66-67.qxp_Grid 27/06/2019 11:12 Page 66
In Conversation With... Wrendale
Living The
Hannah and Jack Dale, the co-owners of Wrendale Design, had a very good reason last month to leave the rural Lincolnshire idyll where they are based. They were invited to Buckingham Palace to receive a Royal welcome as a recipient of a 2019 Queen’s Award, in recognition of the company’s extraordinary international success. PG caught up with Hannah, the creative maestro of Wrendale, to talk about the birds and the bees. While Harrogate Home & Gift will see Wrendale Designs launch its new range of reusable water bottles, it will be popping the corks on a few bottles of fizz too with retail customers in celebration of the company receiving a Queen’s Award for Enterprise for International Trade. As Hannah Dale, cofounder of the business points out, “We were so delighted to receive the Queen’s Award in recognition of our export growth, but this would not have been possible without the continued support of our UK retail customers and of course our team. This award is very much shared with them.” The Harrogate show will see the launch of 50 new products from Wrendale, from satchels to stationery, water bottles to a hedgehog house, and all this in little over a month after it launched 60 brand new greeting card designs at PG Live. And these will feed through into Wrendale’s overseas business, which has grown 400% over the last three years, both through its own set-ups in several countries as well as working with its loyal distributors in other territories. 66
PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
Top left: The Wrendale brand is now revered around the world. Above: Wrendale Designs has the right to use the Queen’s Award accreditation for the next five years. Right: Hannah and Jack Dale outside Buckingham Palace. Left: Wrendale is launching a range of water bottles at the Harrogate Home & Gift show. Below: One of the latest designs in The Country Set collection from Wrendale.
In addition to this, the brand’s global awareness continues to build through selective licensing relationships. The most notable of these being with Royal Worcester (part of the Portmeirion Group), whose recent launch of Wrendale dinnerware went down a storm.
Hard to believe that it was not that long ago that Hannah Dale was a stockbroker working in the City, before she upped sticks and returned to her Lincolnshire roots and literally ‘drew’ on her love and learnings of zoology to set up Wrendale. “Looking back, we really never expected Wrendale to be where it is now. I can’t tell you how lucky I feel,” said the ever self-deprecating Hannah Dale, who, together with her husband Jack, co-owns Wrendale Designs. It was at PG Live eight years ago that Wrendale Designs made its debut, with Hannah recalling how tentative she felt about setting up her small stand in the Springboard area of the show to showcase the first incarnation of The Country Set, a greeting card range based on her zoologically correct depictions of animals, with a touch of quirky cuteness. “I remember wandering around just before the show opened feeling rather despondent at the sheer choice and quality on offer, unable to believe that anyone new could possibly establish themselves in such a competitive market,” admits Hannah. Hannah need not have worried as right from the off retailers gravitated to the stand, recognising the appeal the designs offered.