always, Symphony, Thinking of You, Style, Special Wishes, Special Times, Young Editions, Groove Sensations, Forever Blessed, Grey Skies, Classics.

METHOD OF SALE: Direct to retail.

2@= 29KL= M<K Just food and their friends....

NEW COLLECTION

5= N= ?GF= ?J==F raspber r yblossom.com hello@raspberryblossom.com 020 3723 5405

64

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

greeting cards & contempoRary gifts www.redbackcards.com e: info@redbackcards.com t: 01803 712793

All greeting cards printed with vegetable inks on recycled boards/envelopes, including biodegradable packaging...

www.the-taste-buds.co.uk info@the-taste-buds.co.uk 07906 367 663

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&DUGV &DOHHQQGDUV &R & RDVWHUV 1RWHEER RRNV

w: www.tomcatcards.co.uk e: tomcat@tomcatcards.co.uk t: 01243 837300

We offffer a COMPREHE

range of hig Greeting Ca ALL

Occasions, AS

and easons.

The UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading publisher of highest quality handmade Greetings Cards.

Sale: Direct to R

Products: Greetings cards for all occasions, Christmas and Spring Seasons. Spinners and other retail displays available.

Market Leaders in

Verse

& entimen

Talking Pictures Cards Ltd 14-20 Eldon Way, Paddock Wood, Kent, TN12 6BE

Tel: 01892 838574 enquiries@talkingpics.co.uk www.talking-pictures.co.uk

il: inffo o@words-n eb: www w..words-n

Tel: 01942 233201

view by rufus designed in thames ditton

design-led Greeting Cards for all occasions, Spring Seasons & Christmas.

DIRECT TO RETAIL & EXPORT

Method of Sale: Direct to Retail Orders can be placed on our trader site

www.cbgtrader.co.uk or call our customer services team on

the three tenas topdog@view by rufus.com 020 8972 9706

viewbyrufus.com register fo for a trade account: www w..viewbyrufus i b f .com/b2b /b2b

+44(0)1243 792600

Art Cards eA Botanical Fine

an extensive range of superior quality,

Vibrant and nd elegant gree greeting cards A freshly fr modern perspective on nature

Call Now 075 7700 1145 www.zaquarella.co.uk info@ zaquarella.com

TEL: 01480 435562 FAX: 01480 450599 www.tracksltd.com UNIT 2, 12 BLACKSTONE RD, STUKELEY MEADOWS IND EST,

Top-notch British Greeting Cards for Thoughts that Count

HUNTINGDON, CAMBS, PE29 6EF

01923 200600 | www.woodmansterne.co.uk PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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magnus RUPERT

TRADING

EUROPEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S LEADING GREETINGS CARDS, PARTY PRODUCTS, GIFTS, CANDLES, TOYS, STATIONERY AND FLORIST SUNDRIES DISTRIBUTION CENTRE 75000 SQ FT BESCOT CRESCENT, WALSALL, WEST MIDLANDS. WS1 4NG 01922-646666 www.greetingshouse.co.uk info@greetingshouse.co.uk MON,WED,FRI 8.00am-4.45pm TUES,THURS 8.00am-7.45pm SAT,SUN 8.00am-1.45pm

67-70_Classified 2018.qxp_Layout 1 21/11/2018 16:05 Page 67

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Polypropylene & biodegradable bag specialists

GREETING CARD

Over 40 years quality service to the trade Hotfoiling also available

T 01206 396209 E sales@badgerconverters.co.uk www.badgerconverters.co.uk

GIVE E YOUR

BAGS

Manuffacturers of high quality fllexible packaging 30 YEARS EXPERIENCE - QUA UALITTY Y SERVICE EXTENSIVE STOCK RANGE - QUICK DE ELIVERY ASSURED

- HEADER BAGS - WA WALLET BAGS - ZIPPER BAGS - FLEXOGRAPHIC, HOTFOIL & THEERMAL PRINTING www.transrappackagin ng.co.uk sales@transrap.co o.uk

V VIP

CALL US TODA AY

TREA AT A TMENT

01773 5378 810

HIGH CLARITY L TY Y BA AGS FOR R GREETING G ET T NG CARD DS, CALEND EN N ARS ARS AND AND D ARTW TWORK WORK

ENVELOPES

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FOIL LB BLOCKING NG G EXTE XTENSIVE NSIV VE R V RANG RA ANGE OF ST STOCK S SIZES IZ ZES AND B AND BES E ESPO OKE KE MANUF KE MANU UF FACTU TUR TURE T U E AT TED D WRAPPING SERVICE NEW AUTOMA

