36-37_Face To Face_Theo Paphitis.qxp_Grid 10/03/2024 21:04 Page 1
Retailer Face to Face
A DISRUPTIVE THEO-RY His love of greeting cards, plans to disrupt the online greeting card sector, a rallying call to revise business rates, how AI has “thrown a massive bomb into the melting pot of retail” and that retailers need to have a “reason to exist” to woo the “promiscuous” consumer were just some of the topics retail entrepreneur and former TV ‘Dragon’ Theo Paphitis covered when he took to the Inspiring Retail Stage at Spring Fair last month. PG was granted a backstage pass to meet this leading light of retail, and get an inkling of his plans for the new Ryman Design retail concept as well as his intention to make waves in the greeting card arena. Left: Theo Paphitis is a committed greeting card fan. Below: Theo with some of the instore marketing for the new greeting card app which is also promoted in the windows of the Ryman estate. Below right: Donations from the sale of the cards from the Ryman app will be made to the British Dyslexia Association and the Helen Arkell Dyslexia Charity as part of a minimum £100,000 of support Theo has pledged from the Ryman business.
As retail celebrities go, Theo Paphitis is right up there. While no longer one of the TV Dragons on BBC’s Dragons’ Den, he must be one of the most well-known retailing faces, not only that, but through his Small Business Sunday initiative has, over the years, provided a lifeline to hundreds of budding businesses. Theo not only talks a good game, but still gets his hands dirty, driving developments within his emporium of retailing brands which include Ryman, Robert Dyas, London Graphic Centre and Boux Avenue. Seemingly greeting cards are one of his current “passion projects”. Following swiftly on the heels of unveiling the new Ryman Design retailing concept, was last month’s launch of its brand new greeting card app, the USP of which is offering the consumer the opportunity to create a personalised card online and then collect the physical card from any Ryman store an hour later. “I love sending cards,” Theo professed to a packed audience at his keynote talk at Spring Fair. “They are such an important tangible way of showing you care,” he told PG, proud of the commitment he’s making in the sector. Although the Ryman retail business, 36 PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
which now trades from 190 stores, has been part of Theo’s retail portfolio for 28 years, he explains that he became “back involved with the running” of the stationery retail multiple in October 2022 with the recent development of the Ryman Design retail concept being a step up on the design-led stationery and greeting card front. With two Ryman Design stores already trading in London (Marble Arch and Bishopsgate) and one in Birmingham’s Grand Central, Theo revealed that growth is on the cards. “We are looking at opening our next store in Scotland in the next few weeks,” he confirmed.
Theo was also personally involved in the launch of The Artists’ Collective by The London Studio greeting card collection, the brainchild of Soula Zavacopoulos, as part of Ryman Design’s Christmas offer, featuring designs by 38 artists which very much chimed with Theo’s mission to support small businesses and designers. The Artists’ Collective was expanded for Valentine’s Day and is to form part of the everyday offer, strengthening the greeting card selection alongside the vast array of stationery. Soula and Theo have known each other since 2011 when she was a winner of his Small Business Sunday. The relationship has blossomed with Soula now on board in a consultancy role, which has involved her being heavily involved in the development and launch of the Ryman online greeting card app. Theo proudly states his intention of