It’s in the

Equipping sales reps with a trio of large sample bags is a great way to show off a publisher’s greeting card designs, and that’s just what Alison Butterworth and John Lowey have done with their three brands.

The move came at the June sales meeting launching Spring Seasons 2024 for Nigel Quiney Publications, Paper Rose, and Grass Roots, the three publishers now owned by the pair since completing a management buyout in April.

Alison explained: “We do now have a more streamlined sales team and it was a big launch because they all needed full sample sets for all of our brands so customers will be able to handle the samples or order directly from the iPad.”

She confirmed the trio of publishing brands will remain separate, with their own logos and product portfolio, although Grass Roots is moving from the Paper Rose base in Nottingham to be nurtured by NQP’s design studio at Saffron Walden.

“I do think they complement each other,” Alison added, “it’s a strong, broad array to choose from and having a selection of product styles will be important over the next few months, because it’s really tough out there for retailers.

“A lot of customers found Christmas difficult, but Spring Seasons 2023 has sold through well. Obviously, we’re hoping for a good Christmas ‘23 and Spring ‘24 as we had low returns for spring ’23, so we’ve got a good basis to sell in the new range.”

Despite the separate identities and locations, John admitted they will be continuing to work on economies of scale with what could be considered the back-office features such as IT, cost overheads on items like packaging, and storage.

The real strengths of the companies are the separate design studios, with Sarah Tanser-Frain, Alana Rourke and Jazmin Carter leading the Nottingham team, while Carl Pledger remains in charge of the in-house artists in Saffron Walden and coordinating the freelancers for the pure design side which gives NQP a real breadth of artistic skills, able to cover everything from cute

through traditional to contemporary, with each an expert in their style.

Alison explained: “Brand identity for each publisher is key, and we’re also excited about new and novel product ideas, what else we might be able to offer our customers.

“Product is my first love, so we're excited about what we can do at Paper Rose, making sure we are maintaining those hero ranges, which is really important. Artisan is still a great selling brand for Paper Rose, for example. Strategy wise, there's quite a lot of work going on to see where we take Paper Rose next.

“For Nigel Quiney there’s obviously Pizzaz. It's 16 years old now and the sales are unbelievable. It’s a phenomenon. We

The management buy-out may be only a few months old, but both Alison Butterworth and John Lowey have plenty of greeting card industry experience under their belts.

Having started her card career with Gibson Greetings, Alison had a break working for the Post Office, before going to EMS Christmas goods, moving through Hallmark and Carlton Cards, when she was headhunted as NQP’s creative director in 2005 before being handpicked as managing director by then-owner Simon Elvin in 2014.

Meanwhile John brought his financial acumen and training as a chartered accountant to sister company Paper Rose in 2007, where he was financial director before becoming managing director.

Even though Simon was known for allowing his various businesses to run separately, there were already many links with Alison having been involved in Paper Rose’s design side, while John oversaw NQP’s management accounts.

After buying the complete Simon Elvin publishing business in late 2019, Paper Design Group moved to sell on around the start of 2023 due to ceo Ian Jackson’s ongoing health issues, which led to Cardzone directors Paul and Christine Taylor’s company Pillarbox Designs acquiring the giftwrap specialist Glick, Polytint Cards and Simon Elvin Ltd, with the other direct-to-retail card publishers going to Alison and John on a 50-50 financial basis.

John commented: “The MBO discussions were lengthy! Alison and I were immediately interested in being able to run the companies for ourselves - we've been doing this for a long time and, in some ways, it shouldn't be too much of a change to do it for yourself, but you don't ever think you'd get that chance.”

Alison added: “While the opportunity came a bit out of the blue, John and I were absolutely delighted to join in buying Nigel Quiney and Paper Rose.

“The double deal made a lot of sense as it means we cover the contemporary side of the market with Paper Rose and the more traditional side with Nigel Quiney, with the Grass Roots brand being a very traditional bonus which people love.”

As to the challenge as a newly-owned business, Alison accepts: “It's not going to be plain sailing, because it is hard out there on the High Street and there will be difficult decisions to be made. But, at the same time, we think we've got the right teams on board to take us forward.

“You try not to think about it too much, you just get on with the day-to-day running of it and having John on board gives me confidence on the financial front.