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0122 1228 228 2 28 8 56 5605 60 052 26 6 www.fful ulcrumfilms. ulcrrum mfillm ms s co.uk uk

FOR ALL YOUR ENVELOPE NEEDS! Largest range of in-stock colours Over 400 Bespoke Envelope Sizes 8 Sizes Permanently in Stock RECYCLED

100% Recycled Paper Av Available

PAPER A

Stock & Bespoke Cello Bags Peel & Stick Envelopes p Bespoke Service on Request

ORDER ON LINE AT: www.regentenvelopes.com 01274 583000 sales@regentenvelopes.com

We’ve been producing p bags of high clarity and high quality q for over 30 years.

01274 220 220 www w.wrapid.co.uk sales@wrapid.co.uk

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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FLITTERING FOR ALL YOUR FLITTER REQUIREMENTS

ABL Foil Ltd Unit 1, Industrial Estate East Hanningfield Chelmsford Essex, CM3 8AB

Contact DAVID JIGGINS Tel: 01245 400104 Email: david@abl-ltd.co.uk

PRINTERS

PJ Print PJ woulldd lliike to w isshh our clliie nts and co lllee aaggu gue s in thhee gre eting card industry Meerry Christmas M and a very Haapppppy Ne w Ye ar The Pr int W Wo orks Colville Road, Acton London W3 8BL tel 020 8993 5160

e-mail sales@p pjj-pr int.co.uk www w..p pjj-pr int.co.uk 68

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

Social Sta tationerry Printer of the Year

Award winning U UK & Global specialist manufacturer ffor the greeting card industry fo or over 40 years To discuss how we can work together, contact Simon King: Tel 0115 928 7766 Email ssimon.king@sherwoodgroupuk.com www.sherwoodgroupuk.com Hadden Court, Glaisdale Parkway, Glaisdale Drive West, Nottin ngham NG8 4GP

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Your saf ep ai

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Outstanding, cost effective and efficient production of Greeting cards, Packaging and Social stationery, ideal for intricate and hand finished products.

• Over 15 years experience providing high-quality printed products direct from the Far East • Trusted and financially stable, UK owned by The Sherwood Group • Socially responsible manufacturing: SMETA, ISO9001, ISO14001, FSC certification • Full product prototyping in the UK for competitive speed to market requirements

To find out how we can benefit your business, contact Derek Lam +00 (852) 3527 3471 / derek@sherwood-press.com or The Sherwood Group Head Office Hong Kong Office: 13/F, Kam Chung Commercial Building, 19-21 Hennessy Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong

www w..sherwoodgroupuk.com

000510

YOUR MANUFACTURING PARTNER FOR VALUE ADDED PRODUCTS English speaking production team, prices quoted in sterling... and only 3 days delivery to THE UK...

Really... and there s no VAT to pay or customs procedures either...that's a great deal!

• Hand made and hand finished greeting cards • Boxed sets and acetate packs of cards / envelopes • Giftwrap and tag packs • Individually open and closed wrapped cards • 'Pop up' and cardboard engineered products • Notelets and social stationery • Specialised printing on plastics & lenticular For production enquiries, estimates etc., please contact our UK Agent:

Rob Pearson 07710 132 232 rob@solutions-polska.com FSC accredited (BV-COC-002485). Audited member of SMETA. Printing to ISO12674-2 standard.

SPECIALISTS IN SHORT RUN MULTI IMAGE PRINT s Foiling Services without the need for dies s Wiro bound notebooks, no minimum quantity s In House Fulfilmment Services

T 01274 305832 E info@hellocards.co.uk www.hellocards.co.uk PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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WAREHOUSING & DISTRIBUTION

THE RIGH HT PARTNER

FOR ALL YOUR MANUFACTURING REQUIREMENTS

Glitt i Glittering

** ** ** **

Offset ff t PPrinting i ti

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Facto ory Outlook

Established in 1997, headquarters in Hong Kong 600,000 Sq.fftt of modern production facility ouse production Ensure complete co ontrol from start to finish with our full in-ho ng in people, equipment, technology and the Continually investin t planet

TERRY JOHNSO ON PO Box 1600 Hemel Hempstead, HP1 9SR Mobile: 07773 389784 Email: terryjohnson@ve eb.com.hk Website: www.veb.com m.hk

AND NOW FO OR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT... .

