20-21_GF.qxp_Layout 1 30/11/2022 13:21 Page 2
cardsharp
The Factory’s
Jubilee Some 25 years ago, a small greeting card shop was opened in Wakefield, West Yorkshire by husband-and-wife team, Dean and Janet Hoyle. Who would have believed that this small event would go on to radically change the whole shape of the UK greeting card industry? Cardsharp considers some of the changes to the UK’s largest greeting card retailer over the last two and a half decades.
Cardsharp recalls that around the same time that those first Card Factory shops made their debut in the greeting card arena with their value concept, the mantra “You can’t sell sentiment cheap!” was often spouted by the founder and chairman of Clinton Cards, Don Lewin. Back then, Clintons was on a crest of a wave as Britain’s bricks and mortar retail scene was booming. Its only real competition, the Birthdays chain, at that stage was in a period of limbo, having been sold by its founder Ron Wood. Clintons was heading towards its aim of 1,000 stores, its profits were sky high, it had just opened a greeting card superstore in London’s Oxford Street while many city centres contained not just one but two Clintons outlets. A quarter of a century later, how things have changed, mused Cardsharp. Clintons is down to a rump of just over 200 stores, after a series of business failures and financial restructures with its commercial strategy hidden behind the most opaque of walls and its future is considered uncertain by many.
20
PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
Far left: Card Factory made the most of celebrating its 25th birthday. Left: Don Lewin (right), the founder of Clintons opened his first store in 1968 and its growth saw it become the benchmark until Card Factory came along. Above: Dean and Janet Hoyle, the co-founders of Card Factory. Bottom: Darcy Willson-Rymer, ceo of Card Factory.
By contrast, Card Factory now boasts over 1,000 stores, is listed on the stock exchange and contrary to the experiences of many retail businesses, it recently issued a trading statement pronouncing that its performance was above expectations, such positivity resulting in a 45% rise in the share price. Added to its own stores, Card Factory also derives revenue from supplying a number of other major retailers. And in doing all this, Card Factory has comprehensively refuted Don Lewin’s mantra by demonstrating that “You can sell sentiment cheap!” And in its march to secure its leading market share position, to
Cardsharp’s mind, the whole face and structure of the UK greeting card industry has undergone a revolution, affecting everybody and everything down the line. It wasn’t really until about five years after the opening of the first little Card Factory shop, that things really started to impact. In those intervening five years, Dean and Janet Hoyle had rapidly grown their ‘new kid on the greeting card block’ to around 100 stores, aided by a very aggressive pricing policy. They were simply offering cards far, far cheaper than everyone else on the high street. Card Factory’s supply base was a mix of traditional wholesale cards and some direct to retail publishers, but as Card Factory grew, suppliers became