Progressive Greetings November 2018

November

2018

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

to all our wonderful customers who voted for us.

SILVER WINNER

Best Service to the Independent Retailer

www.ukgreetings.co.uk

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every picture

the award winning contemporary quotation cards designed by

see the entire collection at www.icon-art.com

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Leader

On The Cards There are lots of problems out there in the world at the moment, some of which are too large for most of us to get our arms around, but there are others where we can do something to help.

Inspired by the work of the late MP, Jo Cox, the government has acknowledged in a report what it describes as ‘One of the greatest public-health challenges of our time’. I am talking about loneliness, which is ranking highly as a hidden crisis that is causing so much upset, suffering, in some cases abuse and in others even death.

Us Brits are getting better at letting our stiff upper lip loosen, and the millennials are even better than most, but there is ground to be gained and greeting cards have a great role to play in this.

What is encouraging is that we, as an industry, have some new champions on this score and they have come to the fore in the last month. Coinciding with Thinking of You Week Emily Coxhead, creator of The Happy News ran workshops in some John Lewis & Partners’ stores, encouraging shoppers to make Happy Jars, filling them with positive messages to pick out and read if they or the jar’s recipient is feeling a bit down. No surprise that cards under the same brand, published by Pigment, feature equally uplifting messages.

Hallmark had a great take up to its Thinking of You Week packs of cards that it sent out selectively to bloggers who have a slant towards supporting mental health issues, all giving a thumbs up to the value and importance of sending cards.

Mental Health Awareness Day fell a few weeks later, and Charlotte Reed, founder of May the Thoughts Be With You (whose helpful soulful philosophies are published by Danilo on cards and calendars), was in demand from companies and the media wanting her to talk about how people can help others suffering from mental illness, depression and loneliness.

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EXHIBITIONS

@Prog_Greetings

Above: PG’s editor Jakki Brown with Pigment’s Steve Baker at the GCA AGM and Conference reading The Happy News, a copy of which was given to all attendees.

Left: Danilo threw a fab party to mark its 40th anniversary for all its ‘friends’. PG’s Jakki Brown with the company founder’s Laurence Prince.

Below left: Comrades in arms! PG’s deputy editor Gale Astley (left) and sales manager Tracey Arnaud going for it on the dance floor at The Henries 80s Electric Dreams event.

I have a feeling there will be a lot more action on this front and the greeting card industry is the ‘person’ for the job.

The strength of camaraderie in this industry was out in force on several notable occasions this month, while not an answer to loneliness at least it gave an opportunity for togetherness. The Henries certainly sparkled on this front big time (see pages 41-77) as did the GCA AGM and Conference a few weeks later (see 31-33).

We in the industry have an opportunity to build on this further this year by getting behind the GCA’s Festive Friday (which this year falls on November 30). Go on, let’s kick-start Christmas by sending our Christmas cards early and doing our bit to stave off loneliness and make people feel cared for.

THE HOME OF MARKET LEADING TRADE AWARDS

Max Publishing Ltd, United House, North Road, London N7 9DP Tel: 020 7700 6740 Fax: 020 7607 6411 www.progressivegreetings.co.uk PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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Contents

What’s Inside?

Within This Issue: THE HENRIES WINNERS 2018

34

41-77

38 11-23

34-35

News

Retailer Face To Face

Finders Keepers PG discovers more about John Lewis’ new own brand gifting and curated card collection, Find Keep Give.

24-25 The Calies 2018

The Calies 2018 Finalists Revealed

83-85 Animal Cards Spotlight

This year’s Calies Awards calender Finalists.

37-40

Staff Room Tails

Rewind The Henries’ Electric Dreams

A pack of animal cards publishers reveal the benefits of a helping paw in their office or studio.

The eye-popping party pictures of this year’s ‘80’s Electric Dreams’ themed Henries awards.

26-27 Over The Counter

Take Me Back To The 80’s Independent card and gift retailer, David Robertson, co-owner of JP Pozzi in Scotland, spotlights hits of the 80s to examine millennial customers.

86-87 Jeremy’s Journal

41-77

SWOT-ing Up…

The Henries 2018 Winners

Jeremy Corner of publisher Blue Eyed Sun discusses SWOT analysis, a strategic planning technique to help you achieve your business and personal goals.

The winners of this year’s Henries Awards.

28-29 Cardsharp

80-82

Goodbye And Good Riddance!

Innovations

Below: Spotlight on animal cards - A party giraffe from Marina B.

Cardsharp muses over topical events happening in the industry.

89-91

Art Source 92-93

What’s Hot?

31-33 Viewpoints

94-106

Cardies Rock Knebworth

Classified

The star ‘acts’ that aired important industry issues at the recent GCA AGM & Conference at Knebworth House.

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Appointments Progressive Greetings is a monthly business magazine.

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UK subscription: One year £50 Two year £85 Three year £110 Overseas subscription: One year £75 Jakki Brown

Warren Lomax

Gale Astley

Michelle Board

Tracey Arnaud

Editor

Advertisement Director

Deputy Editor

News Editor

Sales Manager

jw@max-publishing.co.uk

warren@max-publishing.co.uk

galea@max-publishing.co.uk

michelleb@max-publishing.co.uk

traceya@max-publishing.co.uk

Use your smartphone app to scan the QR code to visit our website.

Copyright© 2018. While every effort has been made to ensure the information in this magazine was correct at the time of publication, the publishers cannot accept legal liability for any errors or omissions, nor can they accept responsibility for the standing of advertisers nor any organisation mentioned in the text. Views of contributors do not necessarily reflect those of the publishers.

SUBSCRIPTIONS ENQUIRES: maxsubscriptions@marketingreinforcements.co.uk Tel: 020 8943 9541 PG is the official magazine for the Greeting Card Association GCA: Sharon Little 020 7619 9266 Email: gca@max-publishing.co.uk www.greetingcardassociation.org.uk

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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NEW FROM

CHERRY ORCHARD 14 Open Female Designs Code 55 RRP £1.79

Finished with Foil and Flitter

Plus We Are Adding 7 Brand New Male Designs To Our Hugely Successful Range

2

Call Customer Services Tel: 01684 295500

Email: info@cherryorchardpublishing.co.uk www.cherryorchardpublishing.co.uk Follow us on Twitter @CherryOrchardP Facebook: Cherry Orchard Publishing 006-007_PG_November 2018.indd 6

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CHERRY ORCHARD LAUNCHES humour Two Brand New Ranges

SHIRL, WE’RE FAMOUS! CHERRY ORCHARD’S STUCK US ON GREETING CARDS!

Putting into ink, what most of us think...

14 Occasions and 14 Open Birthday

28 Hilarious Birthday Cards

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NEWS Scribbler gets down with the kids on cards

TOP STORY

Electric Dreams The Henries’ glittering 80s-theme event was a winner Some 700 publishers, retailers and suppliers attended The Henries 2018 awards last month for a true night to remember. While The Henries awards themselves are serious accolades for card publishers, the event was full of fun and sparkle as befits the greeting card community.

In keeping with the upbeat Electric Dreams 80s theme, the event was hosted by 80s icon, Pat Sharp; there were Now That’s What I Call Music menu cards (designed by Gemma International); a Glitter Station (sponsored

by Five Dollar Shake/Counting Stars); a ‘live’ David Bowie complete with his yellow suit; a photobooth with 80s-props (thanks to House of Cards); top DJ duo Freight Train spun some 80s tracks and there were glow sticks and retro sweets galore!

Commenting, Warren Lomax, joint managing director of Max Publishing, which owns and organises The Henries, commented in his opening speech: “Musically the 1980s, like the UK greeting card industry of 2018, catered for very every age and taste. And like our greeting

card industry today it was very fashion-led in all its wondrous guises.

But while the mullets and bubble perms have been tamed, and shoulder pads are no longer de rigeur, our industry continues to hit the high notes through its ability to constantly evolve to changing tastes, which is down to the creativity, passion and incredible ability that we have within this room.”

In addition to revealing the award winners of the best greeting card ranges of the year, the ceremony also saw the presentation of the prestigious Best Service to the Independent Retailer trophies (see pages 20-22).

Providing an emotional high to the awards ceremony, Ged Mace, the inspirational managing director of The Art File was presented with the Honorary Achievement Award. l See pages 41-77 for the winners as well as the party photos (pages 37-40).

Above: All of this year’s Henries winners took to the stage for a group shot.

Left: (Left to right): Stephanie Dyment, Michelle Airth (Glick), Henries’ compere, Pat Sharp, and Glick director Becky Dobson.

The Light Fund is open for submissions Monies raised from The Henries’ raffle is helping The Light Fund charity push towards its £1.4 million fundraising milestone.

A fabulous line-up of raffle prizes was extra incentive for attendees to dig deep, raising around £7,000 for the industry’s registered charity, The Light Fund.

The prizes donated to The Henries’ 2018 Light Fund charity raffle were: £500 of Trailfinders vouchers (from Cardzone); £300 of Ticketmaster vouchers (from The Art File); a lavish pamper experience at Mayfair’s Athenaeum Hotel (from Woodmansterne); £250 of Apple vouchers (from Paper Rose); £400 TrackDays experiences (from Hallmark); £250 of vouchers for The Ivy Group (from Paper Salad); £300 of John Lewis vouchers (from LB Warehousing); £250 of Hotel du Vin vouchers (from Simon Elvin); £250 of Majestic Wine Warehouse (from Loxleys); £250 to spend on party goods from Amscan’s online shop and tickets to the upcoming Varsity matches (from Start Licensing and Rhino Rugby).

The Light Fund is now accepting applications for funding from any registered charity organisation whose beneficiaries are children, women or men. Those in the greeting card industry are urged to get involved by encouraging any registered charities with whom they have an affinity to put forward distinct projects that they would like The Light Fund to consider funding.

Charities have until Tuesday November 20 to make their submissions online, via The Light Fund website.

There are a few stipulations, which include that the projects should benefit children and/or adults, are capped at a cost of £5,000 and should be completed in 2019.

With a strong and loyal following for its humorous and edgy cards for adults, Scribbler has broadened its gaze to lower down the age bracket, and is now actively courting the children’s card market.

The retailer is now in the process of rolling out a whole bay dedicated to children’s cards, under the banner of Scribbler Kids, in all of its stores.

“Children’s cards have historically not been part of our focus, but feedback from customers led us to instigate a trial of a selection of both Scribbler own brand/exclusive designs, as well as those from branded publishers,” John Procter, cofounder and co-owner of Scribbler told PG. “It was more of a feeling of need, very much prompted by a feeling that our customers expect us to have children’s cards. And the sales are going rather well, I am pleased to say!” admitted John.

Among the publishers who are involved with the new thrust on the children’s card front is card publisher Tigerlily, whose founder, Suna Sor, has developed Confetti Celebration as an exclusive collection for Scribbler, which has pride of place on the display, under the PoS banner of ‘New Kids On The Block’.

The collection is based on Suna’s designs, which are created using a combination of painting, handcuts, pencil work and photography.

Queen Mum’s stolen cards In a recent edition of the Sunday Mail paper there was an item about Christmas cards from the Queen Mother - that had been stolen from Kensington Palace going on sale for £1,000 each.

Below: A royal steal.

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SE 40th concepts A4 PG Ad AW 10.18.pdf

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After 40 years, we thought we‘d have a small celebration... ..and, really, we are celebrating YOU! The countless independent retailers who have been so loyal to us over the years.

You have recognised that all our efforts are aimed C

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at you. Designing beautiful, high-quality cards and ancillary products…. all sold at true-value prices that allow you to make a worthwhile margin, while still delivering great value-for-money to your customers.

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And, of course, all the specialist wholesalers who have been our exclusive source of supply to you.

Ensuring you can get all our Cards, Gift Wrap and Bags, Social Stationery and Partyware that you need, when you need them and in the quantities that make sense for you!

Your loyalty tells us it works for you. So, this is simply to say a huge

‘Thank you’ to you all. And now let’s

see what we can do for you in our 41st year.

SIMON ELVIN LTD • SPECIALIST CARD PUBLISHER Wooburn Industrial Park • Wooburn Green • Buckinghamshire • HP10 0PE T: (01628) 526711 • F: (01628) 531483 • W: www.simonelvin.com

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NEWS TOP STORY

GCA’s Sharon Little Goes Exploring Amanda Fergusson takes on the role from December After 20 years of running the UK’s Greeting Card Association, Sharon Little, the GCA’s much-loved ceo, has announced that she is to fulfill a dream and go traveling round the world.

Sharon will officially end her role at the GCA at the end of November.

Unable to resist the lure of the greeting card trade, Amanda Fergusson is to take on ceo of the UK GCA from Sharon on December 1.

Amanda is “delighted” to take on the role from Sharon, bringing with her a wealth of experience gained from her many years working in the industry, notably with Caroline Gardner, Hallmark and Andrew Brownsword. Amanda was also an active GCA Council member for years.

There is no denying that Sharon has loved her time running the GCA. “I have the best job in the world” she often told people, but has had a hanker to see more of the world for many years and

feels now’s the time to do it.

“It’s been amazing!” she said, summing up her time with the GCA. “It’s been 20 happy years full of growth and great achievements for the GCA.” Commenting on the changes at the top of the industry association, Jakki Brown, joint general secretary of the GCA said: “Sharon’s popularity and achievements on behalf of the GCA membership makes her a very tough act to follow, but Amanda’s experience, personality and passion for the greeting card sector make her a perfect fit to take up the challenge and lead the trade association into the future”.

Since leaving Caroline Gardner a few years ago, Amanda has been helping business in affiliated sectors to develop strategy as well as a mentor to senior managers, but she admits that she has “missed the card trade!”

Elaborating on her feelings about her new role, Amanda said: “I am so delighted to be back in our wonderful industry, and have the opportunity to represent and promote card sending, and lead the GCA into the next 100 years”.

Above: Amanda Fergusson, the incoming GCA ceo, was presented with a bouquet of flowers by the association’s general secretary Jakki Brown at the recent GCA AGM & Conference.

Left: Sharon Little is off exploring the world after 20 years of heading up the GCA.

Moonpig calls for respect of IP Moonpig’s design director Geoff Sanderson is urging publishers and retailers to retain a greater respect for IP, highlighting how the ease of the internet has resulted in increased incidents of copying among the greeting card community.

Geoff made the point towards the end of an otherwise uplifting and insightful keynote address that he delivered with his colleague, Sarah-Jane Porter, Moonpig’s head of licensing at the recent GCA AGM & Conference.

Geoff brought up a slide to highlight ‘one snag’ in the greeting card industry. At the top of the slide was Moonpig’s call for ‘Keeping it differentiated... Respect for IP...’ Appearing underneath the headline were examples of unicorn designs that were available from Moonpig’s site as well as a couple of designs available from elsewhere that showed similarities.

The usually mild-mannered Geoff shared his frustration of how the digital world has made it easier to plagiarise.

“One thing that annoys me with the internet is the right click - resulting in an increase in copying,” he stated.

While certainly not casting aspersions against anyone in the room, he highlighted the importance of the industry retaining its good practice of “respecting each other’s IP.” (See pages 30-33 for more on Moonpig) Above: Moonpig urges greater respect for IP. The company’s packing features its new livery.

Sue Morrish unwraps some environmental myths “Consumers are proactively objecting to unrecyclable and unnecessary plastic packaging, and this issue is predicted to be the top issue for consumers over the next decade,” stresses Sue Morrish, co-owner of Glebe Cottage/The Eco-friendly Card Co. Speaking at the recent GCA AGM and Conference, Sue shared her wealth of knowledge on the subject of the industry’s environmental impact, notably over the issue of ‘cellowrapping’ of cards.

Sue summarised her talk for PG in five key points: “1. Plastic film poses big problems for the recycling industry. Most local authorities that collect plastic film only collect polythene, and most of that is either incinerated or bundled and sent to the Far East for ‘processing’.

Although rigid polypropylene pots etc can be recycled at kerbside, in all my research I found no evidence of any recycling of post consumer polypropylene, ie - if we continue to bag cards in this material it is destined for landfill or incineration.

2. Compostable films are NOT the same as oxodegradable plastics.

Oxo films are normal plastic with a chemical additive. They break down into plastic microfragments and Above: Sue Morrish at the recent GCA AGM are already banned in and Conference. many EU countries.

3. PLA is certified as industrially compostable by the EU standard EN 13432.

Bags should be labeled with the compostable logo so consumers know what it is.

Compostable bags need to be labeled as such.

Unfortunately, there are no guidelines about this at the moment. Collection of compostable packaging also needs a lot of improving and better communication with the public from local authorities.

4. I addressed some of the criticisms of PLA film, such as the idea it produces methane in landfill (there is no evidence of this), that it takes up land that could be used for food (but in actual fact crops are used for food, industrial uses and PLA resin) and that it contaminates existing recycling streams (but post-consumer film is not being recycled, so it’s not possible to contaminate something that doesn’t exist!)

5. Global warming is an even bigger crisis than plastic pollution if we want to reduce the CO2 footprint of our cards then compostable packaging has a much lower carbon footprint than conventional plastic.”

Sharing her well-researched opinion, Sue said: “More than ever, we believe that if you are going to use a bag, then compostable is the right option for the environment.

Whether it’s naked cards, or compostable film, it is possible to banish plastic film from the card industry.”

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Let The Festivities Begin!

Make this festive season totally

GIN-tastic

with our range of GIN products!

I’ll

GIN TO THAT!

LET LETTHE THEGOOD GOODTIMES TIMES

Be Be

GIN GIN

Chin!Chin!

IT’S TIME FOR

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NEWS Dean Morris knocks the socks off the Mail

TOP STORY

M&S Trials Nakedness Greeting cards unwrapped in 119 store trial Marks & Spencer has gone naked on greeting cards, in a trial involving 119 stores, as part of the retailer’s commitment to the Plastic Pact.

As M&S’ longtime partner on greeting cards, Hallmark has been working in conjunction with the retailer on the practicalities of the major pilot scheme which has involved all its greeting cards being put on sale without cellowrapping.

M&S has made great play of how it is reducing the amount of plastic it uses, as its website proclaims: ‘From naked cashmere jumpers to wooden forks and less air in our crisp packets, we’re finding new ways to take the plastic out of our business’.

