Henries Winners 2020_GF.qxp_Layout 1 21/12/2020 18:41 Page 23
This prestigious award is presented to an individual who has contributed greatly to the UK greeting card industry. The winner can come from the retailing, publishing, wholesaling or the supply side of the trade. Nominations are sought from the entire industry for this special award. Inset: Cath Tate with her much deserved Henries award. Left: The photomontage that Cath Tate designed at a night school class which was to launch the company.
Cath Tate gave a wonderful acceptance speech at the awards event… “I was absolutely bowled over
Here is an excerpt the citation PG editor Jakki Brown gave prior to the award recipient being announced…
at getting this award. I am quite overwhelmed as it was completely unexpected. When I think back to 40 years ago, what I really wanted to do when I started with was to change the world and I thought cards were as good a place to start as any. So, I sat down at my kitchen table and there I was cutting up old photographs and pasting them down, trying to work out what would make a good card or not, with my daughter Rosie, who was a baby then, crawling around on the floor near to me. I was absolutely green as grass. I knew nothing about the card business, nothing about business and to be quite honest I’ve spent the last 40 years learning by the seat of my pants! But it just goes to show that if you do have something that you feel is important, you just have to sit down at the kitchen table and just get on with it. You will make mistakes, sometimes terrible mistakes, but without those mistakes you’ll never get anywhere quite honestly. But I also want to recognise and thank all the support that I’ve had from other people because there is no project that is not a joint effort with other people. I want to recognise and thank the artists, the designers, my agents, my loyal staff, my daughter Rosie who is now running the business, but she’s not crawling around on the floor quite so much as she used to! I also want to thank my lovely customers - from the small independent shops all over the UK, the chains and our distributors have taken have taken our cards to all the far-flung corners of the world. You believed in what I was doing and took a chance on what I produced and that obviously has made the business. What I’ve learnt over the years and really appreciated is the support from the business itself; the industry. I really appreciate the way card publishers support each other as obviously we all want to make sure that the industry thrives, even in a dreadful year like this year. I feel very honoured to receive this award, thank you very much for giving it to me.”
“The Honorary Achievement award is a very special and personal accolade, which is ever more poignant in a year when we have come to really appreciate those who make our world - from close family members to our friends in the greeting card community. The person we honour tonight has been a part of my and many others’ greeting card worlds for as long as I can remember and has made it all the richer for knowing them. For almost four decades their independent spirit, spot on moral compass, willingness to take risks, unfailing sense of humour and innate people skills has seen them make their own mark in the greeting card industry - trailblazing countless greeting card concepts that have very much led rather than followed. It was back in the early 1980s, at a photomontage night school class that the teacher, impressed with the design our award recipient had created, that featured Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher pinching someone’s purse from their handbag remarked that would make a decent greeting card. That was it, they were off. And a new and enduring greeting card publishing business was borne. In the early days, the ranges they created were best suited to the alternative bookshops, championing social issues and featuring the talents of underrepresented women cartoonists. The cards were popped into their bag and round the shops they’d go, selling their wares. Running the business initially from their kitchen table, they came up with some corking ideas – adding witty captions to retro knitting patterns for starters, as well as being an early pioneer in juxtaposing serious vintage photographs with an humorous message. And those ideas have just continued to flow. Now sharing the running of the business with their daughter, as well as developing their own ranges, they have collaborated with several contemporary illustrators, such as Veronica Dearly, Wotmalike’s Jo Burrows as well as a tie-up with horticulturist Charlotte Day. And remaining true to their roots, they have even managed to fit in co-writing a book recently that celebrates 250 years of female cartoonists, which saw them cajoled into appearing on Woman’s Hour. Well tonight it is one special woman’s time to put her natural self-deprecating Cath Tate, founder of Cath Tate Cards humour to one side and enjoy the limelight that she so deserves. You have been an inspiration to me, both as a woman and as an entrepreneur who has very much done things your way. It gives me great honour to announce that The Henries 2020 Honorary CATEGORY SPONSOR Achievement Award goes to Cath Tate, founder of Cath Tate Cards.”
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PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE