11_13_17_19_21_News Pages.qxp_9/11/13/15/19/23/25 17/01/2025 12:38 Page 2
NEWS TOP STORY Loxleys collab with uni students
Christmas Delivered
What do you do when you’re a greeting card printer and need a festive design to send to all your customers – run a Above: LeahMay’s festive competition to showcase scene won keen young talent! Loxleys’ vote. The collaboration between Loxleys and Sheffield Hallam University saw the second year illustration students enter their designs into the competitionwith LeahMay’s festive post box scene being declared the winner. “Each year, Loxleys posts over 200 Christmas cards to publishers, designers and industry friends to celebrate the festive season and show their #cardmitment to the tradition of posting cards,” explained Loxley’s marketing coordinator Heather Bull.
Indies, groups and multiples happy with Christmas card sales With so much riding on Christmas trade, it was big relief that it delivered for indies, groups and multiples alike. “Exceptional” was how John Procter, co-founder of Scribbler described Christmas trading at the 37-store group. “We saw an 18% increase across all Christmas products for the eight weeks leading up to Christmas Day. Our single card sales were up 10% and pack sales were up 15%.” Tesco’s buying and merchandising manager Ross Lasseter told PG: “Single cards had a fantastic performance. We saw high single-digit growth in both volume and value on single cards.” “Marvellous” was the Christmas verdict from Mark Janson-Smith, MD of Postmark, the group of 15 stores in London, Birmingham and Glasgow, and he added: “We couldn't be happier with our results. Overall, our like-for-like sales were up 10.4% in the Christmas category for the eight weeks leading up to Christmas Day. Our single card sales were up 9.3% and relations cards were up 7.2%. Packs showed a modest 1.3% increase.” At the seven-strong Home Counties group House of Cards, coowner Miles Robinson admitted his predictions
PG Live 2025 - 90% of stands are now booked PG Live 2025 is most definitely ‘live and kicking’ with over 90% of all stand space booked for the show, which takes place Tuesday 3 and Wednesday 4 June at London’s Business Design Centre, with now over 180 publishers, giftwrap companies and suppliers have joined the strong line up. “We were delighted that PG Live came out tops in the recent Retail Barometer as the show indies are planning to visit this year,” said Warren Lomax, co-owner of PG Live. “With early registrations proving that multiples and overseas distributors also have PG Live in their diaries, it’s all looking set to be a stonking show!” The 2025 edition of PG Live will include all the
Left: Cards & Gifts’ Christmas card sales were up 51%! Below: Reflections’ Nantwich store had a record Christmas.
of a fall-off in boxes and packs were definitely off the mark with sales of some lines up nearly 20%. At Reflections, co-owner Philip Nield was very happy with the record Christmas at his Nantwich store, “we sold more Christmas singles and boxes than ever before”. And at Baileys in Ainsdale, Crosby and Magull, co-owner Penny Bailey said herself “absolutely delighted”, explaining: “We had a remarkable Christmas trading period. Our Christmas card sales were up 13%, with boxed cards sales up 22%! The lesson learned is to stay in my lane and ignore the negative press!” “Satisfied” was the verdict of Malcolm Adams, owner of Stationery House & Gifts, Somerton, Clevedon and Wrington. “We almost had a complete sell out of boxed cards.” Carl Dunne, owner of Cards & Gifts, Dronfield described his Christmas trade as “amazing”, cards/boxes sales “with his up by a whopping 51%.” features that exhibitors and visitors have come to know and love – free tea and coffee, delicious lunch on both days, and the opening night drinks party, plus a get-together on each day for all The Retas and Greats award winners and finalists. Last year’s show saw retail buyers from Blue Diamond, Cardfactory, Cardzone, Elphicks, Fortnum & Mason, Harrods, House of Cards, Jarrolds, John Lewis, Lark London, Oliver Bonas, Marks & Spencer, Moonpig, Morrisons, National Trust, Notcutts, Paper Tiger, Postmark, Sainsbury’s, Scribbler, Tesco, Temptations Gifts, TK Maxx, Utility, Waterstones, WHSmith and many more multiples, independents and distributors from across the UK and beyond. Left: A warm welcome awaits at PG Live 2025.
Cardfactory’s ‘successful’ Christmas and strong results “Successful” was the verdict from Cardfactory’s ceo Darcy Willson-Rymer on the retail group’s Christmas trading, with revenue up 4.7% in November and December. Total sales for the 11 months ending on 31 December, 2024, hit £506.6million, a 6.2% increase on the previous year’s £476.9m, according to its recent trading update. “We continue to outperform a challenging non-food retail market,” said Darcy. The good Christmas trading performance was driven by a higher average basket value which is being attributed to: “New and expanded gift categories resonated with customers with new confectionery ranges, licensed ranges and soft toys performing particularly well, alongside positive impact of a new value-focused Christmas card offer,” said Darcy. Like for like store revenue grew 3.0% in November and December. The 32 net new stores had a “positive impact” giving a 5.7% total store revenue increase, while LFL revenue grew 3.9%. There was an “encouraging” 6.1% growth in gifts and celebration essentials ranges alongside “positive card growth” of 1.4% LFL. However, Cardfactory is bracing itself for £14m extra costs inflation caused by the upcoming changes to the national living wage and employer national insurance contributions.
Above: Cardfactory’s ceo Darcy Willson-Ryder is pleased that new stores such as Cheltenham have had a positive impact on revenue.
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