Elaborating on the rationale behind plastics and its mission to reduce its use, M&S’ official statement details: ‘We use plastic packaging because it does a great job protecting our products, but it can come with a cost to the environment if it is not recycled. That’s why we’re doing

Below: Marks & Spencer has gone ‘naked’ on

everything we can to reduce the amount of plastic we use. We’re rethinking our packaging - designing plastic out, replacing it with planet friendly alternatives and making sure that any we do use can be easily recycled.’

Its decision to test unwrapped greeting cards is part of M&S’ Plastic Pact mission.

As Hallmark’s marketing manager Amy Banks told PG: “We have been working closely in conjunction with M&S on this trial and how collectively we can make a notable difference. We are now looking at how we can roll this out further.”

Dean Morris, founder of Dean Morris Cards, has a new signoff on his correspondence, ‘surprisingly respectable’, and is planning where to hang some new wall art - a framed copy of a two page article that appeared in a recent edition of the Mail on Sunday that, while knocking some of the publisher’s designs, in actual fact has boosted its sales.

The article, with a headline of ‘We find the (surprisingly respectable) artist who creates those horrid greetings cards and ask: What ARE you playing at?’, revisits a Daily Mail ‘chestnut topic’ of rude greeting cards, but ends up effectively advertising both Scribbler and Dean Morris.

Dean, amused by the description of his Wolverhampton-based card publishing business as “a cottage industry of vile expletives”, was working on some new designs when a freelance reporter and photographer knocked at the door of his studio, saying they ‘wanted to tell his side of the story’.

UKG urges indies to go naked As part of its mission to reduce plastic and waste, UK Greetings is urging its independent retailer customers who currently request their cards to be supplied cellowrapped from the publisher to consider changing to receiving them unwrapped.

“Awareness of the damage plastics have upon our environment is increasing as the issue is receiving growing levels of media exposure through a number of high profile campaigns,” pointed out Darren Cave, UKG’s director of field sales, in a letter to the publisher’s independent customers who currently elect to have their cards supplied cellowrapped.

As a matter of course, with a few range exceptions, UK Greetings supplies its cards to independents unwrapped, but over time some customers have requested them to be wrapped.

“Our commitment to our independent customers is of paramount importance to us. By working together we can change the mindset of the greeting card consumer and reduce the use of plastics in our industry,” believes Darren.

UK Greetings has been on a committed path to reduce its use of plastics and waste for some time to execute a lasting change, both through working with many of its multiple customers as well as within its own business.

As Asda’s greeting card category partner, UK Greetings has been closely involved with the grocer’s decision to ‘go naked’ (apart from a few exceptions) on all its cards starting in January 2019 and is involved in Sainsbury’s ‘naked’ trial too.

UK Greetings’ own internal initiative, Plastic Isn’t Fantastic, has seen the publisher significantly reduce the use of plastics within its business, with regular activity ensuring that the topic is kept firmly on the employees’ radar.

(See pages 31-33 for the view of Ceri Stirland, UK Greetings’ customer and channel director and GCA president on the importance of the industry continuing to strive to improve its environmental credentials).

Above right: A UKG Simply Traditional card that celebrates the beauty of our natural world.

Above: UKG’s Rachel Wood (left) and Liz Ramsden (both from UKG’s private label team) promoting the publisher’s Plastic Isn’t Fantastic initiative.

Above: The ‘surprisingly respectable’ Dean Morris.

Dean’s natural bonhomie worked a treat, leaving the journalist no option but to write ‘there is nothing remotely crude or sweary about the 44 year-old’, even making mention of the fact that he was wearing socks!

Dean was more than happy to justify his greeting card portfolio, quite rightly explaining that if the public didn’t want the card designs they wouldn’t buy them, making the point that one person’s offensive greeting card is another person’s display of affection.

“I think humour is a great force for good and we could do with more of it in this world,” Dean pointed out.

The newspaper took Dean’s nuggets, plundered his business’ social media channels for photos of him and his cards, and added in information about the card trade, as well as some archive details on Scribbler, and dedicated almost two pages to the piece.

“I suppose it wasn’t a bad bit of advertising,” sums up Dean, who admitted that his website saw a “bit of a uplift in traffic” on the day the article was published.

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NEWS TOP STORY

Gold Crown Revamp Don Hall flies in for the indie retailer event ‘Putting the shopper at the heart of everything’ is the focus of the new revamped Gold Crown programme, the details of which were revealed at an action-packed two day event attended by over 80 Gold Crown retailers and prospective participants.

Adding to the significance of the event, Don Hall, ceo of the whole Hallmark group (and grandson of the founder), flew over from the States to welcome the delegates Don was keen to express that “as a business our focus is on specialist retail”, stressing “how much the UK and Ireland market means to the team out in the States”. He also urged the Gold Crownies to “lean into any challenges that they face in a positive way with Hallmark’s backing”.

The two day agenda included Hallmark sharing highlights from its consumer insights, a sneak peek at some upcoming products, a tour of its state of the art warehouse, as well as full presentation as to the new thrust behind Gold Crown.

“We shared the strong vision we have for Gold Crown, the findings of our new look trials, our commitments for an improved customer service, a programme of exclusive products, as well as digital

Below: Attendees at the recent Gold Crown two day event.

Bottom: Don Hall, ceo of Hallmark’s parent group addressing the audience.

support,” summarised Amy Banks, Hallmark’s marketing manager for trade, events and digital.

At a Gala Dinner, held on the first event, Hallmark presented two special awards. The Retailer of the Year Award went to Alison Baker of Island Greetings, Jersey, while Proudfoots of Scarborough was presented with the Newcomer of the Year Award.

In addition, it also paid tribute to retailers who have shown loyalty to the programme over the years.

Ciaran Leonard, Hallmark’s director of independent sales, is confident that the Gold Crown network will have grown to 200 stores by the end of 2019. “In fact we have had a couple of new signings since we held our event, so we are two closer than we were!” he quipped. “Independents are still the third biggest channel - there are some great retailers out there. We want to work with them to ensure that we give the consumer what they want,” he assured.

Steve Wright to retire, Amanda De Prete to become md Last month’s Gold Crown event coincided with the announcement that Steve Wright, who, having been with the company for 22 years, latterly as managing director of Hallmark UK and co-ceo of Hallmark International, announced that he is to retire at the end of this year.

Speaking at the Gold Crown event, Steve expressed his joy at seeing so many Gold Crownies back together again, especially after a long time away. Announcing his retirement to the customers, he said: “I feel like the time is right for me to leave the business and I’ll take with me very fond memories of the journey Hallmark has been on.”

Amanda Del Prete, the publisher’s product & creative director, is to step into the role of UK managing director as of 1 January 2019, while Cindy Mahoney will transition into the role of ceo of Hallmark International for all operations.

Amanda, who has worked for Hallmark for 25 years, both in her native Australia as well as in the States, is a significant appointment in that she comes more from a product and marketing background - and she’s a woman.

“My remit is to lead the UK business, and, having been here since June, I have come to appreciate just what an amazingly talented team I am working with. It will be our job to work with our retail customers to ensure we stay focused on the consumer first and foremost,” said Amanda.

Above: Steve Wright at the recent Gold Crown event.

Left: Amanda Del Prete who is to become Hallmark md.

Funny business at Cherry Orchard Publishing Well-known and respected for its traditional and sentiment based ranges, Cherry Orchard Publishing is now gearing up for its customers to have more of a laugh.

“Let’s just say, Cherry Orchard finally does humour x 3!” said Jackie Collins, md and co-founder of the Tewkesburybased publisher, revealing its move into humor.

Jackie admitted that she has been “itching” to expand into the humorous card sector for some time and feels that “now’s the time to take action.”

The immediate success of its contemporary Wot A Mug card humorous range that launched at PG Live, published under licence, provided some extra gusto to expand in this direction.

Dirk and Shirl is the second range to join the Cherry Orchard humour cavalcade.

Based on two ‘stick figure’ characters, the range makes humorous observations of gender behaviour.

Making it a trio is Lucy Likes It, a cute, charming and a little bit cheeky range.

Above: One of the Lucy Likes It designs.

Northwest Greeting Cards debuts in Merseyside It has been a long while since the industry welcomed a new greeting card wholesaler, but entrepreneur Richard Aylett has recently opened Northwest Greeting Cards in Haydock, Merseyside. The new business is operating from an 8,500sq purpose-built unit just two minutes from the M6 (Jct 23) and very close to the A580.

“People were queuing before the opening and were still coming through the doors until very late afternoon, I can’t describe how fantastic it’s been,” said an elated Richard on the opening day.

The honour of cutting the ribbon to pronounce Northwest Greeting Cards officially open was given to one special lady.

“All through my life my biggest supporter has been my Mum, and being a family orientated firm it really was a no brainer that she would do the honours and cut that ribbon,” said Richard.

Above: Richard’s mum did the honours and pronounced the new wholesalers open for business.

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TOP STORY

The Riverside flow

Team Work Words ‘n’ Wishes kicks-off Danilo distribution Words ‘n’ Wishes has significantly strengthened its ‘team sheet’, with 320 greeting cards from Danilo now being available to independent retailers via the Wigan-based publisher.

Having been announced in June that Words ‘n’ Wishes was to take over from Is It Art as Danilo’s sales and distribution partner for the independent sector, the two companies agreed on a long handover, with the new arrangement coming into effect last month.

The close working relationship between the two companies was officially christened at Words ‘n’ Wishes’ recent annual sales conference that took place at St George’s Park, the English Football Association’s national football centre in Burton on Trent.

Rod Brown, managing director of Words ‘n’ Wishes (and former professional footballer and manager himself), explained how the venue, being a centre of excellence, was apposite, mirroring the publisher’s mission.

“We continually strive to provide excellence, on the service we offer, our product range and relationships with our customer,” he said.

The overarching theme of the Conference was ‘Bucking the trend’.

“In the seven years of Words ‘n’ Wishes’ existence we have been fortunate

Below: Words ‘n’ Wishes md Rod Brown (centre) with Danilo’s md Daniel Prince (right) and sales director Brett Smith.

After a period of in-market testing, Riverside Greetings has launched in Northern Ireland. The company has partnered with Belfast card wholesaler T&A Thompson to leverage the opportunities for category growth in the provinces.

On the product front, the publisher is launching a number of new premium ranges, including Ooh La La, which features luxurious flitter finishes coupled with either foil, tipons or pom poms.

Above: One of the Ooh La La Designs

Spreading The Happy News in JL&P to grow our business. The double digit growth we achieved from last year alone is testament to our team out in the field as well as at HQ,” said Rod. “There are still opportunities out there, but it involves thinking outside the box.”

Danilo’s strong licensed product portfolio joins Words ‘n’ Wishes’ own published ranges (with 109 new designs launched at the conference) as well as the curated selection it distributes on behalf of Quitting Hollywood (which spans some 50 designs).

Daniel Prince, md of Danilo, expressed his delight to be working with Words ‘n’ Wishes. “We are really looking forward to the next few years and ensuring we service and supply the independent sector with our full range of licensed products.”

As part of its support of Thinking of You Week, John Lewis & Partners gave a boost to customers’ wellbeing by inviting Emily Coxhead, creator of The Happy News, into both its Peter Jones and White City Westfield stores to make ‘Happy Jars’ with shoppers.

The effervescent Emily, whose brainchild, The Happy News quarterly newspaper (which contains true, positive stories as well as her own quirky illustrations and uplifting messages), is delighted that relationships with Pigment, Widdop and Co, Blueprint and Portico has seen her brand extend onto other products through a licensing programme into retailers, including John Lewis & Partners.

Elvis rocked at Danilo’s high rise 40th anniversary Danilo is well-known for pulling out the stops with its calendar signings and licensed card ranges, but it certainly hit new heights with its recent 40th birthday celebration, which took place in London landmark, the high rise Leadenhall Building aka the ‘Cheese Grater’.

It was a date to remember as hundreds of retail customers, leading licensors, business associates and members of the Danilo team enjoyed the incredible views, lavish hospitality and, in keeping with the publisher’s first signing, entertainment from a leading ‘Elvis’ performer.

Daniel Prince, managing director, welcomed everyone before handing over to the ‘Calendar King’ aka, his father, founder of the company, Laurence Prince.

“Looking back over the last 40 years, many things have changed… 40 years ago, or even 30 years ago, the only time Amazon was mentioned was in a Geography lesson on South America,” said Laurence. He added that the company’s growth and diversification into greeting cards and wrappings would “not have been possible without the support of licensors, retailers and most of all, the Danilo family,” referring both to his blood relatives (notably his wife Josephine) as well as members of staff.

Although Laurence has handed the day to day running of the business to his son Daniel earlier this year, he assured guests and staff that he has no intention of retiring.

“I have enjoyed my first 40 years with Danilo, but have no intention of riding off into the sunset… Thank you all for your support in the past and hopefully the future.”

Left: Laurence (left) and Daniel Prince with ‘Elvis’ at the company’s recent 40th birthday party.

The recent workshops, which took place within eyeshot of where The Happy News products were on display, saw John Lewis customers create their own ‘Happy Jars’ filled with colourful paper strands on which they wrote affirming and positive messages that they (or the person they gave it to) could dip into if they needed a boost.

As Emily explained: “Today, people of all ages feel anxious about their life, with social media too, affecting mental health. I started making Happy Jars when I was at university and looking for a gift for a friend who was going through a difficult time. I filled a jar with messages, the sort of affirmations that someone would like to hear when they’re having a bad day.”

Above: Emily in JL&P just prior to the workshops.

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NEWS TOP STORY

WHSmith Closes Cardmarket Cards and stationery sales in the high street chain are up 3% WHSmith is pulling the plug on its value card retail concept, Cardmarket, but the retail group has stressed that stationery (which includes greeting cards) “remains an important area of investment” for its High Street stores.

Its like-for-like sales on cards and stationery were up 3% over the last year.

WHSmith opened Cardmarket as a ‘trial’ back in 2014, offering low cost greeting cards and wrap in a minimalist environment. It ran 20 stores under this

brand. The retailer has made very little reference to this area of the business in the last few years.

The retail group confirmed its plans to close Cardmarket as part of its Preliminary Results announcement, which covers the 12 months to the end of August 2018.

“We have delivered a good performance across the Group,” summed up Stephen Clarke, WHS’ group chief executive.

Its Travel division, which accounts for half of its sales and a third of its profit, showed an 8% growth, with like-for-like sales up 3%.

Its main High Street stores’ revenue and like-for-like sales were both down by 3%.

“We had a good year in High Street despite the well documented challenges of the UK high street,” says Steve.

He also stressed how stationery (which includes greeting cards) remains an important area for its High Street business, citing the new look trial stores, which elevates the position of stationery as well as the product range, as underlining its commitment to the sector.

Stationery and cards now generates 60% of revenue from its High Street division, which traded from 607 stores at its year end on 31 August.

“The market remains robust, particularly for fashion and seasonal stationery,” believes Steve.

He revealed that additional space given over to stationery, combined with an improved range “drove good like-for-like revenue growth over the Christmas period (in categories such as calendars, single Christmas cards, wrap, diaries and decorations) and at back to school.” l While there was no mention of the retail group’s Funky Pigeon bricks and mortar side, the announcement did refer to Funkypigeon.com, its online personalised greeting card business, which “performed well over the key seasons delivering good revenue and profit growth”.

Total Group revenue was up 2% at £1,262m (2017: £1,234m).

(See Cardsharp pages 28-29) Above: WHSmith is shutting all 20 of its Cardmarket stores.

Top bugbears for indies Some 70% of SMEs in the UK say that not enough is being done by councils or the government to support the nation’s high streets, according to findings from research commissioned by Close Brothers Asset Finance. And while this is an overall figure, some areas are even more strident about the need for support - 83% of independent retailers in the South East, 80% in Wales, 78% in the South West and 74% in East Anglia.

When asked what was the biggest single cause of the problems for indies, business rates and rents came out tops, followed by parking.

Q: Of these options, which is the single biggest cause of problems on the high street?

Business rate charges, including rent 35% Customers having to pay for parking 24% Online shopping 21% Changing shopping habits 16% Out of town shopping centres 3% The survey, carried out by GMI, canvassed the opinion of nearly 1,000 SME owners across the UK and RoI.

FOR THE LATEST NEWS VISIT PGBUZZ.net 22

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

Georgia Breeze in Ling collab Ling Design has forged a licensing partnership with Cornwall-based designer Georgia Breeze (above) and will launch its first range of cards under the collaboration at Spring Fair next February.

Georgia launched her card business in 2014, and her handmade designs caught the eye of Ling Design’s ceo David Byk who offered his support to enable Georgia to develop her card offer and give access to the greater opportunities available through all of Ling’s UK and export sales channels.

The Bath-based Ling Design creative team has spent time working with Georgia to carefully craft the range, which will be branded as ‘Georgia Breeze by Ling Design’ and feature an initial 32 designs.

GCA Spring Seasons’ Toolkit goes live A striking love message, contemporary blooms and depictions of ‘Dad dancing’ all come into play to get the message out to the public as to next year’s Spring Seasons dates.

Sparked by a plea from the Cardgains buying group to support retailers in promoting the Spring Seasons events, the GCA has initiated a suite of fresh designs for PoS items and social media signoffs, which are now free to download from the trade association’s website.

“For the third year running, the UKG design studio has risen to the challenge of creating some stunning artwork for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Easter and Father’s Day, free of charge for everyone to use,” explained Sharon Little, ceo of the GCA. “The posters and social media banners not only remind the consumers of the upcoming events, but detail the exact date, as well as the GCA tagline, ‘send a card and deliver a smile’,” she adds.

Additionally, encouraging and facilitating retailers to make the most of any Spring Seasons promotions or marketing initiatives, the GCA site also includes a handy list of local press contacts across the UK. Above: A graphical depiction for next year’s Valentine’s Day livery from the GCA.

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NEWS PEOPLE

TOP STORY

Cheap ‘Jack’s’ Cards Cards are £1 and giftwrap is 80p in Tesco’s value sibling All the everyday greeting cards are selling for £1 and all giftwrap is 80p in Jack’s, Tesco’s new value sibling, which is now trading from six stores, but with others due to open soon.