“We’ve both got a similar vision and having strengths in different areas is great because getting the finance right for small to medium companies is so important, to make sure your stock levels are sustainable, and that you invest in the right amount of product while maintaining a strong cashflow.

“The most important thing though is our forward strategy, which we are in the throes of finalising. We've got lots of ideas which we get together to discuss regularly. This week, for example, we're at Paper Rose for a Grass Roots meeting where NQP’s art manager Carl Pledger and I are meeting with the team to discuss the product portfolio.

“The staff are great, they’ve been with us a long time and I think they care even more now because they're aware of the management buyout, and the fact we're now running it for ourselves.

“It seems to mean even more to them, and that's really wonderful because they're coming along with us on this journey. And they care just as much as we do about taking Nigel Quiney, Paper Rose and Grass Roots into a new future.” work closely with the artist who is very creative, constantly looking at interior design, at products outside of greeting cards, and she's always looking for that the next new thing.

“We've worked with her on several ranges for quite a long time now but, for the present, we've segmented Pizzaz into several sub brands. The original Pizzaz became Pizzaz Classic, then we added Pizzaz Male, which does really, really well, and there is also Pizzaz Gallery.

“It's got a life of its own. It's a multipurchase so, when people go in store, they buy two or three cards at a time, which is why it’s the retailer's favourite, and it gets those sales through the till. Added to that Flower Press is a new range that's doing really well too. Having started off in general birthday, it's now moved into captions and is a beautiful little range.”

Above: John Lowey, who looks after finances behind the scenes.

Left: Contemporary designs from Paper Rose’s You Go Girl range.

Right: Jane Duffield, area sales manager for Nigel Quiney and Paper Rose, with the bags of samples now in her armoury!

Independents are actually the mainstay of NQP’s business, with a smaller showing in the national chains, while it’s the other way round for Paper Rose, giving the companies a secure grounding across the retail spectrum, particularly with the lifestyle changes wrought by the pandemic.

“We’re in peak spring selling at the moment,” Alison explained, “so our reps are going out with all these extra bags of products, and they’ve got their iPads too. Some customers want to see every single physical design, but others will be happy as they know what the quality is like to place orders on the iPad.

“The reps have to be quite focused on how they sell to each customer but, if they want it, it’ll be in the bag!”

A selection of products being launched to pep up retailers’ displays.

Peartree Heybridge has just launched Aperture, a photographic card collection featuring the work by Yorkshire born artist and photographer Tania Paling Sparkes. The 27 designs depict Tania’s photographic art taken in the British Isles, covering nature and the outdoors. All 150mm in format, the cards have a high gloss finish and each comes with a white envelope.

Peartree Heybridge

01423 876311 www.peartreeheybridge.co.uk

Dandelion Stationery has expanded its card ranges to cover both minor and religious occasions that take place throughout the year. These include 50+ new designs for baptism, christening, holy Communion, Jewish celebrations, Diwali, Chinese New Year and lots more. Cards are available to order in quantities as low as three with no minimum order.

Dandelion Stationery 01332 504940 www.dandeliontationery.co.uk

Harrogate Home & Gift stand DP1 C26

Wrendale Designs has expanded its occasion card range with the addition of 12 colourful new designs. Each features the beautiful artwork by company founder and creative maestro Hannah Dale, the cards which, which cover a variety of occasions, are enhanced by gold foil lettering. They are printed on 350gsm sustainably sourced board.

Wrendale Designs

01652 680253 www.wrendaledesigns.co.uk

Elysian is one of The Art File’s main launches at the Harrogate show. Elysian is a Greek word meaning blissful, beautiful and divinely inspired. This stunning collection embodies this meaning with all the 12 greeting cards, with matching gift wrap and bags, finished with embossing, gold foiling, and a gold-dipped spine effect. Created by in-house designer, Beth Kemp, the designs are inspired by Greek culture, human forms and the beauty of simplicity. This collection embraces the imperfection in illustration, featuring sketchbook illustrations that are tastefully illuminated by gold printed on a beautifully textured off-white 300gsm board.

The Art File 01158507490 www.theartfile.com

Harrogate Home & Gift DPI Stand C5

Summer Florals is a range of 18 new designs from Sarah Kelleher. With her trademark gold foiled text Sarah has brightened things up, think of summer garden parties billowing with flouncy vibrant flowers. All are printed onto FSC card and come with a recycled brown envelope.

Sarah Kelleher

07768 123957 www.sarahkelleher.co.uk

Having attracted a lot of attention at PG Live, Twenty Birds is broadening its collection for the trade. In addition to the greeting cards, company founder Monica Gabb’s distinctive bright geometric illustrations are available on fine bone china mugs, 100% cotton tea towels, printed fabric decorative hanging birds, and giftwrap all printed and produced in the UK.

Twenty Birds 07887684780 www.twentybirds.co.uk

Home & Gift DP1 stand A81.

A selection of products being launched to pep up retailers’ displays.

Nova is Noel Tatt’s brand new female contemporary range based on the artwork of talented artist Ellise Wilkinson. Each design is original and creative in thinking, encompassing an uplifting sentiment. All 160mm square, the cards are printed on FSC 300gsm Stucco board finished with foiling and embossing and come complete with a crisp white envelope, available wrapped or unwrapped with a card Klasp.

Noel Tatt 01227 811600 www.noeltatt.com

Tennis balls, cricket balls, golf balls, Stripey Cats’ creative cat Jonathan Crosby is on the ball and hopes to score a direct hit with its new Sports Stars collection. There are 10 wibbly-wobbly eyed designs, from footballs to shuttlecocks, and even something for those who adore Barry Baseball and Amy the American football.

Stripey Cats

07866713826

Stripeycats.co.uk

Holy Mackerel has had a midsummer refresh, with a host of new Erica Sturla designs featuring her signature polymer clay figures joining the portfolio. The new additions include birthday cards for Godchildren and older grandchildren cards for snooker fans, a new wild swimming card in her Full Montage range and a rather attractive ‘Mr Darcy’ in the Funny Olde Worlde heritage collection.

Holy Mackerel 01395 578571 www.holy-mackerel.co.uk

Following the success of its ‘from the Dog’ and ‘from the Cat’ designs for Mother’s Day 2023, Paper Shed Design has now included ‘from the dog’ and ‘from the cat’ Birthday designs in its brand new everyday catalogue.

Paper Shed Design 0118 9744283 www.papersheddesign.com

Crumble and Core are going for it with its new Bright Blooms Collection. There are 44 cards in the range covering wedding, anniversary, birthday, relations, ages, new home, get well and sympathy, each adorned with gold foiling and come with shiny gold envelopes. The collection also spans cards with silver earrings and new silver and beaded bracelets as well as new navel/belly bars, plus some scented candles. Crumble and Core 01825 841412 www.crumbleandcore.com

Inspired by the new Barbie Movie and the hot pink trend, Hello Sunshine is a new female-focussed range from Petimo celebrating all things positive. Featuring a Barbie-inspired drop shadow script font, in bright popping pastels, The range includes 36 designs for birthdays, ages and relations. The 5”x7” cards are printed on FSC carbon balanced board and come with a pink or yellow envelope, available naked, clasped or in a biodegradable/compostable cello.

Petimo 07801 652225 www.petimo.co.uk

A selection of products being launched to pep up retailers’ displays.

From funky lions to decorative party parrots, mischievous foxes to relaxed sloths, Hutch Cassidy’s Magical Party Animals Die-Cut Collection is designed to transport you to a land of wonder. There are eight designs in this new collection, all featuring fresh illustrations, handpainted by company founder Nicola Hutchinson, that will stand out on a card rack.

Hutch Cassidy

07971649270 www.hutchcassidy.com

James Ellis has been working with talented artist, Bea Muller, to produce Sunbeams, a beautifully illustrated range of birthday and occasion cards. With a dreamlike quality inspired by the great outdoors and nature, the inaugural range comprises seven birthday and six occasion designs. Teal green gardens, parks and countryside, inky blue skies, colourful flowers and graceful birds are the main theme of the range with details picked out in gold foil. The cards come with white laid envelopes and are held together with a peelable clasp label. They are made of FSC certified material and are plastic free and 100% recyclable.

James Ellis 0117 9277667 www.jamesellis.com

Lesser and Pavey’s licensing collaboration with Bug Art has spawned a stationery collection of 10 designs that cover A5 notebooks as well as memo pads with a pen, all featuring the distinctive bright, fun, cheerful illustrations - from a quirky cow to a naughty monkey, from a mad hare to a floppy-eared hound - enhanced by gold foil elements. These are joined by cushions, fine china mugs, drinking glasses, trays and ceramic coasters.

Lesser & Pavey 01322 279225 www.leonardo.co.uk

Ling and GBCC have recently launched its Spring Packages 2024 collection. The two sibling publishers give retailers the option to choose an individual season through to all four Spring Seasons with some 14 different packages available.

Ling Design 01892 838574 www.lingdesign.co.uk

GBCC 01452 888999 www.greatbritishcards.co.uk

Fay's Studio has just launched additional Christmas designs into her popular In The Wild greeting card range. Each 155mm square card is developed from Fay's original pen and ink hand-illustrations which are created with her recognisable pointillist techniques. Each card is made from 100% recycled FSC board and comes hand-finished with flecks of biodegradable eco-glitter. All the cards are blank inside and come wrapped with a recycled kraft brown envelope in compostable wrap.

Fay's Studio 07817 412086 www.faysstudio.com

Globetrotter Collection is Stormy Knight’s latest collaboration with American illustrator Marisa Schoen. Certain to trigger a serious case of wanderlust these travel-themed designs are die-cut into postage stamp shapes. From the Rockies to Santorini, each design features a much lusted after travel destination, illustrated beautifully and finished with a gold foiled postmark and birthday message. Each card comes with a fleck craft recycled envelope.

Stormy Knight 0117 9098684 www.stormyknight.co.uk

For all of the frustrations of their moveable dates and anticipating appetite in a condensed consumer buying period, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Easter and Father’s Day not only generate sizeable sales for retailers, but also reinforce the importance of sending a card to show you really care and cherish that connection.

With many publishers having recently unveiled their 2024 Spring Seasons collections, PG springs into action to track the trends.

Though the smallest of the four Spring Season, the moveable feast of Easter plays an enormous part in the card industry as it affects the largest one of them allMother’s Day.

Always 21 days apart, Easter Sunday can be as early as 22 March, or as late as 25 April, meaning Mother’s Day falls between 1 March and 4 April, with extra pressure on retailers to sweat the sales when they fall in the same month.

With an early Easter in 2024, David Byk, ceo of Swan Mill Group, which owns Ling Design and Great British Card Company (GBCC), knows retailers will be planning for the condensed period between Valentine’s Day on 14 February and Mother’s Day on 10 March: “We know retailers prefer a longer period between the two so will have to move quickly.

“Easter packs suffered a little in 2023 on the back of the Christmas postal strike issues but we think Royal Mail won’t let us down at Christmas 2023 so that send and Easter money wallets will come back next year. And we’ve backed that view with great product!”

For Dandelion Stationery founder Jo Wilson Easter has been growing in popularity over the past three years, something that’s been noticed at Danilo too where marketing manager Claire Bates explained: “We’ve seen an increase in demand for Easter cards and money wallets over the past few years. There are also good opportunities to grow Easter, as it’s a multi-card sending occasion, where people tend to send more than one card plus the cards are suitable for both adults and kids.”

Despite still being key sales opportunities for all retailers, Laura Darrington commented that everyone had to deal with the Covid hangover. “It has been challenging since the pandemic with footfall on the High Street down, not to mention the carried-over Spring Seasons stocks from when stores were closed. However, there is still a demand for all Spring Seasons with a slight decline in Valentine sales for us while our Father’s Day sales have increased over the past couple of years.”

And she added: “After meeting with John Lewis/Woodmansterne recently, one interesting point discussed was that the week before Mother’s Day is one of the most important sales weeks of the year post-Christmas. This highlights how seasons can really generate sales and get the public out and about ready to shopping.”

In line with the GCA’s industry market report and echoing the experience of many other publishers, Mother’s Day is the largest of the Spring Seasons for Wendy Jones-Blackett, while Easter is second with its Quicksilver designs always selling out, and Wendy has found Father’s Day sales are also strong though the stillimportant Valentine’s Day hasn’t grown at the same rate.