Same day order turna around Accurate fulfilment Value added only as you sell the product Exclusively Greeting Cards Dedicated Account Managers

Our innovative greeting gs card finishes include: Thermography Foil Intense Glitter Snowraise Liquid q M Metal Blended Glitter Embossing Textured Foil Laser Cutting

With an excellent reputation we work as an integral part of yourr team bringing QYGL QSVI XLER JYPǻPQIRX 4YV GSWXMRK WXVYGXYVI MW WMQTPI ERH XVERWTEVIRX ;I ; I GEVV] SYX EPP EWTIGXW SJ LERH ǻRMWLMRK ERH EWWIQFP] ERH TVSZMHI [LEXIZIV EHHMXMSREP WIVZMGIW ]SY RIIH 4YV WIPIGX XIEQ SJ SYX[SVOIVW GEVIJYPP] LERH [VET ER] WM^I SV JSVQEX SJ GEVHW YVKIRXP] 4ZIVRMKLX ;I GEVI EFSYX ]SYV TVSHYGX EW QYGL EW ]SY HS &XXIRXMSR XS HIXEMP 6( .WWYIW ;I ERH .8 WYTTSVXIH F] E GSQTVILIRWMZI TETIV XVEMP JS T JSV EPP WXSGO QSZIQIRXW EVI SYV LEPPQEVOW 4YV GER HS ETTVSEGL QIERWW [I EVI LETT] XS WSPZI ]SYV TVSFPIQW 4YXWSYVGMRK ]SYV [EVILSYWMRK STIVEXMSR VIPIEWIW ]SYV XMQI XS CREA AT TE/MARKET/SELL/ MANAGE/ /GROW THE BUSINESS =SYV FYWMRIWW MW SYV FYWMRIWW T =S TPIEWI ZMWMX Z SYV [IF WMXI ERH WII [LEX SYV GYWXSQIVW WE] XLIR XS ǻRH SYX S QSVI GEPP Ly Lynda Raymond ERH TIVLETW [I GER EVVERKI XS QIIX ERH HMWGYWW ]SYV RIIHW . EQ WYVI XLEX [I GER G LIPT

LB Warehousing ask about our ‘Mrr Abbot’ sample pack

To discuss your nextt greetings card range call us on 01797 223355 www.abbotprint.co.uk bb i k sales@abbotprint.co.uk l bb i k 70

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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APPOINTMENTS DISPLAY AND SPINNERS

Tel: 01929 550085 Email: sales@westminsterwire.com Web: www.westminsterwire.com

Home of the Wire Spinner Stand

The Wire Spinner is proven to be the most cost effective method to display and enhance products.

We also offer sheet metal, wood, acrylic and cardboard solutions or a combination of materials.

One of the UK’s most recognisable & well established suppliers to the greeting card & gift retail sector now requires a new Sales Agent for the West Midlands/ Derbyshire/Leicestershire/Nottinghamshire/Lincolnshire/ Staffordshire/Nothamptonshire & Warwickshire.

Good rates of commission paid and ample opportunity to expand and develop the territory, backed up by us with a flexible and progressive attitude towards new business.

Contact Erik in the first instance on sales@alexclarkart.co.uk or on 01207 560447

To appear in the Classified pages simply contact

Warren Lomax 020 7700 6740 or email on warren@max-publishing.co.uk

Alex Clark Art Ltd Unit 5, Taylors Building, Hownsgill Drive, Delves Lane, Consett, Co. Durham DH8 9HU www. alexclarkart.co.uk

ROLE: Sales Representative AREA A : Midlands SALARY: £32 OTE COMPANY A :

ROLE:

Requirements for the role include: Previous sales experience The ability to communicate well at all levels Good organisation skills Computer literate Well presented Full clean driving license

In return we are offering: Permanent full time position 25 days holiday Company car Mobile Phone IPadd

If you interested in applying, pleasse send your CV and a covering letter to: Lisa Marcucccio Head of Sales WRENDALE E DESIGNS LT LTD Unit 6, Station road, Briggg, North Lincolnshire DN20 8HX lisa@wrendaaledesigns.co.uk The closing date iss Friday 7th December.

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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