All the greeting cards (both everyday and Christmas) and giftwrap are being supplied by Hallmark as part of its ongoing relationship with Tesco, for whom it is the greeting card category manager. Equally strong as the value message is the fact that the cards and wrap are produced in the UK, which features strongly on the PoS. “We’re six weeks in, but the early signs are very good,” Matt Critchlow, sales director of Hallmark revealed about the card and wrap sales in Jack’s.

l Cherry Orchard’s creative director Beverley Fisher completed a Wellchild 8 in 48 challenge, Trek the Lakes, with her team members Mandy Luckhurst and Angela Miller, raising £3,000 to support the important work done by WellChild children’s charity. In just 48 hours, they tackled the peaks Skiddaw, Helvellyn Lower Man and Helvellyn on day one in about six hours, and day two saw them complete 12 hours of walking, going from peak to peak over another five mountains, heading back across the Scafell mountain range, towards the finish line at Keswick!

Below: The hardy Cherry Orcharders!

Each of the Jack’s stores include a one metre bay of everyday cards (which accommodate 90 designs) as well as wrap and giftbags. Christmas boxes and packs also currently feature adjacent to the everyday selection.

The much-anticipated debut of Jack’s joins a number of developments in the value arena on the greeting card front, not least Aldi’s double trial of greeting cards from Card Factory as well as IG Design Group.

For Hallmark the trial with Jack’s is all part of a “commitment to support our customers,” Matt told PG. “Greeting cards is a healthy category”, and testament to its strength and consumer engagement is the diverse approach from retailers right across the spectrum.

“It is our industry’s interest that greeting cards are on offer to appeal to all tastes, all economic situations and in places where consumers are spending their time,” summed up Matt.

The new store concept is named after Jack Cohen, who founded Tesco 99 years ago, and pays tribute to his nickname of ‘slasher Jim’ thanks to his ‘pile it high, sell it cheap’ approach.

All the cards and wrap in Jack’s are being marketed under ‘Simply for You’, though the Hallmark brand also appears on the products.

Top: Jack’s is Tesco’s new value sibling brand to rival Aldi and Lidl.

Above left: The PoS fanfares the product’s UK provenance.

Card Factory pilots concessions Card Factory has started piloting concessions in Office Outlets stores, planning to open in six store locations.

“The concessions in the excess space of Office Outlet stores tend to be on bulky retail parks where we would not want a standalone outlet, but we are happy to make use of excess space of a retailer,” explained Karen Hubbard, ceo of Card Factory.

Playing down the significance of this development, Karen said: “It’s a small trial – no big deal.”

Office Outlets is trading under a CVA (which was approved last month). Under the CVA, four of its 95 stores are set to close, while rents will be reduced on the rest of its estate, including free rent for three years on 20 of its stores.

As its name suggests, the chain sells office-related products for business and consumer use.

The Card Factory Office Outlet concession pilot will run concurrently with the trials underway with Aldi stores, which involves a small fixture of Card Factory’s best selling cards being installed in 12 stores in the north of the UK. Card Factory is to also test a franchised model, confirming that it is to open a store in Jersey on this basis in the coming month.

In addition, Telois Capital, an active hedge fund, has recently acquired a 5% stake in Card Factory, which resulted in its share price increasing by 8% as soon as news spread of the investment.

Above: Card Factory is to install concessions in six Office Outlet superstores.

l David Larmour has been announced as Words ‘n’ Wishes’ Salesperson of the Year. The publisher’s agent for Northern Ireland won the accolade for the third year in succession. David also won the Spring Seasons Highest Achiever award.

Danny Gratton, agent for the Midlands, won Christmas Highest Achiever, while Alan McKay was presented with the Special Recognition Award.

Above: Words ‘n’ Wishes md Rod Brown (right) with David Larmour, its agent who won the company’s salesperson of the year for the third year.

l Clare Twigger has joined Ling Design as the company’s head of design. Clare’s previous industry experience has been with Hallmark, Tigerprint, IG and most recently WHSmith.

The appointment has been made as a result of Rebecca (Beccy) McCulloch’s decision to relinquish her position as product and creative director of the company in order to return to her own illustration and surface pattern design roots, working on a freelance basis.

Above: Clare Twigger has joined Ling Design as its new head of design.

l The GCA has welcomed some new Council members: Larisa Barker (Hallmark); Marion Hancock (of Art Cards Ireland); Lisa Shoesmith (Really Good/Soul); Brett Smith (Danilo) and Jack Straw (of BrownTrout).

Stepping down are Bill Greeno (Paperlink); Nigel Willcock (Paper Rose) and Mark Williams (Brainbox Candy).

Above: Lisa Shoesmith of Really Good is among those joining the Council.

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The Calies 2018

The Calies 2018 Finalists Revealed!

Retail buyers from Calendar Club, Clintons, John Lewis, HMV, Waterstones, Card Factory and House of Cards, as well as design and production experts, made a potent judging panel for The Calies 2018 awards, the dedicated industry awards for calendars, diaries and Advents, which debuted last year from Max Publishing.

PG shares the stellar line-up of finalists, with the winners being announced at a stunning awards event that will take place at the historic Stationers’ Hall, adjacent to St Paul’s Cathedral on November 28.

Here are the finalists of The Calies 2018, shown in alphabetical order by title.

Best Animal Kingdom Calendar n n n n n

BBC Blue Planet from Danilo Horses from Graphique de France Juniper the Happiest Fox from Abrams and Chronicle Books Wildlife Photographer Of The Year from Portico Designs World of Dogs from Legami Milano (distributed by Lime Stationery)

Best Transport Calendar n England By Rail from Pomegranate Europe n Fiat 500 from Avonside Publishing n National Railway Museum - Britain By Rail from

Carousel Calendars n Nostalgia Collection from Rothbury Publishing n VW Campervan from Danilo Below: HMV’s Gary Williamson (centre) and John McCaul, as well as Premier Paper’s Tina Evans, judging some scenic titles.

Top: (Left-right) Waterstones’ Claire Quinn, PG’s Jakki Brown, Debbie Wigglesworth (of The Paper Collaborative) and Nigel Williamson (House of Cards) at the judging.

Above: John Lewis’ Caroline Bromilow (left) and Clintons’ Ruth Young consider some of the large format B2B entries.

Best Scenic Calendar n n n n n

Earth and Space from Abrams and Chronicle Books London from Avonside Publishing London by Lamplight from Flame Tree Publishing Lunar from Andrews McMeel UK New York from Carousel Calendars

Best Art, Illustration or Design Calendar n n n n n

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PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

Clip Calendar from The Passenger Press Daily Dress from Abrams and Chronicle Books London from Legami Milano (distributed by Lime Stationery) Natural History from Brown Trout Publishers Seed Calendar from Seedlings Cards + Gifts

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The Calies 2018

Best Diary - Licensed n n n n

Banksy’s Graffiti from Brown Trout Publishers Get It Together from Andrews McMeel UK Oliver Bonas A4 Diary from Quadrille Publishing Royal Observatory Greenwich Desk Diary from Flame Tree Publishing n Winnie the Pooh from Pyramid International

Best Desk Calendar Above: As a left-hander himself, Miles Robinson (of House of Cards) was keen to put a Left-Handed Diary to the test!

Left: Card Factory’s Zoe Proctor scrutinising one of the family organiser entries.

n n n n n

Beermat from Passenger Press Doctor Who Desk Pad from Danilo Gorjuss Perpetual Desk Calendar from Santoro London Photo Of The Day from Carousel Calendars Rick and Morty Magic Cube from Danilo

Best Charity Calendar n Ailsa Black Organiser from Carousel Calendars n The Naked Rugby Players from Diverse Retailing n The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust from The Eco-Friendly

Card Co n Welcome to the World Little Fighter from The Gray Studio n Worldwide Fund (WWF) for Nature - Amazing Species from Carousel Calendars

Best Corporate (B2B) Animals or the Natural World Calendar n n n n

Deep Blue from Rose Calendars Kindred Spirits from Reeve Calendars Nature’s Architecture from Allan & Bertram Untamed from Allan & Bertram

Best Corporate (B2B) Contemporary Calendar Best Music, Talent or Sports Calendar n n n n n

Bob Marley from Pyramid International Celebs at Home from Brown Trout Publishers Cycling from Carousel Calendars David Bowie Collectors Edition from Danilo Kylie Minogue from Danilo

Best Entertainment or Humorous Calendar n n n n n

Harry Potter Deluxe from Danilo Hurrah For Gin from Portico Designs Modern Toss from teNeues Spike Milligan from Flame Tree Publishing Star Wars Deluxe Calendar from Danilo

Darth Vader and Family from Abrams and Chronicle Books Family Calendar from Wrendale Designs Great British Bake Off from Danilo Oliver Bonas 2019 Wall Calendar from Quadrille Publishing Organised Family Week To View from Carousel Calendars

Best Advent Calendar n n n n n n n

Angela Harding Three Hares from Art Angels Badge Advent from Seedlings Cards + Gifts The Crafty Lass Adventure from The Crafty Lass Moonlight Silhouette from Alison Gardiner Designs Northern Lights from Roger La Borde Off The Leash from Caltime By Woodmansterne Sally Swanell from Wrendale Designs

Best Diary - Generic n n n n n

360 Interactive from Rose Calendars Ethos from Rose Calendars Inspirations from Brunel Trade Services Swarez from Allan & Bertram

Best Corporate (B2B) Scenic Calendar n n n n

Scenic Tour of Scotland from Reeve Calendars State of the Art from Allan & Bertram View from Allan & Bertram Worldwide from Brunel Trade Services

Best Corporate (B2B) Special Interest or Humorous Calendar

Best Family Organiser or Planner n n n n n

n n n n

Right: (Centre) PG’s Warren Lomax with two of The Calies headline sponsors, (left) Michael Rose (of Rose Calendars) and Nigel Green of 8 Days a Week.

Desk Diary from Wrendale Designs Hi Five from Graphique de France Inkwell + Feather from English Graphics Organised Chaos from IG Design Group Today Is A Good Day from Carousel Calendars

n n n n

Bizarre World of Work from Reeve Calendars Force 10 from Rose Calendars Reach For The Sky from Brunel Trade Services Vintage Power from Allan & Bertram

The Calies’ Calendar Ambassador 2018 n This award is for someone who has contributed greatly to the calendar sector. The recipient of this award is decided as a result of nominations received. The nominees can be from the publishing, retailing or supply sides of the industry.

Make It A Date Tickets for The Calies awards early evening event are available from Clare or Emma from Createvents on 0118 334 0085. Email clare@createvents.co.uk. Tickets cost £45 + VAT including drinks, canapés and awards ceremony.

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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OVER THE COUNTER

Take Me Back

To The 80’s Independent card and gift retailer, David Robertson, co-owner of JP Pozzi in Scotland, includes the past hits of the 80s to discuss the retail customers of the future.

We are quickly approaching a decade since Woolworths beat it from our high streets and perhaps signalled the start of the demise that we find ourselves in. It seems to be that with every breath we take there is another disaster looming. Last week Patisserie Valerie lurched dangerously close to being another one bites the dust in a long list of 2018 casualties.

Names such as Poundworld, Gaucho, Orla Kiely and of course House of Fraser are just a few of the more public casualties, but many more have simply slip slided away. There are of course strong rumours of others livin’ on a prayer and hoping for a good Christmas.

None of us are having sweet dreams at the moment, with our stock rooms bulging and our cashflow seizing up. I often get asked how I keep on top of this. The answer is simple faith in my system, which consists of a daily cashflow, which then feeds into my monthly analysis spread-sheets. This is all run on my phone and shared on the cloud to my many devices. Each day I log on to the bank and feed the numbers thinking, here I go again. Often I sit all night long pouring over the numbers trying to make it all stack up but time after time there are fresh challenges and things that you simply can’t see coming.

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PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

Right: ‘Eye of the Tiger’ by the rock band Survivor was the memorable song to Rocky III in 1982.

Below left: Patisserie Valerie had a close shave when it nearly went into receivership recently.

Below right: The millennials are tech savy.

Efficient as this may seem and sound, it still means that I have sticky situations and have to work through them to come out alive and kicking. I take my responsibility to suppliers and the bank seriously, and the 9 to 5 of my life now seems to be focusing on the running of the business as apposed to actually being in it as much as I once was.

In fact, someone who knows me very well, and has seen the many rises and falls in the last however many years, said as much to me recently. She said that my shops missed me.

I get that. I get what she meant and I take it as a compliment, but as I write this on a blue Monday, it is not always easy to be able to juggle everything and I am sure you will feel the same way.

The reason I write this is because I know many of you feel the same way as I do. Your businesses are your life and they perhaps have become a tainted love, one that you resent as your hard work, effort and dedication don’t return what they once did.

You literally can’t relax anymore. The days where everyone wanted to rule the world are over and now survival is the key thing.

Retail right now is straight up unpredictable and I keep trying to figure out why. It used to be enough to do the following… that our shops are well stocked,

that our bills are paid, that our staff are happy, that they have their rota (and holidays that never seem to end planned!), that we have got the right mix of product, that we have posted on Instagram, that we have done the VAT and the paperwork, that we have managed to keep a house and have a life where we managed to catch the Bodyguard or Strictly, or whatever other things normal people do who don’t run a small business!

And breathe…

Running your own business of any size these days is a thriller. You have to have that hunger like a wolf to keep battling away, but even with that constant fight will it be enough? I can almost feel it in the air tonight that this challenge is going to keep getting tougher. There is no chance of any money for nothing anymore, but we can’t give up. The reflex reaction is to try harder, but actually a lot of what we are doing is not wrong it is just that what our customers expect from us is changing.

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OVER THE COUNTER It seems that we have to work harder, jump further, yet we perhaps don’t, or can’t, afford the tools that will allow us to really compete.

The millennials are an age group I have touched on before, but I may have never really explained exactly what this means to me, or indeed, what I believe it means to us as traditional bricks and mortar retailers.

They are the generation that has grown up from the early 1980’s to the early 2000’s and are what they class as digital natives. This means that basically they expect to be able to use technology in every aspect of life. They now account for around a fifth of the population in the UK (or 14 million people), and for us retailers that can’t have all singing all dancing websites, apps and smart tills this is an issue.

The millennials expect to start and end their day on their smart device, and in reality their phone/watch/tablet is their wallet and portal to the world. With this the case, one of the key challenges for us retailers is that

millennials expect the payment experience to be quick, easy and digital. Difficult for us smaller bricks and mortar retailers without heavy investment in computerised till systems and stock controls.

Now there are obviously still millions out there that are happy to pay in traditional ways, but as the relentless focus on perfecting the payment technology continues we are going to fall further and further behind. This has been on my list for the last two years, and quite simply I have not been able to afford the system that I would want to install.

Think about your own purchases and if you have used Paypal, and how easy it is.

Now it is all touch tech and face recognition.

Indeed, the advances spin my head round like a record as it moves at such pace.

What is encouraging in some ways is that millennials like a customer centric approach, they like to have things suggested to them and they want to feel valued.

When the customer researches something on a search engine suddenly their social media feed fills up with ads and products that relate. The phrase for this is ‘remarketing’ and is remarkably easy for websites to do. Nothing’s gonna stop us from that feeling of how do they know what else I am interested in? It feels almost spooky. Really though, its like us leaving a customer in store to think about it and then going back to ask if we can help any further.

In fact, the more you look at technology the principals are the same as what we do in store to make people feel welcome and valued. It is just that it is done digitally, subtly and people don’t seem to mind it (or know how to block it!).

The millennial is also a conscious consumer. He or she may want things quicker in terms of speed of delivery but they don’t want it taking a toll on the environment.

After the oil industry, retail is the second most polluting trade on the planet. These guys care about indigenous people and deforestation. They care about the polar bears and icecaps.

The current trend towards Naked Cards (unwrapped) in our industry will appeal to them. In my store it is only the more specialisd cards that currently come wrapped, but I can see a future where all cards will be delivered unwrapped and with a bigger emphasis on what materials are used. We can already see trends veering away from card finishes (which mean cards can’t be recycled) and I can only see this continuing.

Another huge challenge retailers face is that the millennial uses omni-channels to buy their goods. They might start looking on their phone at work before finishing their research and price comparison at home. They then may order there and then online or go and collect in store. This is a very different way of shopping than what my and probably your generation have been brought up with. To millennials though this is the norm.

In my column last month, I mentioned that maybe people are just not enjoying

Above: Funky Pigeon began life online.

Below: Indies pride themselves on their stores. The biggest challenge is enticing customers through that shop door. David inside the newly refurbished Pozzi store.

shopping they way they once did, and as the millennial age group increases this omni way of shopping will increase too. Google recently said that the omni-channel shopper was three times more valuable to a brand than someone who just visits a store. Again worrying times for us indies.

In 2018 the idea that websites and influencers can help build a brand or company very quickly has never been more accurate. The fastest growing brands and product lines are all tech-based first and they can then maximise this by having a physical store later. Their success, both in terms of financial and penetration into the retail market, literally takes my breath away. The challenge for us indies is we have the store but probably not the ability to really drive traffic to it that a website or social media can.

The other two big trends in millennial retail are ‘Geo targeting’, where the shoppers literally are shown and guided to retailers/restaurants in their area by using their location. This is done by harvesting your whereabouts using specific apps or websites.

The other trend, according to predictions from Gartner, the worlds largest info tech analysis company, is that by 2020 85% of customer interactions will be without a human and that 30% without a screen. The belief is that VUI - voice user interfaces will be a much more intuitive way for people to interact.

So we better start praying… ‘SIRI where can I buy greeting cards locally?’ Like a prayer I hope that the answer is Pozzis.

To contact David email: jppozzi@btconnect.com

List of songs featured in the column: Beat It, Michael Jackson,1982; Every breath you take, Police, 1983; Another one bites the dust, Queen, 1980; Slip slidin away, Paul Simon, 1977, re-release in the 80’s; Livin’ on a prayer, Bon Jovi, 1986; Sweet dreams (are made of these), Eurythmics, 1983; Faith, George Michael, 1987; Here I go again, Whitesnake, 1982; All night long, Lionel Ritchie, 1983; Time after time, Cyndi Lauper, 1983; Alive and kicking, Simple Minds, 1985; 9 To 5, Dolly Parton, 1980; Blue Monday, New Order, 1983; Tainted Love, Soft Cell, 1981; Relax, Frankie goes to Hollywood, 1984; Everybody wants to rule the world, Tears for Fears, 1985; Straight Up, Paula Abdul, 1988; Thriller, Michael Jackson, 1983; Hungry like a wolf, Duran Duran, 1982; In the air tonight, Phil Collins, 1981; The Reflex, Duran Duran, 1983; Jump, Van Halen,1984; Spin me round like a record, Dead or Alive, 1985; Power of Love, Huey Lewis & the News, 1985; Power of Love, Jennifer Rush, 1984; Nothing's gonna stop us, Starship, 1987; Take my breath away, Berlin, 1986; Like a prayer, Madonna, 1989.