She added: “As a result I’ve focused very much on strong graphic designs for the focused captions alongside titles that could carry over to other occasions. I’ll be adding some surprise captions to our handmade ranges in September.”

IC&G’s regional sales director Allen Taylor confirmed: “The major takeaway is that Mother’s Day is very much the key driver in all the Spring Seasons, it’s by far our largest season by value while Easter remains the largest volume for us.

35million Mother’s Day cards each year, “because everyone knows a text or an email just isn’t going to cut it with your mum”, and its top-performing Sara Miller London brand helps reflect gratitude, love, joy and optimism for mums everywhere.

At Nigel Quiney and Paper Rose Spring Seasons are so important for the sister publishers, both covering all four main occasions, and joint owner Alison Butterworth revealed they saw such low returns this year that a big 2024 launch has already happened with its traditional Grass Roots brand even coming back with a Mother’s Day offer. the seasons recover from lockdown and confidence returns for our independent customers. We have certainly seen a demand for retailers to present the seasons earlier in stores.”

NQP’s 2023 results found that the Mum on Mother’s Day caption performed better than Mum on Mothering Sunday, while the wife caption was so good an extra design has been added for 2024, and Someone Very Special On Mother’s Day was also among the top performers.

On the Valentine’s Day card front, wife was the best-performing caption for NQP this year, accounting for nearly 30% of its sales for the event, with the publisher’s other bestselling captions being From Husband and From Wife.

Lockdown or no lockdown, as The Art File’s sales and marketing manager James Mace points out it is no surprise that Brits send nearly

Top left: An Easter design from NQP. Top right: Belly Button’s designs go all out to be special sends. Above right: Distinctive Dandelion styling on this Father’s Day design.

Above left: The Bear character from The Art File lends itself to Valentine’s Day.

Left: Uplifting messaging on this Father’s Day card from Hallmark.

With “positive volume growth” despite shorter selling windows, Hallmark is aiming to expand caption breadth and introduce more special sends. As its head of creative Claire Marsom explained: “We’ve noticed an interest in special and personal sends with our traditional cards having worked well across the whole of the Spring Seasons.

According to the most recent GCA Market Report that was released last September, the Spring Seasons greeting card sales account for 11% of the total market sales (excluding Christmas), with the British public having spent £167 million on cards for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Easter and Father’s Day.

Mother’s Day accounts for the biggest chunk, as an astonishing £68.2 million worth of mum’s day cards were bought last year.

Valentine’s Day card sales came in next, with a value is £47.1 million, an impressive £44.3 million was spent on Father’s Day cards and £7.4 million on Easter cards.

In keeping with the positive drive for diversity and inclusion, the four established card sending Spring Seasons events are being joined by other events in the in calendar.

As Dandelion’s Jo Wilson commented: “Over the last three to four years we’ve seen an increase in demand for other spring occasion cards, in particular St David’s Day and St Patrick’s Day so we’ve increased our offering in this area.

“We also see quite a demand for Jewish occasion cards such as Hanukkah and Rosh Hashanah. We have launched a new Other Occasions brochure this year which has over 72 designs dedicated to smaller but equally important occasions such as Communion, St David’s Day, Halloween, Passover, Diwali, Eid and Chinese New Year.”

Hallmark sees love as a universal language, so has added more Valentine’s Day captions using Gaelic, Welsh, and braille, plus Claire Marsom, its head of creative noticed a rise in Galentine’s Day cards, along with designs aimed at friends, pets and singles.

This year’s Hallmark collection includes cards for more religious festivals such as Rosh Hashanah, Diwali and Eid, as well as designs to help customers celebrate International Women’s Day, which falls in March.

The Art File also now includes cards for other sending events within the spring calendar, such as St Patrick’s Day and multicultural festivals.

For Danilo, Galentine’s Day on 13 February has also grown to celebrate female friendship and empowerment with appropriate designs from licences such as Wonder Woman, Grease, Friends, Barbie and L.O.L Surprise! increasingly in demand.

“The captions for Mother’s Day were diverse, with more offerings for bonus mum, foster mum, close mum figures, blended households and LGBTQ+ families. And we’ve seen an increase in empowering motherhood messages and supportive sends too.”

