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NEWS TOP STORY
Ohh Deer to go plastic-free
Hoppy Easter And Mother’s Day The sunshine continues to shine on Spring Seasons After a better than expected Valentine’s Day for the greeting card sector, Mother’s Day and Easter continued to put a joyful spring in the step of the majority of those in the trade, with this year’s second and third Spring Season events continuing on an upward trend. The late timing, good weather and a high awareness generated by extensive marketing by all and sundry helped to deliver a strong Mother’s Day and Easter for cardies. “This was our strongest ever Mother's Day week in 20 years of retailing,” revealed a delighted Kate Cowie, director of Utility, which trades from four shops in Liverpool and Manchester, which saw a 30% uplift in sales. John Lewis & Partners was among those to embrace an upturn in Easter sales. “This week, we saw an even bigger uplift of 28% on the previous week,” revealed Lizzie Batchelar, assistant card buyer of the department store group of the last week before Easter. JL&P helped on the PR front, sharing the view that more customers than ever before are viewing Easter as an opportunity to get together and celebrate with family and friends and are decorating their homes in the same spirit as they do at Christmas. Its sales of Easter decorations were up a third compared to last year in the run up to the event. While Easter’s growing popularity as an event is welcome news, even more reassuring is confirmation that Mother’s Day, a mainstay card sending occasion,
proved its worth good and proper this year for greeting card specialists. As Paul Taylor, md of Cardzone, which ended 5% up on Mother’s Day sales, believes that the longer lead time between Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day, which this year was six weeks, played into the tills of high street retailers rather than the supermarkets who benefit if there is a tighter timeline. “I do feel that this helps high street retailers and there are more opportunities for the public to be reminded of the event,” Paul told PG. West Country indie, Kristan Miller, owner of Cadeaux & Co, based in Wells and Chipping Sodbury, was another to report “extremely positive” Mother’s Day sales. “I’d have to agree with reports in the press that Mother’s Day has become the second most popular ‘occasion’ after Christmas. In recent years we have seen Mother’s Day sales rise. With Mother’s Day falling the day before Sainsbury’s switched over to all naked cards, it was the start of a big week for Sainsbury’s. Carly Pearson, Sainsbury’s card buyer confirmed a “good performance” for Mother’s Day in the supermarket “with very strong growth in own label.” A large proportion of its Mother’s Day cards, but not all, were sold unwrapped. For more comments on Mother’s Day see Viewpoints pages 29-31. Above: Among the JL&P best sellers for Easter was this Louise Mulgrew design.
Tell you what I want Scribbler wins the prize for the top celebrity endorsement of its Mother’s Day selection, with Victoria Beckham telling her millions of followers on social media of her joy of receiving a Scribbler card from her kids. The card in question featured a contemporary illustration of the Spice Girls. Jennie Procter, co-owner of Scribbler said that adding to the “positive” Mother’s Day sales for the retail group she was more than happy to lap up “this fantastic bit of free publicity!” Scribbler saw an upturn of 10% of sales of Mother’s Day cards, both of its quirky own brand designs but also from branded publishers. “Our more irreverent captions did well. Maybe you can make more fun (cautiously!) of your mother than previously,” said John Procter, co-founder of the retail business. Above: The Scribbler Mother’s Day card design that Victoria Beckham received and blasted its arrival on social media to her millions of followers.
Greeting card and stationery company Ohh Deer is going plastic-free by the end of this year. All Ohh Deer greeting cards will be using the newly designed Kard Klasp (as offered by Windles), which replaces the need for the cellophane sleeve. The new clasp is a sticker that wraps around the card and envelope, keeping both items safe and secure during transportation and on retail shelves. Commenting, the company’s cofounder Mark Callaby said: “People's attitudes towards the use of plastic is changing and Blue Planet II was a massive turning point for most people. Collectively we're all responsible for our planet’s future and we believe that we should also do our part. I think many people have naively assumed that the cellowrap on cards won't make much of an impact but our industry produces a crazy amount of cards and we should all be responsible for helping our industry become environmental leaders.” Above: One of the Ohh Deer cards showing how the Kard Klasp will look.
Elys’ personal touch Department store Elys of Wimbledon (part of the Morley Stores group) pulled out the stops to create a personal Mother’s Day for its customers by joining forces with Woodmansterne and other leading brands in other product sectors to create a personalisation event in the store. A dedicated area in the busy Wimbledonbased department store became a Woodmansterne creative hub in the run up to Mother’s Day when the publisher’s designer Beth Lewton was on hand to offer customers buying any of the cards additional calligraphy/brush lettering or small watercolour illustrations on the envelopes as well as additional gems/embellishments. As Morley Stores’ card buyer Kate Neligan commented, not only did the activity generate sales for the retailer, but added to the store experience. “Seeing the Woodmansterne design talent creating extra special cards was a real treat for us all - our customers loved the personal touch.” Above: An Elys’ customer requesting some personalisation on a Woodmansterne card.
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