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CARDSHARP

Goodbye And

Good Riddance!

As the year draws to a close and the all-important Christmas trading season comes into full swing, Cardsharp reflects that 2018 will definitely be a year to be remembered, but not for the right reasons.

Retail has been hit by a perfect storm (both literally and metaphorically) earlier in the year.

Then there were increased costs bought on by auto-enrollment and the increase in the minimum wage, the squeeze on consumer spending, uncertainty over Brexit and the growing unfair competition from Amazon.

There is no doubt that bricks and mortar retailing has had a torrid time and will be looking for a special treat on the ‘Christmas stocking’ front.

When one of middle England’s favourite store chains, Marks and Spencer, announces it is closing 100 stores, you know things are bad, muses Cardsharp.

Likewise, when darling bellwether John Lewis & Partners struggled to break even in its latest set of financial results it caused foreheads to furrow. Another well-respected department store, Fenwick, has also struggled, abandoning its well-respected individual store buying policy and replacing it with a more cost efficient central buying set-up, and then of course, there was the spectacular collapse of House of Fraser.

To Cardsharp’s mind, such is the uncertainty about the retail sector, even Paperchase, which still made a profit in its last set of figures, was marmalised in the media when someone got hold of the fact that three insurance institutions were not offering credit insurance on the industry favourites design-led purveyor of cards.

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But one recent set of financial results that really caught Cardsharp’s eye was that of WHSmith. For the last decade or so, Cardsharp has felt like a recorded message when it comes to commenting on the group’s performance. Basically, its Travel division is growing in profit, sales and outlets, while its High Street side is somehow maintaining or even improving profit by cutting costs, putting pressure on

suppliers and concentrating on higher margin products. The trend started under previous ceo Kate Swann, but has continued in the last few years by her successor, Stephen Clarke.

Well, on the surface, reflected Cardsharp, not a lot has changed. Profit at WHS High Street came in at an incredible £60 million, the retailer’s third highest figure of the last 15 years. But there were a couple of developments that caught Cardsharp’s eye. Firstly, WHSmith is taking the first steps to rationalise its High Street portfolio with six stores set to close. That still leaves it with over 600 stores, but Cardsharp suspects that the ‘tail’ will no doubt be trimmed in the years to come, as the high street continues to contract.

And slipped into a sentence of the group’s results announcement was the decision to close its Cardmarket stores, its specialist value card concept. The fact that this only merited a single line indicated to Cardsharp that Above: WHSmith’s High Street side is maintaining its profits.

Left: WHSmith launched Paperchase many moons ago, only to sell it in its formative years.

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CARDSHARP there may be a few red faces in the WHS management team over this.

When Cardmarket was launched as ‘a trial’ three years ago in a bold fanfare as a potential competitor to Card Factory, Cardsharp’s comment back then was that it was impossible to ‘Out Card Factory, Card Factory’, and so takes comfort that his prediction, for once, was proved right. Its proclaimed initial aim to get to 120 stores in 18 months was never ‘on the cards’ so to speak, and the whole initiative, to Cardsharp at least, seemed pretty half-baked and badly executed from the start. The stores looked pretty unloved, even by the staff who worked in them, and they never got above 20 or so stores. Now they are history, gone and soon forgotten, Cardsharp suspects.

In fact, reflects Cardsharp, WHSmith has never had much success when it comes to dabbling in specialist card retailing. It launched Paperchase, only to sell it to its management while the chain was in its formative years. And 25 years ago it did launch a few mid-range specialist card shops as an experiment that it soon aborted.

WHSmith’s financial report also claimed that FunkyPigeon.com, its online

Left: Marks & Spencer announced it’s to close 100 stores.

Below: Dean Morris featured in the Mail on Sunday.

personalised greeting card business, performed well, achieving good growth, yet interestingly there is no mention of its Funky Pigeon bricks and mortar operation.

However, reflects Cardsharp, it is always difficult to know how well WHS High Street is doing when it comes to greeting cards. It includes cards (along weirdly with the latest kids craze, Slime) under its Stationery banner, which reported a healthy 3% growth, although the results did specifically mention that the retailer achieved good sales over Christmas for single cards, wrap, diaries, calendars and decorations.

And so what about Clintons? Getting meaningful sales information from the chain in recent years has been like trying to get blood out of a stone. Even when the annual

accounts come out, they have been published as AG Retail and were pretty opaque because of intercompany trading, what with AG/UKG being the largest card supplier to Clintons.

With the Weiss family selling off their majority stake in AG but still retaining Clintons, the accounts will hopefully become more transparent, but given that this only happened in February it may be some time before their ‘washing is put out for all to see’. In the absence of any concrete information, and given the difficult current trading environment, Cardsharp suspects they are not having it easy, and there were rumours that a significant cash injection was put in by the owners to help its cash situation over the tough summer months.

Now those summer months are over, Clintons, like all retailers, must be keeping everything crossed for a decent Christmas.

Cardsharp just hopes for all our sakes it is a good one and that 2019 sees an upturn in the retail environment.

‘Disgusted of Wolverhampton’ The Mail! Love it or loathe it, you can’t ignore it, reflects Cardsharp, with over nine million readers.

The Daily Mail/Mail on Sunday is, in many ways, Brexit and the Conservative Party’s populist friend, but historically it has always championed the cause of small and medium sized business. In recent months the newspaper has launched a laudable campaign to ‘Save our High Streets’, which has centred around trying to apply pressure on Chancellor Phillip Hammond to reduce the burden of business rates, to introduce a so called ‘Amazon Tax’ and to cut car park charges. All good stuff, even to a non-Daily Mail fan like Cardsharp.

It has also given a lot of good positive coverage to the greeting card industry in the last year alone, from focusing on the history of greeting cards to the double dose of double page spreads to Emotional Rescue’s iconic On The Ceiling range.

So it is puzzling that the Mail undoes so much of this good work with its repeated senseless attacks on a profitable and expanding privately owned high street chain that pays its taxes and employs an increasing number of employees. Of course, Cardsharp is talking about Scribbler. Yes, some or many of its cards might not be to everyone’s taste, but it’s horses for courses. No one is forcing anyone to buy in their shops and they all display a parental guidance sign. And in this day and age where kids as young as nine years-old are watching easily available hardcore and often violent porn, can a few swear words really do any harm? The Mail seems obsessed with Scribbler, but also seems very keen to feature some of Scribbler’s funniest cards, with of course the key words redacted!

Then Cardsharp noticed that a recent Mail on Sunday article went one step further and attempted to do the dirty on one of Scribbler’s main suppliers. Under the heading ‘We find the (surprisingly respectable) artist who creates those horrid greeting cards and ask: What ARE you playing at?’, it did a two page ‘expose’ on mild mannered publisher, Dean Morris. This revealed that Dean lives in an ‘Immaculately kept Victorian semi in a pleasant tree-lined suburb of Wolverhampton’ Wow! Now while Scribbler’s co-owners, John and Jennie Procter have philosophically adopted the view that ‘any publicity is good publicity’, Cardsharp reckons they must get slightly irritated by these tedious tirades. But it has not impeded Scribblers’ success as it continues to open new outlets. Someone at the Mail, perhaps new editor Geordie Greg (now Geordies do know a thing or two about swearing, thought Cardsharp in a reckless moment of stereotyping!) needs to tell some of his journalists that ‘Saving our High Street’ means supporting, not demonising, retailers like Scribbler who are doing its level best to do just that!

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

29

FEBRUARY 3-6, 2019 co-located with

BUILDING BUSINESS. C U LT I VAT I N G C O N N E C T I O N S .

The NSS presents you with hundreds of great new products from some of the newest and most exciting designers in the stationery industry today. Attend in February and meet the people behind the lines that will take your business to a new level in 2019.

#NSS2019

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VIEWPOINTS

Cardies Rock Knebworth “In a time of unprecedented change, the only constant is change,” said Ceri Stirland, GCA president (and UKG’s customer and channel director) in her opening speech to an upbeat and thought-provoking GCA AGM & Conference, which took place last month at Knebworth House in Hertfordshire.

PG hot-footed it to the historic country estate (that has hosted many rock concerts) to enjoy a stellar line-up of ‘acts’ who shared consumer insights and aired important industry issues, not least of which being the sector’s environmental responsibility.

Weathering the storm “The storm is the new norm,” UKG’s Ceri Stirland and president of the GCA saliently pointed out, highlighting the importance of the industry remaining agile to respond to all consumer tastes, notably the millennials - “they are important, as they are the future” - including their shopping habits, connectivity with technology and environmental concerns.

Presenting the findings of the recently published GCA UK Greeting Card Market Report, Ceri reflected: “A year ago at our AGM I said that our industry was at an all time high”. While she acknowledged that the findings from the recent annual survey showed that there has been a small 1% decline in value and volume, there are nonetheless encouraging signs.

“I am pleased to see that Spring Seasons made a come back, apart from in Father’s Day”, the average price paid for a card is up and “what is also encouraging is that we bought over 860 million single cards” in the last year.

In a message that was underlined by Sue Morrish, co-founder of Glebe Cottage/The Ecofriendly Card Co, who spoke after Ceri, the reigning GCA president stressed the importance of everyone in the industry making a commitment to improve their environmental credentials, to reconsider the cellowrapping of cards.

Above: With Knebworth House as the venue, The Sherwood Group went to town creating a 3D menu card for the wellattended event.

Far left: There was a potent line-up of speakers. (Left-right) GCA president Ceri Stirland (customer and channel director of UKG), Card Factory ceo Karen Hubbard, Sue Morrish (co-founder of Glebe Cottage and The Eco-friendly Card Co) and Moonpig’s design director Geoff Sanderson and head of licensing, Sarah-Jane Porter with incoming GCA ceo Amanda Fergusson and PG editor (and GCA general secretary) Jakki Brown.

Left: Well over 100 members of the greeting card community attended this year’s GCA AGM & Conference.

Bottom: Ceri Stirland, GCA president (and UKG’s customer and channel director) delivered a flawless and impactful welcome speech, which included reinforcing the strength of the industry as well as the collective responsibility to improve its environmental credentials.

“More Brits worry about plastics than they do about Brexit,” said Ceri, highlighting the high level of consumer concern.

Her fluid delivery was peppered with potent facts and engaging points of view.

“I estimate that as an industry we are responsible for 900 tonnes of plastic every year just in cellowrapping,” said Ceri, before making a strong case for everyone looking to adopt a Reduce, Recycle, Replace strategy when it comes to plastic use.

With retailers such as Asda, Sainsbury’s and M&S having already come out with their pledge to move to ‘naked cards’ or trailing it (with Clintons about to instigate a 10 store trial of ‘naked cards’), Ceri pointed out how unwrapping greeting cards looks set to become more commonplace in the trade.

However, while future proofing the industry will involve “ensuring engagement with millennials”, as well as embracing environmental improvements (albeit against the frustrating context of erratic local councils’ practice on the consumer/kerbside recycling front), she pointed out that the UK greeting card industry has good cause for celebration too.

“Our industry is still in great shape, it is vibrant and resilient,” concluded Ceri. l The industry’s long-established ‘green goddess’, Sue Morrish of Glebe Cottage/The Eco-friendly Card Co, gave an impassioned and detailed speech about the pros and cons of different wrapping options (see News).

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Thoughtfulness, Fortnite and Pets are coming up trumps “We’re here as we love cards. They are one of the few product categories that actually help to build relationships,” said Geoff Sanderson, Moonpig’s design director, who together with head of licensing Sarah-Jane (SJ) Porter (who is also a GCA Council member) shared some invaluable insights into the changing needs and tastes of today’s card buyer.

While the means of ordering Moonpig cards is digital (increasingly from mobile devices), Geoff and SJ explained that the data collected from the search words Moonpig purchasers use reflect societal trends and popular cultural drivers.

“Mindfulness was up over 150% and Thinking of You up 96% in consumer searches,” revealed SJ, highlighting the current strong wellness trend.

However, trouncing these by a long way is not just our love of our pets, but the desire to send cards to and from our furry and feathered members of ‘our family’. SJ revealed that, according to Moonpig’s data, the searches for designs related to a pet send was up an astonishing 194% in the last year.

Cards that celebrate diversity and inclusivity has been another key driver of late, with Moonpig tracking a 96% increase in searches for those looking for cards for same sex designs, over a 300% increase in Pride and 90% in ‘coming out’.

The top searches in 2018 on Moonpig’s site have been: l Fortnite l Love Island l Stranger Things l Kim Kardashian l Beyonce l Trump l Last Valentine’s as a Miss l Thinking of You at Mother’s Day l Like a Dad Top: Some of the Moonpig team, l Like a Mum including Geoff Sanderson (far right) and Sarah-Porter (5th from the right). l Elvis Presley Right: 59% of Moonpig searches in l Sloth the last year have been made on a mobile phone. l Rude l Charity Christmas cards Endorsing its ongoing commitment to the sector and, in particular ‘personalised giving’, Geoff concluded, saying: “We want to support our industry; its creative, its brands, its publishers and the Greeting Card Association - and are always looking for ways to do this and engage with like-minded partners.”

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PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

Camaraderie came to the fore It was very much business mixed with pleasure, as publishers, retailers and suppliers all enjoyed exchanging views, news and the schmooz of the event.

Above: The GCA’s Raquel Lopez (right) welcomed attendees, including Woodmansterne’s Paul Woodmansterne (who ran a popular workshop session entitled ‘Mistakes I have made’ in the afternoon) with colleague, Kate Leach, the company’s head of marketing.

Below: Sainsbury’s card buyer Carly Pearson (second right) and The Art File’s md Ged Mace (far right) were among those to lead afternoon workshop sessions, on diversity and business strategy respectively. They caught up with Pigment’s sales and marketing director Steve Baker and WHS card buyer Claire Castle in the reception.

Below right: Newbie members Whitty Goose’s Susan Whittaker and Saffron Gurden with Mike Lloyd of Erlenmeyer UK.

Below: The afternoon workshop sessions, led by industry experts, covered all manner of subjects, from Brexit to creative inspiration.

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From the Factory floor Card Factory’s CEO shares the nation’s emotional state.

“Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated,” the quote from Mark Twain filled the screen as Karen Hubbard, ceo of Card Factory took to the lecturn to deliver a punchy, thought provoking and optimistic speech that provided a memorable finale to the morning’s agenda.

“I spend quite a lot of time in the City with investors, analysts and the press, convincing them that card giving is alive and well, and that the card industry is not going to suddenly disappear - so it is refreshing to be able to stand in front of an audience who truly understand the card giving tradition,” began Karen.

As Card Factory is the UK’s largest greeting card retailer, with almost a third share of the total market, the insights and views Karen went on to share served to echo Mark Twain’s famous words.

Confronting the ongoing speculation that the greeting card industry is in terminal decline, Karen revealed that “evidence from industry and customer research, as well as from Card Factory’s own performance, demonstrates that if anything there is a move back to the ‘emotion’ of sending a physical card – to both celebrate life moments and to share sentiment”, before elaborating that “what is changing is the “occasion” and the age profile of card givers.”

Karen’s view, based on its data, is that the UK card market has increased slightly in value over the five years (2012-2016), though there has been an overall drop in volume, though Card Factory actually sold 10 million more cards over this period.

Highlighting some of the salient general greeting card trends, Karen picked out: l Older consumers are buying fewer cards. l 18-34 year-olds are buying more cards “We need to thank their mothers for that and the general sense of wanting to share sentiment and how we feel,” added Karen. l Consumers generally plan to buy their cards, irrespective of where they buy them. l Digital has not been a replacement for physical greeting card sending. In fact, between 2015 to 2018 there has been a decline from 14% to 6% of people who have replaced a card with only a digital greeting.

Building to a fitting emotional crescendo, Karen said: “I know that many in the industry have mixed views about Card Factory’s presence in the market - but we are very proud to play a pivotal role in ensuring that card giving remains an affordable tradition - no matter what the occasion or special moment - and that is something that we should all align behind, whether a publisher, designer, wholesaler or retailer - both physical and online.”

As she quite rightly pointed out: “In this room we all have the collective responsibility to ensure that we understand the card giving nation and that we look after them and serve them well.”

Above: Card Factory’s ceo Karen Hubbard (left) with Amanda Fergusson who takes over as GCA ceo from Sharon Little at the beginning of December.

Below left: Card Factory’s data concurs the industry is in decent health in an evolving retail and consumer landscape.

Below: Physical greeting cards are holding their own against digital cards.

Below: It was the first GCA AGM for hallmark’s incoming managing director Amanda Del Prete (right) who attended with her colleague Esther Key.

Above: (Right-left) Tim Rudd-Clarke (Gemma), Lucy Heath (Gemma), James Conn (UKG), Steve Baker (Pigment) and Jayne Myers (UKG) catching up at the start of the day.

Above: The event saw the welcoming of new members to the GCA Council, including (second right) Marion Hancock of Art Cards Ireland. Pictured here with (left-right) Papagrazi’s Kevin and Rosy James as well as David Kirkpatrick (Art Cards Ireland).

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Retailer Face To Face

Finders Keepers

Coinciding with its recent major rebranding to John Lewis & Partners, the department store group introduced Find Keep Give, a significant new own brand gifting and curated greeting card collection.

PG met up with John Lewis buyers Sara Allbright and Lisa Rutherford to find out more about this new thrust and how its introduction further elevates the role of greeting cards for the leading department store retailer.

In these scary times, the rebrand of the department store group John Lewis & Partners gave an extra endorsement of appreciation to those working within the organisation, who take the rough with the smooth. There is no escaping that retailing generally has been pretty rough and rocky, even for the terrain maestro John Lewis.