Spring Seasons remain important for Dandelion, with Mother’s Day definitely the biggest, followed by Valentine’s. As Jo Wilson revealed: “We see a much higher demand for open cards as opposed to specific occasions - our Fabulous Dad-style captions sell in far higher quantities than Happy Father’s Day, which makes absolute sense as they offer more appeal to a retailer who can use the same captions all year round to cover birthdays, etc.”

The high-end design-led offer at Belly Button Designs makes Spring Seasons sales significant for the publisher. As founder Rachel Hare said they’re “the kind of Valentine's and Mother's Day cards you like to spend a lot of time choosing” and she’s found sales strong this year with Mother's Day the biggest occasion “but our Father's Day sales are getting busier and busier every year”.

Bucking the mums are tops norm, Father’s Day is Danilo’s strongest season, with Claire Bates saying many of its licences lend themselves well to these sending situations, as well as everyday male sends.

The Art File is raring to go on the Father’s Day front, with 25 new designs full of appreciation for dads in 2024. As James Mace explained: “Each year the British public send over 20m Father’s Day cards so these are for the super dads,” and also pointed out that there are 24m missives of love sent for Valentine’s Day too, proving even reserved Brits are still romantics at heart.

On the trends front, the lighter side of life is making its presence felt as IC&G’s Allen Taylor explained: “Valentine’s

Day has certainly seen an increased trend to humour, as a traditional supplier we’re looking at increasing our offer in humour to accommodate this.”

And that’s all good for the Comedy Card Company where co-owner Alan Auld laughed: “Our eight inches design sold very well at Valentine’s - you hear 'eight inches of pleasure' and it must be a pizza, right!”

It works at Ohh Deer too where Father’s Day fun has kept the occasion the winner for spring, as customer experience manager Alex Turner said: “Humour does well for us so, historically, Valentine's Day and Father's Day have been our strongest. During planning we really focused on improving the humour element in our Mother’s Day 23 range and it seems to have worked!

“It's always great to offer a card that's not restricted to a specific event or occasion. We try to do this as much as we can within our ranges - only a third of the Dad range is specific to Father's Day, the rest can be sold all year round.”

Hallmark’s Claire Marsom added: “For Father’s Day, some humour trends never go out of style. We saw plenty of jokes about lending money, dubious advice and, of course, dad jokes. Popular visuals ranged from the classic BBQs, cars and sheds, to dinosaurs, cooking and technology. Many designs featured trophies and medals - it seems lots of fathers were competing for the title of Best Dad this year!”

In the UK, Mother’s Day is rooted in the Christian observance of Lent, the period leading up to Easter, and comes from Mothering Sunday, which started in the Middle Ages as children who had left their families to work in domestic service were allowed to go back to their home, or mother, church.

Lent starts with Ash Wednesday, the 40-day period before Easter which acknowledges the time the Bible says Christ spent in the wilderness, so that date is exactly 46 days before Easter as Sundays aren’t counted.

And Mothering Sunday in the UK is the fourth Sunday of Lent, 21 days before Easter Sunday, so ranges from as early as March 1 to as late as April 4 - the name changed to Mother’s Day after the American tradition reached the UK following the First World War.

Back in 1907, US woman Anna Jarvis campaigned for a day to honour the role played by mums, suggesting the second Sunday in May as that was when she held a service for her own mother when she died. By 1911 all US states were taking part in the tradition and Mother’s Day was declared a national holiday by president Woodrow Wilson in 1914.

Although many countries now follow America, some such as Ireland and Nigeria use the same date at the UK, while Russia, Vietnam and Afghanistan mark it on March 8, which is International Women’s Day, and France celebrates it on the last Sunday of May, although it’s moved to the first one in June if it coincides with Pentecost Day, which is the 50th day after Easter Sunday.

Above: A regional focused design from Dandelion.

A key trend for Danilo, among other publishers is the growing demand for cards from the pet. “People in the UK love their four-legged friends so much cards from pets are now big business,” Claire Bates explained. “The boom in pet ownership under lockdown has helped companies to increase sales of from the pet cards.”

As Claire summed up: “While everyday cards account for the biggest chunk of the card market, the extended Spring Seasons celebrations are still proving to be great occasions to remind loved ones how much they mean to you.”