It’s fitting then that the adoption of the ‘& Partners’ brand extension coincided with the introduction of Find Give Keep, a breakthrough own brand gift, stationery as well as curated card and wrap collection, which has an intimacy, both in the product selection and the retail execution, that arguably has never been seen before from the retail giant.

Spanning almost 300 skus, the Find Give Keep collection includes 84 greeting cards as well as wrappings, stationery, home accessories, jewellery, fragranced products and edible treats. Having debuted in September, it is being rolled out across the entire 51 store strong estate, with follow up ranges already in gestation.

While distinct design themes cluster the own brand products together, the greeting cards and wrappings are either exclusive to the retailer or are from ranges that are not currently sold in John Lewis & Partners’ main greeting card department.

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Equally, significantly different, is how the collection is displayed instore, almost as a ‘special store within a store’, with customers discovering the products placed in arresting lifestyle arrangements on tables and drawer units that beckon shoppers to delve deeper into its wonders.

This experience is heightened further still in 10 trial locations where the Find Keep Give ‘zone’ also include personalisation and giftwrapping services.

Sara Allbright, buyer for gifts and candle shop (whose

Above: One of the wall displays of the Find Keep Give cards, as well as flat wrap that co-ordinates with some of the gift collections.

Below: The Find Keep Give zone in John Lewis & Partners’ Oxford Street store, with the cards and wrap straddling the monogramming area.

Bottom: The new Find Keep Give collection debuted to coincide with the 50 store group’s rebrand to John Lewis & Partners.

17 years experience with JL&P includes a period as its greeting card buyer) has been involved in the Find Give Keep project right from the start. However, she stresses that its successful culmination was only possible as a result of input and cooperation from other partners, including those from the greeting card and stationery team.

“For us to be able to develop an own brand gifting collection that was seen as really special by our customers meant it needed to be cross category, drawing in the expertise and insights from other departments so we could put the consumer really at its heart,” explained Sara.

As Sara reveals, the whole collection is structured around “four pillars - Gifts to Host, Gifts to Pause, Gifts to Covet and Gifts to Restore.” Elaborating, she explains that these four pillars are relevant whether the items are being purchased to give to someone else or as a self-purchase treat. To illustrate how the collection lends itself to ‘pause’, Sara says: “We have a table display featuring a mug, a bar of chocolate and a book which is aimed at someone who simply wants to sit down and relax. The concept has been about sourcing a range and presenting it in relation to how people are feeling.

Everything is built on macro trends, an example being the importance of people’s homes along with home entertaining. Find Keep Give has led us to be more free thinking, as people are definitely being eclectic about homewares.”

While the design themes of the collection

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Retailer Face To Face

John Lewis & Partners: The Lowdown

l John Lewis currently has 51 stores, to include John Lewis At Home, plus stores at St

Pancras International station and Heathrow Terminal 2. l The stores were rebranded John Lewis & Partners in September, which coincided with

the launch of Find Keep Give. l The Find Keep Give collection encompasses almost 300 skus, 84 of which are

greeting cards.

chime with trends, they are not so outlandish as to alienate, either in the design, wording or indeed in the pricing.

“Our aim is to not only create a collection that customers cannot not find elsewhere, but to make the shopping experience (whether in store or online) as enjoyable as possible,” adds Sara, who is well underway on creating subsequent collections to maintain the “newness for customers”.

The retailer’s stationery and card buyer Lisa Rutherford has been closely involved with the development of Find Keep Give and is delighted by the early results.

Their inclusion in the line-up of the new brand is effectively an elevation of greeting cards for John Lewis, in that they are now not only on sale in the main stationery department, but are integral to the new zone - and also currently a mainstay in the store group’s Christmas area.

In order to retain its own ‘handwriting’, Lisa explains “Find Keep Give has given us the opportunity to work with some amazing publishers that we would not normally include in our main stationery department,” citing Katie Leamon and Megan Claire as two prime examples. In addition, the retailer has also worked closely with Woodmansterne to create a selection of designs that are exclusive to the collection.

“Some 85% of our giftwrappings is own brand, but this is the first time we have been able to offer wrap and tissue that would coordinate with the gift a customer was buying,” Lisa pointed out.

Far from the additional greeting card and giftwrappings sightings cannibalising its existing sales, Lisa has been encouraged by the customer reaction to the additional

Above: JL&P’s Sara Allbright (left) and Lisa Rutherford in the retailer’s buying office HQ in London’s Victoria.

Right: A few of the stationery items in the Find Keep Give debut collection.

Below: The main greeting card department in the JL&P’s Oxford Street store.

opportunities it offers its customers through the Find Keep Give zones.

“It was good to see that, despite the fact that we have Christmas cards on sale in both our main stationery area and in our Christmas department, that a design from Raspberry Blossom from our Find Keep Give selection was up there among the best sellers,” Lisa revealed to PG soon after Christmas had ‘gone live’ in store. “Customers are clearly enjoying finding the additional card and wrappings selection,” believes Lisa.

The consumer media too has given the launch a thumbs up, from newspapers to glossies keen to fanfare the new strand.

‘The John Lewis gift shop that’s going to rival Oliver Bonas’ was how Ideal Home fanfared the launch. ‘One for me, one for you,’ was very much our shopping strategy

as we browsed Find Keep Give,’ wrote the home interest publication.

The real telling time however, will be the all important run up to Christmas, not just for the Find Keep Give collection, but JL&P’s till ringing generally.

On the card front, Lisa feels that the emotional connection that cards provide have never been more important than they are in today’s unsettling times.

“I feel really positive about the role of greeting cards. We saw encouraging sales of Christmas cards in the first week of them going on sale, which shows just how much people like to connect through cards. For the first time ever we have introduced 8-12’ of family relations designs in response to customers wanting to reinforce those important family connections,” believes Lisa.

Echoing Lisa’s positive stance, Sara’s view is that, “even in tough, uncertain economic conditions, people still want to celebrate Christmas,” she comments. “Plus, birthdays and other special occasions happen 365 days of the year, so we want gifts at John Lewis & Partners to be in the forefront of people’s

minds. No matter how uncertain people are feeling at the moment, buying cards and gifts is something that they don’t want to give up.”

With a major refresh (of 60-70% of the card designs in the main department) to be installed in store in February, as well as a new Spring Summer Find Keep Give collection readying to launch, both Lisa and Sara are feeling buoyant about next year’s opportunities.

As Sara sums up, “differentiation is crucial to surviving in retail. Obviously you have to have brands that people want, but you also have to have products and a selection that they won’t find anywhere else, and with a service and retail execution that are second to none. No one ever said retailing was easy!”

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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The home of the finest arts brands

— Unwind your mind —

2019

Spring Seasons

Contact your local agent, register online or call our sales team to find out more about our collection.

E: sales@mgml.co.uk

museumsgalleries.co.uk

T: 01373 462165

Home of the finest arts brands Progressive_Greetings_HPage_Ad_AW_Nov_Issue.indd 1 036_PG_November 2018.indd 1

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The Henries 2018 In Pictures

REWIND THE HENRIES’ E L E C T R IC D R E A M S

The Henries 2018 awards event was one to remember by all of the 700 industry ‘glitterati’ who were there to make history at the 80s Electric Dreams-themed extravaganza.

While the focus of the event, which took place last month at London’s Royal Lancaster Hotel, was to discover which ranges had won the top card publishing accolades, there was lots of fun to be had and schmoozing to be done, until the early hours.

PG shares a flavour of the big night!

Above right: It was a hot ticket to have! The 3D invitation was created by Paper Rose and produced by Windles.

Top: The winners of The Henries 2018 took to the stage, while host, 80s’ icon Pat Sharp joined PG’s Warren Lomax, Gale Astley and Jakki Brown as well as the GCA’s Sharon Little at the front.

Above: The Windles team at the company’s popular pre-reception drinks party.

Above: Some of the male members of the Five Dollar Shake gang sporting 80s hairstyles at the Windles pre-reception party.

Left: Card Factory’s creative director and major shareholder, Stuart Middleton (centre) with PG’s Jakki Brown and Warren Lomax who was ‘adamant’ about being dressed for the theme.

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The Henries 2018 In Pictures

Above: (Right-left) Jo Clarke (Toasted Crumpet), Bex Hassett (Bexy Boo), Rosie Harrison (Rosie Made A Thing, who was rolling on her pink skates into the early hours), Jess Hogarth (Jessica Hogarth Designs) and Abbie Ross (GF Smith).

Above: House of Cards’ Miles Robinson with Really Good’s Lisa Shoesmith (centre) and Fi Burge, both of whom were attired in authentic 80s garb.

Below: Everyone looked at the finalists boards (produced by The Sherwood Group) in the reception - Stephanie Davies (left) of Stephanie Davies Designs was even dressed to co-ordinate with her card that featured.

Below: It was revealed on the big screen that Max Publishing’s long serving photographer, Eddie Macdonald, was the bass player and songwriter for 80s band, The Alarm.

Below: All smiles! (Right-left) Paperchase’s Hazel Walker, Kate Culpin and Emma Clooney.

Above: Purple ‘Reign’? Jonny Spears (of Jonny Javelin) adopted the showmanship of Prince at the event this year.

Right: ‘David Bowie’ aka Charlie Fowler (of David Live) wowed the audience with his musical performance.

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The Henries 2018 In Pictures

Left: To tie in with the Now That’s What I Call Music menu, created by Gemma and Loxleys, all ‘raffle table captains’ received a an 80s’ Now double CD. Wrendale’s Hannah Dale was among the delighted ‘captains’.

Right: The raffle, in aid of The Light Fund, raised £7,000 for the charity. It was drawn by GCA’s ceo Sharon Little (right) and Ceri Stirland, president of the GCA and UKG’s customer and channel director.

Below right: Paperlink’s Frankie Ellis won the first raffle prize of £500 of Trailfinders vouchers (donated by Cardzone), presented by ‘Flock of Seagulls’ Jim Bullough.

Above: Method UK’s Matt Payne won the ‘Higher or Lower’ 80s-themed elimination competition, sponsored by PG Live. The exhibition’s sales manager Tracey Arnaud (right) and marketing manager Jacqui Parr presented the prize of a magnum of champagne as well as a Jackie, Dandy and Beezer annual from the 1980s.

Below: It was a sparkly evening, helped by the Five Dollar Shake/Counting Stars Glitter stations. WHS’ Katie Briggs (centre) with John Lewis & Partners’ (right-left) Fatima Mapara, Lizzie Batchelar, Lisa Rutherford and Emily Lewis.

Below: Portfolio’s Jayne Diggory fully embraced the 80s theme of the event.

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The Henries 2018 In Pictures

Above: The Max Live Events team who did the production for the event went all out on the outfit front.

Above right and right: Dancing queens and kings took to the dancefloor and made some 80s’ shapes!

Below: The House of Cards’ sponsored photobooth was a popular element of the event. (right to left) Cherry Orchard’s Jackie Collins, Beverley Fisher and (far left) John Clark with Heidelberg’s Barry Benham were among those to have some fun with it.

Below: Hitting the high notes! (Left-right) Michaela Vrabelova (Roger la Borde), Meera Santoro (Santoro), Jenni Bartlett (Roger la Borde) and Tara Strickland (Santoro).

Below: Making the most of the massive ‘boombox’, DJ duo Freight Train tapped into the 80s vibe of the event.

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Below: Members of the glitterati included Card Factory’s Zoe Proctor (centre) with UKG’s Rachel Wood (left) and Ceri Stirland.

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Open to: This award was open to all greeting card designers and artists (employed or freelance) under the age of 35 on August 1 2017.

THE LYNN TAIT MOST PROMISING YOUNG DESIGNER OR ARTIST AWARD

Winner

Emma Pearce senior designer for Hotchpotch

Initial Reaction: “My initial reaction was shock! I was nominated with so many other talented designers that I could only have dreamt of winning!”

Emma Pearce, senior designer for Hotchpotch Above: Emma Pearce, senior designer for Hotchpotch, is delighted to accept this esteemed trophy for The Lynn Tait Most Promising Young Designer Or Artist Award sponsored by Paperchase.

Frances Burkle, product director for the company, presented the award.

Television and radio star, Pat Sharp (left) compered the Henries event.

Right: Emma is thrilled with her Henries accolade.

Left: Frances Burkle, product director for Paperchase, category sponsor.

CATEGORY SPONSOR

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BEST CHILDREN’S RANGE

Open to: All children’s greeting card ranges that have been launched or updated (with a minimum of eight designs) since August 2017.

Winner

Party Popper from Cinnamon Aitch

Left: Sarah Fitzpatrick, co-director of Cinnamon Aitch, firmly clasps her Henries trophy for the Best Children’s Range category, presented to her by Tony Lorriman, managing director for Loxleys, the category sponsor.

Initial Reaction: “It was total shock actually; it felt a bit dreamlike! The other ranges nominated were all so great that I really didn’t think we had a chance. But it was really wonderful and I couldn’t wait to let Sara [co-director] know!”

Sarah Fitzpatrick, co-director of Cinnamon Aitch

Left: Tony Lorriman, md of Loxleys, category sponsor.

Right: Sarah with a shiny trophy.

CATEGORY SPONSOR

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BEST ART RANGE Open to: All art greeting card ranges that have been launched or updated (with a minimum of eight designs) since August 2017.

Initial Reaction: “We were pleasantly surprised to win this category, seeing who we were up against! We love our David Doran range, so we were ecstatic!”

Ana Castro Di Tella, sales coordinator for U Studio

Winner

David Doran From U Studio Design

Above: Rob Hodgson, designer for U Studio Design, is presented with the award for the Best Art Range category by Alejandra Campos, show director, and David Westbrooke, senior sales manager, for Top Drawer, sponsor of this award.

Left: Rob is over the moon with his trophy.

Above: Alejandra Campos, show director, and David Westbrooke, senior sales manager, for Top Drawer, category sponsor.

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Rosie Made A Thing Papery lols

HUGE thanks to everyone who voted for us

Henries are forever Best Relations/Occasions Range Hap py Birthday to a bonkers Granddaughter

To my brilliant Brother

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You’ve still got it, Granny

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BEST RELATIONS &/OR OCCASIONS RANGE

Open to: All relations or occasions greeting card ranges that have been launched or updated (with a minimum of eight designs) since August 2017.

Winner

Gin & Frolics From Rosie Made a Thing Top right: Rosie Harrison, owner/designer for Rosie Made A Thing is elated to receive her Henries award, the trophy for the Best Relations or Occasions Range, from Simon Pilkington, director for Fedrigoni, sponsor of this award.

Below: Simon Pilkington, director for Fedrigoni, category sponsor.

Initial Reaction: “My initial reaction was ‘Yay!’ closely followed by ‘I shouldn’t have started drinking at 5pm’. I was glad I’d taken my roller boots off though.”

Rosie Harrison, designer and founder of Rosie Made A Thing

CATEGORY SPONSOR

Above: Rosie and a fabulous Henries trophy.

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

45

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BEST CHRISTMAS COUNTER RANGE Open to: All Christmas counter greeting card ranges that have been launched or updated (with a minimum of eight designs) since August 2017.

Winner

Festive Friends From The Handcrafted Card Company

Initial Reaction: “It was definitely a delayed reaction as we couldn’t believe it!

We just couldn’t wait to tell everyone back at THCC!” Mark Lewis, operations manager for The Handcrafted Card Company

Above: (Second right) Becky Roe, designer for The Handcrafted Card Company, and operations manager, Mark Lewis, collect the company’s award from Michelle Mills, business development and marketing manager for Windles, who sponsored the Best Christmas Counter Range category.

Below: All smiles, Mark and Becky clasp the festive trophy.

Left: Michelle Mills, business development and marketing manager for Windles, category sponsor.

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Symbols of Love

WINNER B E ST TRADITION AL WOR D S & SEN TIMENT R AN GE

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BEST TRADITIONAL WORDS & SENTIMENTS RANGE

Open to: All traditional words and sentiments greeting card ranges that have been launched or updated (with a minimum of eight designs) since August 2017.

Winner

Symbols of Love From UK Greetings

Above: Sandi Parisi, creative director for UK Greetings, was over the moon to accept the Henries trophy for the Best Traditional Words & Sentiments category from UK agent Rob Pearson, who presented the accolade on behalf of the award sponsor, Solutions Polska.

Below: The lovely Sandy Parisi weaves to the stage.

Initial Reaction: "We were very happy and honoured to win a Henries award. At UKG, we believe a lot in power of words and sometimes you don’t need to write much, to say a lot. Thank you to all the judges who voted for us."

Sandi Parisi, creative director for UK Greetings

Right: Rob Pearson, UK agent for Solutions Polska, category sponsor.

Far right: Sandi is very pleased with her Henries trophy.

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BEST CONTEMPORARY WORDS & SENTIMENTS RANGE Open to: All contemporary words and sentiments greeting card ranges that have been launched or updated (with a minimum of eight designs) since August 2017.

Winner

More Glitter!!!

From Counting Stars

Initial Reaction: "After 20 years in the industry, and many Henries awards, I still can never hide the thrill of winning.

To be recognised by all our amazing customers is such a blessing."

Beth Genower, designer for Counting Stars Top right (centre): Beth Genower, designer for Counting Stars, with (left to right) Christine Fuller, Violette Sivyer, Hayley Messenger, Laura Gunton, Caroline Burton and Sophie Nuthall who are delighted to receive the award for the Best Contemporary Words and Sentiments Range category, presented by Lewis Simpson, business development executive for The Digital Hub, the category sponsor.

Right: Queen of glitter, Beth Genower, is over the sparkling moon to hear Counting Stars called out as the winner.

Bottom right: A sparkling cluster of Counting Stars.

Below: Lewis Simpson, business development executive for Digital Hub, category sponsor.

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brushstrokes

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BEST CONTEMPORARY TREND RANGE Open to: All contemporary greeting card ranges that have been launched or updated (with a minimum of eight designs) since August 2017.

Winner

Brush Strokes From Stop The Clock Design

Initial Reaction: “Wow… what a shock! We really weren’t expecting to win, especially in such a competitive category. We were thrilled just to be nominated so hearing our name read out as the winner made the evening extra exciting!”

Kathy Harrington and Erin James, directors of Stop the Clock Design

Above: Kathy Harrington (left) and Erin James, directors of Stop the Clock Design were thrilled to receive the award for the Best Contemporary Trend Range category from Angie Bryant, on behalf of National Stationery Show, New York, sponsor of this category.

Right: The ‘contemporary’ Stop The Clock Design ladies with big smiles.

CATEGORY SPONSOR

Left: Angie Bryant presented the award on behalf of National Stationery Show, category sponsor.

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A4 Henries 2018 Winner Print.pdf

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BEST HANDMADE OR HAND-FINISHED RANGE Open to: All handmade or hand-finished greeting card ranges that have been launched or updated (with a minimum of eight designs) since August 2017.

Winner

Paper Kisses From Janie Wilson

Above: Janie Cook, director of Janie Wilson, receives the award for Best Handmade or Handfinished Range, which is sponsored by EBB Paper.

The company’s sales and marketing director, Chris Sandwell presented the award.

Initial Reaction: “Wow! Woohoooo!

The moment when your name is read out is a great feeling, makes all the hard work worthwhile.”

Janie Cook, director for Janie Wilson

Right: A very happy Janie and a lovely new trophy.

Below: Chris Sandwell, sales and marketing director for EBB Paper, category sponsor.

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BEST PHOTOGRAPHIC RANGE Open to: All photographic greeting card ranges that have been launched or updated (with a minimum of eight designs) since August 2017.

Winner Say It From CardMix

Below: CardMix’s creative director Lee Keeper (right) and art director, Ian Blake, accepted the trophy for Best Photographic Range from Alison Graham, event director for Spring Fair, the category sponsor.

Initial Reaction: “It was simply a big thank you to the writer, as well as the design and production team that brought Say It! to life – how appropriate to win with a range that puts the fun into photography on a such a fun-filled night.”

Lee Keeper, creative director, and Ian Blake, art director, for CardMix

Bottom right: Ian and Lee have ‘snapped’ up a Henries Trophy!

Below: Alison Graham, event director for Spring Fair, category sponsor.

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BEST HUMOROUS RANGE Open to: All humour greeting card ranges that have been launched or updated (with a minimum of eight designs) since August 2017.

Winner

Holy Flaps From Redback Cards

Above: A delighted Chris (left) and Kate Stanley (second from right), owners of Redback Cards, with designer Capella Andrean (trophy holder) and ops manager, Samantha Airzee, receive the award for the Best Humorous Range category from Oliver Yorston, sales manager for Transrap Packaging, sponsor of this category.

Below: A surprised Kate enroute to the stage.

Initial Reaction: “We were thrilled! Even more so as the whole team was there to celebrate this year!”

Capella Andrean, designer for Redback Cards

CATEGORY SPONSOR

Above: Oliver Yorston, sales manager for Transwrap, category sponsor.

Right: Left to right: Capella, Samantha, Kate and Chris and an ‘electric dream’ Henries award.

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To celebrate winning another Henries Award (4th year running by the way!!) for our Stephanie Dyment range, we’re launching a brand new collection of floral gift bags, flat and roll wraps plus matching tissue papers.

All are available to pre-order from 1st November for delivery in January.

YOU CAN NOW ORDER THROUGH OUR WEBSHOP! To register go to: trade.glick.co.uk

01274 655980 sales@glick.co.uk www.glick.co.uk Unit 1 Allenby House, European Ind. Park, Knowles Lane, Bradford BD4 9AB

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@glickgiftwrap

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BEST GIFTWRAPPING RANGE Open to: All giftwrapping collections that have been launched or updated (with a minimum of eight designs) since August 2017.

Entries could either be a range of giftwrap sheets or a collection of wrappings (eg co-ordinating wrap, bags, boxes, ribbons etc).

Winner

Stephanie Dyment Everyday From Glick

Initial Reaction: “Completely thrilled and very surprised to win the award again in a very tough category. Our Stephanie Dyment collection won Best Giftwrappings Range last year, so we didn’t expect to win this year! A huge thanks to everyone that voted for us.”

Becky Dobson, director for Glick

Above: Director for Glick, Becky Dobson (right), export manager Michelle Airth and designer Stephanie Dyment, are thrilled to accept the Best Giftwrappings Collection award from Simon Boyd, operations director for Progressive Greetings Live, the category sponsor.

Below: Stephanie (left) and Becky are all smile.

Left: Simon Boyd, operations director for PG Live, category sponsor.

Below: Becky makes her way to the stage.

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NEW DESIGNS ADDED TO OUR AWARD WINNING JAMBOREE RANGE!

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BEST MALE RANGE Open to: All greeting card ranges aimed at men (non-humour) that have been launched or updated (with a minimum of eight designs) since August 2017.

Above: Claire Williams (left) and Karen Wilson, directors for Paper Salad, receivethe Best Male Range award from Tony Myers, account manager for Slater Harrison, the category sponsor.

Winner

Jamboree From Paper Salad

Initial Reaction: “Wow, we couldn’t believe we had won against such tough competition!”

Karen Wilson, co-director for Paper Salad

CATEGORY SPONSOR

Above: ‘Salad’ days for Claire and Karen (right).

Left: Tony Myers, account manager for Centura Slater Harrison, category sponsor.

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BEST WHOLESALE RANGE Open to: All greeting card ranges (of any design type) that are distributed via wholesale distributors or cash & carries that have been launched or updated (with a minimum of eight designs) since August 2017.

Initial Reaction: “Oh WOW, we actually won! That’s amazing! This was followed by a bit of a blur.”

Jitesh Kaneria, managing director for Regal Publishing

Winner

In Loving Memory From Regal Publishing Top: Jitesh Kaneria, managing director for Regal Publishing, is proud to be presented with his Henries trophy for the Best Wholesale Range from Lynda Raymond, partner for LB Warehousing, sponsor of this award.

Left: A royal moment for Regal.

Right: A sparkling win for Jitesh and his wife, Regal’s product director, Dipti Kaneria.

Right: Lynda Raymond, partner of LB Warehousing, category sponsor.

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INK PRESS IS 10 YEARS OLD! We have re c re a t ed 1 2 o f t h e c l a s s i c d e s i g n s w i t h n e o n i n k s a n d s c r e e n pr i nt.

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BEST CHRISTMAS BOX OR PACK Open to: Any Christmas box or pack that had been launched since August 2017. This award could be for a specific item rather than for a range.

Winner

Christmas Houses From The Art File

Initial Reaction: "Wow – that’s a great win especially with the stiff competition in this category.

I was delighted that our production team were in the room to experience the win!"

Ged Mace, managing director for The Art File Above: Ged Mace, managing director of The Art File, with (left) production manager Alice Tillotson, and (right) Cheryl Wren, project manager, proudly accept the company’s Henries trophy for the Best Christmas Box Or Pack category from Gould Paper’s managing director, Nick Henry, who presented the accolade on behalf of the award sponsor, Gould Paper.

Below left: Nick Henry, md for Gould Paper, category sponsor.

Left: The Art File’s Alice Tillotson (right) and Cheryl Wren, along with md, Ged Mace, make their way to the stage.

Below: Ged with Alice and Cheryl clutching their shiny award.

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BEST SPRING SEASONS RANGE Open to: Greeting card ranges for the Spring Seasons occasions that have been launched or updated (with a minimum of eight designs) since August 2017.

Initial Reaction: “We all had the best time ever!!

The entertainment and vibe of the evening was fabulous, and obviously it was a huge privilege to win!”

Lucie Chadderton, director for Sooshichacha

Winner

Father’s Day Collection from Sooshichacha

Above left: Sooshichacha’s director, Lucie Chadderton (left), and senior designer, Ayesha Corcoran, collect the award for Best Spring Seasons Range from GF Smith’s paper consultant, Mark Jessett. The paper company is the sponsor of this category.

Left: Ayesha is thrilled.

Below: Mark Jessett, paper consultant, for GF Smith, category sponsor.

Below left: Lucie (left) and Ayesha beam with delight.

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BEST CUTE RANGE

Winner

Zoo Lane From Paper Salad

Open to: All cute greeting card ranges that have been launched or updated (with a minimum of eight designs) since August 2017.

Right: Amy and Jeff Williams, md and chairman for Alpha Colour Printers, category sponsor.

Initial Reaction: “Amazing, two Henries awards! We are over the moon!”

Claire Williams, co-director for Paper Salad Top right: Directors of Paper Salad, Karen Wilson (right) and Claire Williams, look happy as Amy and Jeff Williams, managing director and chairman for Alpha Colour Printers presents the award for the Best Cute Range trophy on behalf of the category sponsor.

Right: Claire and Karen (right) and another sparkling Henries award.

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BEST LICENSED RANGE

Open to: All greeting card ranges involving a licensing agreement that have been launched or updated (with a minimum of eight designs) since August 2017.

Initial Reaction: “My initial reaction was genuine surprise, having won the award for the second year running. I’m absolutely over the moon for Danilo to get the recognition for this hugely successful range, which demonstrates Danilo’s ability to offer a creatively-led range in the adult humour arena.”

Dan Grant, licensing director for Danilo

Above: Danilo’s licensing director Dan Grant (left), and creative director, Martin Carter, are pleased to accept the Best Licensed Card Range award sponsored by Skeet Print.

Director, John Skeet presents the trophy.

Below: John Skeet, director of Skeet Print, category sponsor.

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Below: Dan (right) and Martin are overjoyed with their Henries trophy.

Winner

Ladybird Books for Grown-ups From Danilo

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BEST SERVICE TO THE INDEPENDENT RETAILER

The finalists in this category were arrived at as a result of an exhaustive poll involving 1,500 independent card retailers. The retailers were invited to nominate which companies they considered to be their top three card suppliers on the service front over the last year.

There are three trophies in this category, the Gold, Silver and Bronze awards were presented to the top three scoring suppliers in the retail poll.

Bronze

Winner Above: Noel Tatt’s managing director Jarle Tatt accepts the Bronze Best Service To The Independent Retailer award from Richard Campbell, managing director for Herbert Walkers, sponsor of the Best Service category.

Initial Reaction: “Wow! Maybe It’s time to look into getting that trophy cabinet!”

Jarle Tatt, managing director for Noel Tatt

Right: Richard Campbell, md for Herbert Walkers, category sponsor of all three of the Best Service Awards.

Below: Jarle and his team win the Henries Bronze trophy for Best Service To The Independent Retailer.

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BEST SERVICE TO THE INDEPENDENT RETAILER

Silver

Winner

Top right: UK Greetings’ director of merchandising and independent retail, Darren Cave, steps up to recieve the Silver award for Best Service To The Independent Retailer from Richard Campbell, managing director for Herbert Walkers, sponsor of this whole category.

Bottom: Darren navigates his way to the stage.

Right: Darren clasps his Silver Henries trophy.

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Initial Reaction: “It was a fantastic feeling to hear that we had won The Henries Silver Service award. Given how competitive the market is it’s such an incredible achievement for UKG. We are absolutely delighted to have gone from Bronze to Silver this year which is thanks to our customers’ confidence in UKG, coupled with the dedication, skill and commitment from colleagues all across our business; this really is a team effort!

Congratulations to everyone at UKG and a big thank you to all the customers who voted for us!”

Darren Cave, director of field sales for UKG

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BEST SERVICE TO THE INDEPENDENT RETAILER

Gold

Winner Above: Taking to the stage, brothers Simon (centre) and Ian Wagstaff (centre right), managing directors of IC&G, and sales director Tony Roberts and creative director Amanda Miles, are presented with the Gold award for Best Service To The Independent Retailer from Richard Campbell, managing director for Herbert Walkers, sponsor of this award.

Below right: Ian (right) and Simon (left) with IC&G’s director of sales, Tony Roberts.

Below left: Brothers, Simon (left) and Ian weave to the stage.

Initial Reaction: “Phew!” Followed by, “Amazing, can’t believe we did it again!” Thank you to everyone!”

Simon Wagstaff, co-managing director for IC&G

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Open to: This award is for ranges that have stood the test of time. The winner will join The Henry Cole Classic Hall of Fame with the previous winners which are Bestie from Paperlink, Eric the Penguin from GBCC, Forever Friends from Hallmark, On The Ceiling from Emotional Rescue, Me to You from CBG, Medici Cards Blue Label from GBCC, Second Nature’s Pop-Ups, Quentin Blake from Woodmansterne, Giggles from Hanson White (UKG), Pizazz from Nigel Quiney and Rainbow from Ling Design.

THE HENRY COLE CLASSIC AWARD

Initial Reaction: "I was shocked to win of course but it’s fair to say that I was happy… and drunk!! A common combination!

Just sober enough to stand up and make the stage. The award was confiscated by Really Good’s Lisa Shoesmith almost immediately afterwards for safe keeping!"

David Hicks, managing director for Really Good

Winner

The Bright Side from Really Good

Right: Really Good’s managing director, David Hicks, receives the trophy for this Henries award that recognises card ranges that have stood the test of time - The Henry Cole Classic Award. The Sherwood Group’s chief executive, Jeremy Bacon, presented the award on behalf of the company, who sponsored this category.

Below: Jeremy Bacon, chief executive for The Sherwood Group, category sponsor.

Right: David tightly holds his Henry Cole Classic Award.

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Henries Winners pages A4 USE! pt2.qxp_Layout 1 25/10/2018 10:58 Page 13

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HONORARY ACHIEVEMENT AWARD This prestigious award is presented to an individual who has contributed greatly to the UK greeting card industry. The winner can come from the retailing, publishing, wholesaling or the supply side of the trade.

Nominations were sought from the entire industry for this special award.

Winner

Right: Ged Mace, managing director for The Art File is presented with the esteemed Honorary Achievement Award given by UK Envelope Centre’s managing director Joanne Jefferson, who sponsored this category.

Below: Ged is announced as this year’s Henries’ Honorary Achiever.

Below right: Ged thanks The Art File team.

Ged Mace, managing director for The Art File

An excerpt of the speech given by PG’s Jakki Brown at the awards ceremony: “Tonight we honour someone who has spent over 35 years at the forefront of our UK greeting card industry. A heady combination of a passion for product, innate business nous, understanding of retailer needs as well as a strong altruistic leaning has seen them quite rightly earn the respect of all.

Starting out in their twenties, as a humble rep, for one of the most successful greeting card publishers of all time, they absorbed the pearls of business wisdom given to them by the company’s owner, embraced the benefits of teams manship, learned quickly of the importance of forging strong relationships with retailers and standing by your word.

Back then, the industry was no way as competitive as it is now, and it was growing like topsy and our honorary achiever lapped up all the opportunities it presented, going on to join the UK offshoot of an international publishing business, before using their experience to help drive a smaller start-up on their journey to success.

But their entrepreneurial yearn was too strong to ignore and so back in the late 90s, they left the security of employment, and together with their partner set up a tiny art card publisher.

Fast forward to today and that tiny company is now a £multi-million publishing business has become a byword for quality design, innovation and indeed commercial success revered by independents and multiples alike the world over.

Still very much at the helm, though with a strong team alongside them, despite the impressive growth curve of their business, the individual we honour tonight has always been incredibly generous with their time to help others, selflessly sharing their insights with small publishers for absolutely no personal gain. Their deep rooted commitment to this sector is also evident as a long serving and very active member of the GCA Council and former president, ever keen to come up with ways of future proofing our industry and forging stronger links between publishers, retailers and consumers.

The business they head up has recently won a top accolade from the Queen for its export prowess and this year the company is celebrating its 21st anniversary. Well tonight we give another reason for celebration.

Having had the good fortune to have known him for almost 30 years, I can honestly say he is a thoroughly nice man who who stands head and shoulders above so many.

The Honorary Achievement Award 2018 goes to Ged Mace, md of The Art File.”

Initial Reaction: "First thought as my name was read out – I was totally shocked – usually it’s the time when you settle back and have another wine. I am absolutely thrilled to receive this special award - especially when it is your peers who vote for the recipient. On the night I then went onto say – 'Who says it’s wrong to ask Russia to influence the outcome of a vote! I have loved every day of my 33 years in this amazing industry, except perhaps those days when you receive a sale or return request. However, that’s probably enough said about that this evening, although you know who you are!!

I couldn’t have achieved what I have done without the amazing Art File team.'"

Ged Mace, managing director of The Art File

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In Conversation With... Paul Woodmansterne

Reeling In The Years There was one workshop session at last month’s GCA’s AGM and Conference which filled up quicker than any of the others – ‘Mistakes I have made’ led by Paul Woodmansterne, md of Woodmansterne, who was persuaded to anchor the session to share his left-flank thinking that has served to earn the company the heads up place in the greeting card industry ‘history book’.

As Woodmansterne celebrates its 65th anniversary, PG went to Watford to delve into the publisher’s heritage and gain an insight into the future plans.

You would be hard pushed to find any human being or business that hasn’t made any mistakes along the way. Focus on humanbeings who are not afraid to challenge the norm, relish ploughing their own furrow by taking intelligent risks and the likelihood is that not everything will go quite to plan increases.

But the bonus is that sometimes their innate nous, far sight, drive, passion and willingness to go out on a limb sees them achieve much more than few would have ever anticipated.

This is certainly the case with Woodmansterne Publication’s passage over its 65 year history (see separate box on page 79).

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Paul Woodmansterne, managing director of the company, was put on the spot by the members of the GCA Council and coerced into running two workshop sessions at the recent AGM and Conference, to share some of the thinking that has taken Woodmansterne to where it is today.

Far from wanting to take all the credit, notably Paul shared the running of the business with his sister Julia for many years until a few years ago, but he

accepts that if you are managing director of a business it is your responsibility to lead it.

“I am still learning every day to be a better leader… it gives me a reason to get up in the morning,” reveals Paul, who joined the family business 25 years ago, having graduated from Oxford in music.

By most accounts he is learning well!

Although the term has only come into general parlance in recent times, Woodmansterne Publications has been a ‘disruptor’ right from the off, and still is to a certain extent.

Paul’s parents revolutionised the souvenir slide business, through the development of their own process, and when that market dropped off they used some of the amazing imagery from the slide archive, plus acting on a suggestion from Paul’s wife Bella to reproduce the beautiful Edward Burne-Jones stained glass windows in Oxford’s Christ Church onto greeting cards, the disruptive legacy continued.

Top: Paul wrote a personal message of thanks inside a special 65th anniversary card which was given to all Woodmansterne employees.

Bottom: The Woodmansterne team shot that was taken at the recent Wayzgoose event which formed the company’s main 65th anniversary celebration.

Above left: Art remains a constant in the Woodmansterne portfolio.

Left: This Quentin Blake design is a personal favourite of Paul’s due to it being an expression of hope, respect and tenderness.

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In Conversation With... Paul Woodmansterne

There is no denying that it turned the fine art card publishing sector on its head with what was viewed back in the 90s as a controversial approach to reproducing art, which was then presented in a square card format (back then 5” x 7” was very much the norm), topped by some prominent company branding on the front.

“We did come up against a lot of resistance to our desire to just feature an element of a masterpiece on the front of the card. We got round it with some institutions by featuring the artwork in its entirety on the backs of the cards,” says Paul.

Add to this the fact that Woodmansterne had its own in-house printing right from the off (and this was back in the days when digital printing was not as established as it is now, so it represented hefty investment in equipment and knowledge), and the ‘new kid on the block’ stood out from crowd – and retailers loved it.

Woodmansterne went from zero to hero in the card trade in the final decade of the last century, of that there is no doubt.

“We enjoyed 10 years of uninterrupted joy!” sums up Paul of that 1990-2000 period.

Over the years, the company has expanded way beyond its art card ‘disruptor’ label, morphing into a mainstay strategic publisher, evidenced by its move into licensed ranges, occasions and relations as well as the introduction of CardMix and The Proper Mail Company to cater for different consumer strands and additional retail customers.

Its acquisition of Caltime in 2014, taking the group into Advents, was a great opportunity spotted, when founders Ted and Glenys Blake were looking to retire. “It’s been brilliant. We were lucky to find them and they were lucky to find us,” says Paul.

Arguably even more significant has been the group’s expansion on the distribution front, operating a brokerage service for multiples (John Lewis notably), as well as small groups and indies (through its W Select programme, which now supplies

Lights, camera, action When Woodmansterne Publications’ co-founder, Graham Woodmansterne made his first training film for the British troops serving in India during the Second World War back in 1940 little did he know that in 2018 his legacy would still be very much rooted in the visual arts.

As part of its 65th anniversary celebrations, Woodmansterne has gone back into the ‘film business’, commissioning and directing a beautifully shot short film about the company today, its values, its people and its products.

The film, entitled ‘Values that last’ celebrates the key cornerstones of the business. These fall under the headings of: Relationships First, Be Authentic, Make It Brilliant, Grow or Die as well as Enthusiasm and Fun. The film is on its website (www.woodmansterne.com).

Above: Paul’s father Graham called this his ‘miracle’ shot as the flash went off just at the right time, countering the dreary weather on the Queen’s Coronation Day. Left: Among the treasures in the archive is correspondence from NASA.

170 retailers). After a few troublesome incarnations - with various joint ventures that did not prove workable, this now operates out of its impressive wholly owned Mr Pickwick facility in Milton Keynes.

Add to all this, the campaigning work to have come out of Paul’s head - from the £thousands donated through its Art Conservation Trust to the work with the Charities Commission to firm up on wording on charity cards, and more recently the ‘Recycle me’ message that has been adopted by Wrap for greeting cards – and he’s done not bad for someone who knew a lot about ancient music, but nothing about business, let alone the greeting card sector, when his parents encouraged him into the fold “for a short time.”

When prompted as to how he feels as the company marks its 65th milestone, Paul admitted: “I do feel very proud that the company is in the shape it is.

We have good relationships with our customers, produce some lovely products, and employ 100 great people on two sites.”

As he points out, like any business Woodmansterne has experienced its challenges over the years and will continue to do so, therefore you need to be ready to adapt to an ever-changing landscape.

Above left: Paul Woodmansterne with one of the many scholars it has given grants to through its Art Conservation Trust to restore artworks and artefacts.

Right: Seth Woodmansterne is in place to take over as managing director in 2020 when Paul moves to chairman.

“We, as a company, used to make two million photographic slides a year, produced using my father’s pioneering process, Elfin Colour. That market for photographic slides fell away, but it fortunately led us into greeting cards!” explained Paul.

As to what he thinks his parents would make of the business today, Paul says: “My Dad was an ideas man who would love the products’ visual media produced by ourselves. My mother was the economist. I remember my Mum getting round the ‘ThreeDay week’ to conserve electricity by buying a generator for the business so that we could continue to produce Dad’s Elfin Colour slides unaffected. She loved a problem and finding ways round it. I would like to think she would approve of the spirit here, our ways of doing things and be proud of our growth.”

Having reached its 65th anniversary, there is no intention of Woodmansterne Publications retiring, but Paul has made no secret of the fact that he is planning to hand over the baton of the day to day running of the company to his son Seth in July 2020, who has been doing his ‘apprenticeship’ in various aspects of the business since he joined seven years ago.

Commenting on whether he feels equipped to become the third generation leader of this significant disruptor, Seth quips: “I am excited by the challenge.

I graduated in history of art at college, which is marginally more relevant than Dad’s music degree, but not much, but since when did that stop us.” He has the right genes then!

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PG showcases a selection of new product launches

Youthful Scribbles Laura Darrington Design has been pursuing its childish inclinations with its latest range, The Scribbles Collection. Comprising 32 children's designs – from noisy dinosaur to bouncy unicorn - the designs are enhanced by cold foil elements and come with a bespoke printed envelope.

Laura Darrington 0116 2849660 www.lauradarrington.com

Truly Flaptastic Following from clinching the Best Humorous Range at this year’s Henries, Redback Cards has doubled the number of designs in its bestselling Holy Flaps range, meaning there is now an additional 20 greeting card designs from which to choose. The typically rude and humorous designs come with neon red envelopes.

Redback Cards 01752 830482 www.redbackcards.com

Wood-be Paters Wooden Pops is a new card collection for Spring 2019 from Laura Sherratt Designs.

The new designs, each of which are embellished with a wooden plaque carved with font, cater for daddies, dads and grandads, and include specific Father's Day captions. The collection features Laura's signature illustrations, across a range of themes, including vintage cars, camping and caravans, hot air balloons, top hats and moustaches!

Laura Sherratt Designs 01538 384566 www.laurasherrattdesigns.co.uk

Photographic Finish Photowrap is continuing to strengthen its collection of photographic giftwrap designs, covering new subject matters as well as improved replacements of popular themes. While a super sharp new holly design supercedes a previous incarnation, totally new to the giftwrap collection is one design based on vintage jewellery, while another features decorative cigarette cards. All printed, as always, in an ecological way.

Photowrap 01364 644646 www.photowrap.co.uk

Natural Inclinations Nigel Quiney Publications has expanded its Art of Nature painterly range with new designs featuring British wildlife joining the collection. Images of hedgehogs, peacocks and horses are among those to have been captured perfectly, with the designs enhanced by a gold foil finish enhancing the beautifully painted range. A combination of blank and birthday cards, are all supplied with a beautifully soft cream coloured envelope.

Nigel Quiney Publications 01799 520200 www.nigelquiney.com

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Victorian Fun In case you didn't know, Nanty Narking is the Victorian slang for ‘having much fun’ – which was a range name Go La La could not resist for its latest humorous range. Combining Victorian imagery with contemporary observations, the range spans designs for everyday, occasions and Spring Seasons. Printed on gloss board, the cards measure 125mm x 175mm and supplied with a contrasting coloured envelope and cellowrapped.

Go La La golala.co.uk 01458 830913

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PG showcases a selection of new product launches

Good To Be Square The Brainbox Candy team is boasting that they feel “happier than a unicorn at a glitter convention” with the publisher’s latest everyday range, Square Sayings. This range of 14 quirky designs comes with a kraft envelope and are printed on FSC board from sustainable sources. The team assures “no postmen have been tickled in the making of this range”.

Brainbox Candy 01702 716643 brainboxcandy.com

To The Four The Noel Tatt studio has been super busy, launching 230 new designs this month and four brand new ranges – photographic Dream Big, art in Bree – Florals, patterned Echo and vibrant watercolour range, Carousel. Dream Big (pictured) is one of the collections that debuts in November. This nostalgic range combines photographic images with endearing messages.

The high gloss square designs are blank inside.

Festive Fun Lucy Maggie Designs is looking to ensure some last minute fun this Christmas. The Christmas range, which has recently been bolstered by 16 new designs, is abundant with shrewd observational humour, as well as strong references to popular culture and trends. The cards are printed in the UK on FSC-approved board.

Noel Tatt 01227 811600 www.noeltatt.co.uk

Lucy Maggie Designs www.lucymaggiedesigns.co.uk

Girl Power

Woolly Sculptures

Aimed at feisty girls, especially tweens, Rosa and Clara Designs’ new Girl Power card collection features designs of skateboards, rainbows, tigers and all sorts of colourful icons. The range includes four birthday cards, two blanks and birthday age cards from years nine to twelve. The designs combine a mixture of collage and pencil illustrations alongside some old school Letraset lettering. They come cellowrapped with poppy red envelopes.

Desito’s popular Whimsical collection has just welcomed another 12 new birthday designs. The adorable designs all feature cute characters that have been ‘sculpted’ from wool and wire.

Cute, endearing and fun, the latest additions swell the collection to over 140 designs. Printed on FSC board that is manufactured in the UK, the cards are 150mm square and come cellowrapped with a high quality white envelope.

Rosa and Clara Designs 020 8693 2335 www.rosaandclaradesigns.co.uk

Desito 01959 534852 www.desito.co.uk

Funny Relationships Kith and Kin is a brand new range from Poet and Painter that looks at all of the different people who make your family what it is; whether nuclear or extended; aunties, uncles, step-parents or single parents. The designs show that innate understanding of the endless challenges (and gorgeous rewards) faced every day, and the many, many hats that parents wear on a daily basis!

Poet and Painter 07779 064894 www.poetandpainter.co.uk PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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PG showcases a selection of new product launches

Shining Bright A pretty sparkle-effect board is teamed with copper foiling in The Handcrafted Card Company’s Limelight collection. This on trend range spans five coloured boards, and the cards are 125mm square and come with a 130mm ivory envelope. Coordinating notebooks and luxury pencils are also being launched.

The Handcrafted Card Company 01782 639733 www.thehandcraftedcardcompany.co.uk

Hug It Out With a new look, new fonts and a huge variety of captions, this month sees the launch of a large clutch of brand new Quicksilver cards from Wendy JonesBlackett. Hugging koalas, delicious looking ice-creams, little llamas, stylish humming birds and fun flamingos feature among the 114 designs, all of which are hot foiled and embossed onto high quality UK-manufactured board. All the cards are 130mm square and come with a matching ivory envelope.

Wild At Heart Bug Art has collaborated with Dear Emma Designs to release a brand-new range of greeting cards consisting of 10 wild floral and garden bird designs. Printed on a textured board, these cards are embossed with a delicate spot varnish to emulate the intricate appliqued fabrics. Each card is blank inside and comes individually cellowrapped with a white textured envelope.

Wendy Jones-Blackett 0113 2888468 wendyjonesblackett.co.uk

Bug Art 0115 929 4776 www.bugart.co.uk

Claire Thinking Cinnamon Aitch is adding 12 new gorgeous designs to its best selling Claire Picard range. Featuring Claire’s distinctive, on-trend illustrative style, each card is beautifully foiled, embossed and carefully finished by hand with sparkly crystals and gems. More birthdays have been included alongside ‘new home’ and champagne popping ‘congratulations’ titles. All cards are C6, individually cellowrapped, and come with a white or pebble grey envelope.

Cinnamon Aitch 0121 773 6833 www.cinnamonaitch.co.uk

Roman In The Gloaming While the card designs in Kali Stileman Publishing’s Little Letters collection each features a pictorial alphabet with original collaged characters, the latest addition to its Tiddly Widdly collection comprises designs based on Roman numerals.

Perfect for a male send, the Roman numeral designs, that measure 95mm x 125mm, are printed on beautifully textured linen board.

Read All About It

Kali Stileman Publishing 01305 848899 www.kalistilemanpublishing.co.uk

Kingfisher Cards 01245 327226 www.kingfishercards.co.uk

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Birthday Times is a brand new offering from Kingfisher Cards that caters for all those 2019 milestone birthdays. The collection comprises unisex, milestone ages from 18-90. This fun range offers a new twist on the 'year you were born' idea by offering great facts from each year in a newspaper style. With a bold textured foil crest and a full insert, this code 75 range aiming to hit the headlines!

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Animal Cards Spotlight

Staff Room

Tails A helping paw in the office or studio is always welcome. A furry friend to help pack orders of cards, cast a whisker on quality control, sniff out intruders or simply create a purring Zen-like ambience, a waggy meet and greet or be a muse for designs.

A pack of publishers share the benefits of their office pets and their thoughts on the attraction of animal card designs.

Caroline Twigger, office administrator for The Eco-Friendly Card Company: “Peggy is a Working Cocker Spaniel (I don’t think she got the memo explaining what a working Cocker Spaniel is meant to do, and assumes it means spending her days in the office.)

Peggy has her bed in the key vantage point of the office, so she can see who’s coming and going through the day and is closest to the radiator in the winter. If the sun’s out she likes to relocate to the sunny spot even if it means she’s right in the way. She is rubbish at answering the phone or processing orders but is excellent at listening to ideas or conundrums, and never answers back. She settles down straight away after walking through the woods to get to work and her timekeeping is spot on she knows when it’s lunch and time for an outing to the park, and reminds us at the end of the day when it’s time for the commute home over the fields.”

Animal attraction: “Animals can be cute, they can be quirky, they can be funny or just simply awe-inspiring - there are so many ways in which animal images on cards can connect with people - they can cross boundaries in a way that images of people can’t.”

Above: Peggy is excellent at listening to any problems or concerns in the office.

Above right: A design from The Eco-Friendly Card Company.

Below: Boy, the computer whizz-cat.

Below left: Sweet Designs’ ‘Tiger’ design.

Sally Anson, designer and founder for Sweet Design:

“This is ‘Boy’, our tame tiger! He is a special boy as he is a rescue cat. He was abandoned in our village, and sought refuge in our shed! My three year-old daughter (at the time) used to get so excited when he appeared in the garden, we’d run out and feed him and realised he was very friendly, although he lacked trust and was a bit ‘bitey’! His favourite place ‘Jingle bells’ is to lay on our desk/keyboard pretending to help!

He has so much character, our own little tiger at home! We have a lovely tiger Christmas card, which we’ll be sure to send out this year, as it reminds us of him!”

Janna Cossettini, director of Deckled Edge: “My animal is a mare called Galaxy. She is a piebald Irish Sports Horse with tons of attitude, and if you’re not careful on a typical ‘mare-day’ she can take a chunk out of you in a flash! She rules.

Galaxy helps with quality control, and in selecting new card designs. Cards still in one piece are given the go-ahead, and the ones bitten and ripped go in the imperfect pile!”

Galaxy’s view on Janna “The whole stable-block call her ‘Apple’. Above: Galaxy helps with quality control.

She shows up to my stable twice a week.

I wish it were more but when she’s here it’s fun.

When she visits she fusses about - a horse brush, a hoofpick, and sometimes she’s eating an apple. And I watch. Of course, I try to be on my best behaviour and stand still, happy for the fuss, but I stamp the ground when I’ve run out of patience.

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Animal Cards Spotlight

In the riding arena we ‘go-large’, and go down the centre line riding from A to C, passing X... or was that C to A? Other times we just take it easy and go for a hack in the woods, munching on the last of the autumn grass. And when she leaves and says goodbye, she always gives me an apple or two.”

David Wertheim, director of Ezen Designs:

Right: Janna has been working on new Deckled Edge designs for Spring Fair.

Kali Stileman, director of Kali Stileman: “Pippi is our Canadian Goose… we think she’s female but we’re not 100%!

Alice (my colleague) found her, thinking she was a duckling on a busy road and brought her here to live with our ducks. My husband Iwan and I were sitting on the patio having a glass of wine when I said that I thought she was a really big duckling, which was when we had that ‘light-bulb’ moment and both Googled ‘goose’!

Pippi lived in the office until she was big enough to go outside with the rest of the crew… she still comes in if the front door is open on occasion to say hello and demand peas!”

Animal attraction: “We live and work in the most beautiful forest. I wake up to deer, squirrels and then all our birds - loads of chickens, ducks and now geese (as I bought Pip a friend so she wasn’t the ‘the only goose in the village’!) I think living so closely with animals naturally filters into my work as I invariably end up drawing animals.”

Above: ‘New to geese’, Kali got a huge amount of advice from Berni Parker and Tony Fernadez on how to care for Pippi the gosling.

Above right: Lemur-licious - a Kali Stileman design.

“Sylvie is a French Bulldog.

She has one ear up and one ear down. With a sensitive tummy, she has allergies to many types of food, which once resulted in an ear infection, leaving her with an adorable feature.

Sylvie grunts a lot, sometimes endlessly for a minute, and endearingly we call her our piglet. At work she is our comedy entertainer, and when she does her farts, which is rather often, the laughter quietens and she becomes rather less endearing.

We are actually currently drafting up a range of cards with her as our mascot.”

Animal attraction: “Animals express how they feel and do as they wish (including the grunting and farting!) which leads them to being such loving beings that we connect with. When they are featured on a card, it is as though the conveyed message comes with that 100% honestly.”

Top: Adorable Sylvie, aka Piglet.

Above: Ezen’s animal card family continues to grow! Not only does it have new additions in its Japanese range, but the publisher’s funny animal designs now speak French.

Luca Bridges, independent sales manager for Caroline Gardner: “Here at Caroline Gardner we have not one but two office dogs.

Caroline and Angus [Gardner] have Miller, the black Lab, and their new addition is Frank the sausage dog.

Frank loves to join Caroline in all the sign Left: Caroline Gardner are launching a whole new range in SS19 based on animals.

Framing fauna New on the animal cards scene is Lizzie Perkins from publisher Art Matters - a professional watercolourist and screen-printer whose main interest is in wildlife. On each of Lizzie’s field trips she takes hundreds of photographs of fauna and the environment they inhabit. From all these images she constructs the best composition to enhance the idea of mood and habitat until a balance is achieved.

“There is the natural poise and grace of animals, and the composition they make when they interact with each other. When that is captured you get the integrity and mood of the animal, which, together with its colour and markings, deliver its appeal. To me, animals are not just a fund of natural beauty, they are an endless source of inspiration,” she explains.

Lizzie’s cards, original limited edition screen-prints and large-format giclee reproductions can be found through her website at www.lizzieprints.com Left: Lizzie Perkins’ recurrent theme of wolves arose out of a wolf walk at a Berkshire conservation site.

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Animal Cards Spotlight

off meetings, looking at all the new product! Alternatively, Frank likes to curl up on one of our laps while we do card sampling, getting covered in glitter. To be honest, we all love a cuddle with Frank and jump at the chance when we can!

You will see Frank featuring on lots of our new paper products and he has even started modelling for us.”

Animal attraction: “These days I think that our pets become part of the family. Whether it is your home family cat or dog or your office family! They feel like part of the team and you just can’t help relish in how adorable and loving they are! We especially love it when the office dogs come in and you hear the tapping of their paws as they run over to greet you.”

Sara Burford, co-director of Cinnamon Aitch: “With three cat owners in the Cinnamon Aitch design studio, cats are so often a topic of humorous banter, that they have all become our de facto office pets. Orbison, an eight year-old black cat with a penchant for a salty snack and a lengthy miaow that warbles somewhat as he runs, is often at the heart of funny little stories we share over a cup of tea and a biscuit. His attention is instantly attracted by the quietest rustle of a crisp packet opening, and his attempts to get his head into the packet are quite something.”

Animal attraction: “So how could I not be inspired to come up with a quirky card range that imagines cute hand-drawn animals with their favourite snack! Custard Cream, with 10 new design additions, including literal kit cats, koala cubes and chocolate dog biscuits, is proving to be the little range that certainly could raise a smile or two.”

Above: Orbison’s hearing is a-tuned to any crisp packet rustling.

Right: Biscuits and animals, what’s not to like on Cinnamon Aitch’s Custard Cream range?

Jane Crowther, creative director of Bug Art: “Oreo is Bug Art’s studio bunny. She was very nervous and in bad health when she first arrived. She didn’t move much as she hadn’t been given space to exercise. However, she soon settled in and often chose to sit by Mike’s feet (the studio manager), somewhat restricting his movements.

Increasingly, Oreo free-roamed the downstairs of the house and now hops through to the studio extension during the day. Over the weeks and months, she’s got healthier and friendlier. An inquisitive rabbit, she increasingly showed a keen interest in studio protocols. It was time to put her to work!

Oreo is now part of quality control, website order dispatch and most importantly of all, a photogenic model for social media (mainly Facebook)… though they do say, never work with children or animals! – Oreo has nibbled our router cable. As well as cables, she shows a great interest in printed material. Look out for more bunny-inspired designs in the coming months!” * Jane’s footnote: “Rabbits are best kept in pairs or groups.

Oreo is currently on her own as she did not get on with my other rabbit Truffle. I’m hoping to try again later to bond them.”

Top: Oreo, named because she is black with a white stripe like the biscuit, takes a break from nibbling cables and checks some proofs.

Above: Bug Art’s ‘Binky Bunny’ design was new for 2018.

Below left: Dandy enjoying the autumn colours of nature with Kathy.

Right: Dandy was the inspiration for this Christmas card from Dotty Dog Art.

Kathy Webster, founder of Dotty Dog Art: "I share my studio with Dandy, my rescue Poodle.

He has been part of our family for three years now and came to us as a quiet and nervous little dog.

Dandy shares his studio dog space with our other dog Freya, they spend their days sleeping, noisily play-fighting and sometimes destroying something important while I’m not looking! Dandy also spends a big part of his day bringing me recycled gifts from the recycle bin!

They are both super-lush and I consider myself very lucky to spend my days with them.”

Animal attraction: “Dandy is my muse... I love everything about his funny character and how his enthusiasm for life has grown and grown. The quiet and nervous little dog that joined our family three years ago has long gone. He is the inspiration behind many of my dog greeting cards, where I seek to depict just how amazing and carefree all our awesome dogs are.”

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JEREMY’S JOURNAL Business blogging by publisher Jeremy Corner of Blue Eyed Sun.

SWOT-ing Up...

Jeremy Corner, owner of greeting card publisher Blue Eyed Sun, SWOTs up on business strategy.

Last month I was pleased to see Ged Mace of The Art File win the Honorary Achievement award at The Henries this year. He has a been a great mentor of mine, who along with my friend Lynn Tait, inspired me to get involved with The Ladder Club in 2004.

This November will be my fifteenth year of speaking at The Ladder Club for start up cardies. If you haven’t attended and are new to greeting card publishing then I highly recommend getting yourself to the first day seminar.

At last year’s Ladder Club, Ged reminded me of a great business tool for retailers, publishers and suppliers: the SWOT Analysis.

down, but using the SWOT analysis can help us to tread more carefully and keep our eyes wide open as we go.

Let’s take a look at each of the elements and how retailers and publishers might use them.

I’ll also talk about how Blue Eyed Sun used the tool to decide whether or not to take on distributing BambooCup.

Your Objective It’s important to get clear on what your goal is so that you use the SWOT analysis to examine the way forward with that objective.

You might alter your objective at the end and redo the analysis, but it needs a focus to work. Most businesses, whether retailers or publishers, will probably be looking at how they can grow their sales. To decide on distributing BambooCup or not, we started by looking at our strengths.

Strengths

What Is A SWOT Analysis?

A SWOT analysis is a strategic planning technique to help you achieve your business and personal goals. By considering your internal Strengths and Weaknesses and external Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) it forces you to be specific about your objectives and to identify the key factors that will hinder or support your success.

I think it’s a great tool for thinking things through, making decisions and most importantly taking action. There are no guarantees with any road we chose to walk 86

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

What do you currently do well in relation to the objective that you have in mind?

A retailer might list their prime location as a strength, or even the fact that they own their own premises. The power of their customer relationships and the knowledge that they have of their customers are also strengths as is their business experience and a well-trained team.

For a publisher, the strengths might an innovative design team or that it’s financially stable and profitable. It could have a recognisable brand or a strong and active database.

Above: Swot up on SWOT. Below left: The Ladder Club class of 2015.

Bottom: SWOT - Strengths and Weaknesses and external Opportunities and Threats.

With BambooCup I knew that we were strong on marketing, PR and social media.

Blue Eyed Sun is a familiar name with many retailers. We also have a great operational team and our own warehouse space to accommodate the project. Personally, I also have a passion for taking care of the environment - it’s one of the main reasons I don’t eat meat for example (not a weakness).

Weaknesses Where do you need to improve in order to reach your goal, and is this possible?

A retailer may list ‘buying power’ as a weakness. It simply might not be possible to compete with supermarkets on price for example. Poor window displays on the other hand is a weakness that they can do something about. Other weaknesses might include inadequate staff training, poor upselling and bad stock control of best sellers.

A publisher might need to improve its business structure and be more demanding

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JEREMY’S JOURNAL of suppliers and retailers. It’s designs might not be strong enough or it might simply not have enough customers.

With BambooCup, we were not familiar with selling gifts. We didn’t know what we didn’t know about the category. The profit margins are smaller than cards and the business model is slightly different. The new products could put a strain on our cash flow.

We weren’t known for gift products.

With BambooCup, more experienced competitors, currency fluctuations, stock availability and supply chain issues were some examples of the threats we highlighted and considered.

It’s important to be specific about the threats as it helps to figure out what can be done about them. Some things, like the weather, for example, cannot be controlled but can be kept an eye on and can affect what strategies are best to use.

Opportunities Where could this take us and how could it improve things?

A retailer might consider the internet and social media as new opportunities for growing sales. Collaborating with other retailers on their streets to create events could be another.

A publisher may identify it can grow sales through new sectors and new export markets.

With taking on the UK and Ireland distribution of BambooCup, Blue Eyed Sun could expand into new retailers we didn’t already stock. We could increase order values with our current retailers. It would also allow us to diversify. We could even expand into B2C using our social media skills if we chose to.

Strategies Once you’ve completed your SWOT analysis you can start to consider different ways to achieve your goal.

Above: A retailer could use its well-trained staff to improve customer service – A BBC still from comedy classic Open All Hours.

Below left: Retailers may discover new opportunities for extra sales - A Ladybird books For Grown-Ups design from Danilo.

Strength-Opportunity

A retailer training its team to offer better customer experience might use this as an opportunity to integrate the improvements with its social media. Taking the improved customer engagement online increases reach and can boost sales.

A publisher improving its weak business structure will allow it to successfully pursue new business opportunities abroad by taking on new team members who can facilitate this, for example.

Despite not having sold giftware to retailers before, as chairman and long standing member of the Giftware Association we have the network and resources to figure out things as we go. We also have a lot of retailer friends that we can call for advice and feedback.

Which strengths can be used to maximise the opportunities you have identified?

A retailer could use its well-trained team to improve customer experience in store to increase repeat business and average order values. Our publisher might use its innovative design team to expand into the white label market or export territories with the languages. We recognised that we could use our PR and marketing strengths that we have built to expand quickly into a fast growing product category with BambooCup.

Strengths-Threats How can you use your strengths to minimise the threats identified?

Retailers with a well-trained team will have a better chance of resisting the threat of competitors. Financially stable publishers will weather bad debts. With BambooCup we used our marketing and trade PR strengths to position ourselves against our more experienced competitors.

Weakness-Threats

Threats What are the potential obstacles and dangers ahead?

A retailer might identify external threats that include business rates, poor parking on their high street or even competitors across the street from them.

A publisher could see the decline of the high street, SOR, increased bad debts, improved competition and a lack of younger generations entering the industry as threats.

How can you minimise your weaknesses to avoid the threats you’ve listed?

A retailer with weak window displays and sales staff can invest in training to boost sales to take on external threats. A publisher with weaker product might need to expand their design team. With BambooCup we trained ourselves up in product and category knowledge to fully understand and compete with our competitors.

Weaknesses-Opportunities What can you do to minimise your weaknesses using the opportunities you’ve considered and presented?

A Useful Tool The SWOT analysis is a really useful tool that can help you decide whether an objective is achievable or not. If not, it can offer up new goals worth considering. You can use it for your business life and for your personal goals. You can even use it to analyse your competition.

As a retailer it could help you to focus on where you want to take your business rather than the difficulties you might be facing. As a publisher it might help you to reassess the direction you are taking and open up new possibilities.

After much deliberation, it helped us to make the decision on distributing BambooCup and strengthen our weaknesses, explore new opportunities and plan for external threats.

If it’s new to you, give it a go and let me know how you get on with it.

Read more on Jeremy’s blog at www.blueeyedsun.co.uk/blog PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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ART SOURCE

TO APPEAR REGULARLY IN THE

ARTSOURCE SECTION OF PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS CONTACT TRACEY ARNAUD ON 01234 740 051

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Art Source PG helps to paint a pretty picture of freelance artists, designers, verse writers and photographers’ worlds in order to promote their talents to publishers and, conversely, make it easier for publishers seeking artists.

ARTIST IN FOCUS

Claire West I am a painter who paints because it makes me happy, and I hope that it does the same for the viewer. I have a strong belief in the power of colour therapy in uplifting the spirit. I love colour and enjoy exploring its contrasts and its vibrant and intense nature. I like using colours that are often believed to not work together, in doing this I hope to break down the boundaries of what we should do and explore the freedom that is so often lost in art when we are no longer children.

I usually work on canvas in acrylic and inks. I produce textured work through layers of paint and random dripping of inks. As the painting develops I will discover happy accidents that have evolved and help to form the finished painting, often dictating where detail will happen.

WANT TO BE FEATURED?

I exhibit in galleries throughout the United Kingdom, and regularly hold workshops in painting and printmaking to groups of all ages and abilities, the aim of these workshops being ‘fun’.

My work has featured on many television programmes, including The IT Crowd, Life of Riley and EastEnders. It has been produced as prints for Marks & Spencer and I currently have four prints with John Lewis.

My paintings can be licensed through my agent, Yellow House Art Licensing. l Tel: Contact Sue on 07879278100 l Email: sue@yellowhouseartlicensing.com l Web: www.yellowhouseartlicensing.com

If you are an artist, photographer or verse writer and would like to be considered to appear in Art Source, please contact PG’s Emma Cain on emmac@max-publishing.co.uk. This is an editorial feature and as such is free of charge.

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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ART SOURCE

TO APPEAR REGULARLY IN THE

ARTSOURCE SECTION OF PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS CONTACT TRACEY ARNAUD ON 01234 740 051

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Art Source Tony Ryan

I have always wanted to be an artist as far back as I can remember, so it was always a dream and a strong focus through school and through further education. I started working in the greeting card industry over 30 years ago, and after working in a studio environment for many years, and later progressing to help steer a creative team, it definitely helped me to learn the industry processes and has allowed me to develop my own skills, understand the needs of the industry and offer a wide variety of styles with my art. I then became a freelance artist and have been with my agent for over 17 years now and I truly love the creative freedom and support that brings.

My influences are very wide ranging and that, along with my commercial training, has allowed me to be flexible and create artwork to suit any genre, which I think is an invaluable skill as a freelancer.

I love colour and pattern and am positively obsessive when it comes to adding detail and I hand-draw and paint EVERYTHING!! Through that I am able to give a very different ‘old school’ feel to my art through my experimentation with real paint and brushes. It’s not so easy to correct any mistakes, but it can also bring beautiful results that I know I would struggle to create digitally… and the odd mistake gives it a sense of the ‘real’ to me and I like that (although I do try hard not to make any of course!).

To see more of my art and consider me for commissions for future ranges, my portfolio can be viewed at Image Source. l Tel: 01442 834464 l Email: emma@image-source.co.uk l Web: www.image-source.co.uk

Katherine Quinn I’m a New Zealand illustrator based in Hawkes Bay. I live in Paki Paki on a little hill in the New Zealand countryside with my family and our cat Rosie, who is scared of everything except bulls. For as long as I can remember, I have loved drawing and making things. I was lucky to grow up with parents who said I could do whatever I wanted as long as I cleaned up when I was finished.

My ‘Whale Song’ illustration is my most popular image. Working in both traditional and digital illustration, I work in acrylic and watercolour pencils on a variety of vintage paper ephemera, including old envelopes and book pages. It is only recently that I have discovered the world of surface pattern design. I love the technical process of working out a repeat pattern. The satisfaction of getting everything to fit and then repeating over and over fills me with joy.

My work often focuses on what I refer to as ‘her girls’ - long limb, big eyed girls with a touch of innocence and a sense of adventure. I have exhibited over the years in galleries around New Zealand.

I love interesting colour combinations, adventures to places I haven’t been before, quirky movies, foxes, the underdog becoming the unlikely hero, collecting old man tools, blow torches, tape measures, callipers etc... fishing with my partner (I am not entirely fond of fishing, even though I caught a big 23-pound snapper) but sitting with him and chatting is a nice use of time.

My work has been licensed for wrapping paper and textiles amongst other products. I am very excited to be currently working on my first children’s book for Walker Books Australia, due out in 2019.

For more information please contact my agent Jehane Boden Spiers. l Tel: Contact Jehane on +44 7703 185413 l Email: studio@jehane.com l Web: www.jehane.com PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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PG asked a selection of card retailers for their ‘hot’ card sellers.

Deborah Taylor-Martin, owner of Greetings From The Heart, Bourne, Lincolnshire A medium shop in a country market town with a loyal locals customer base.

Category

Name of Publisher

Product/Name Range

Comments

Everyday

Jonny Javelin

Velvet

Cute

Moongazer

General

IC&G

Barley Bear

Humour Photographic

Woodmansterne Abacus

Art

Noel Tatt

Genius Aspects, Gardeners’ World, Countryfile General

Traditional

Jonny Javelin

Velvet (code 60)

Handmade/ HandFinished Children’s

Second Nature

Champagne

Danilo

Peter Rabbit, Paddington Bear

The vibrant colours and nice verses are a good combination - and lots of our customers like wordy cards!

The publisher’s founder, Sally Anne Lambert, is an illustrator of artwork for children but her dreamlike designs work across the spectrum for all ages.

He’s fresh and new and so is drawing our customers’ attention.

Above: ‘Jasper’ from Moongazer cards.

Hilarious childish jokes!

We are located right in the heart of the farming community and these ranges reflect the local landscape.

Good blank cards, that can suit many occasions, to pop away in a drawer ready.

A nice little range covering hobbies and past-times such as bowling, fishing, gardening and golf… and lots for the ladies too.

Really nice attractive designs that stand out from the crowd and are good value.

Many of the classic children’s characters and the ones that are current favourites too.

Jane Stubbs, owner, and Charlotte Stubbs, manager, of Creativity, Sheringham, Norfolk A medium card and gift shop in a pretty seaside town with a tourists and local customer base.

Category

Name of Publisher

Product/Name Range

Comments

Everyday

Alex Clark Art Little Dog Laughed

Across The Board Across The Board

Cute

Stripey Cats Cards

General

Humour

Rosie Made A Thing Lanther Black

Gin & Frolics General

Art

Lanternfish Publishing

Michael Sanders

Contemporary

The Art File

Form Cards

Children’s

Rachel Ellen Designs

General

Giftwrappings

Glick

Paper Salad

Ancillary

Stubbs Mugs

I’d Rather Be… mugs

Lily Flame Candles

Scented candles

These two card publishers create our best sellers. The designs are very popular with animal lovers.

Small size cards featuring sweet characters with wibbly wobbly eyes on the front.

Both ranges have witty words and funny drawings that always have our customers giggling.

Beautiful images of Norfolk and Suffolk by a local artist.

Eye-catching 3D pop-up card designs created from clever paper engineering.

Cute, colourful designs that are always popular for children.

Beautiful, bright and quirky designs.

The famous ‘I’d Rather Be...’ mugs.

There’s one for everyone!

Lovely scented candles in a nicely packaged tin - a perfect pick up gift.

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PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

Top: Witty wordplay on a Lanther Black design.

Above: A design from Stripey Cat’s wibbly wobbly eyed Halloween range.

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Alison Douglas and Lesley Nunn, owners of Daisy Chain, Histon, Cambridgeshire A medium shop in a picturesque village with a varied and loyal locals customer base.

Category

Name of Publisher

Product/Name Range

Comments

Everyday

James Ellis

Shakies

Cute

Rosanna Rossi

Sweet Little Things

Contemporary

Stop The Clock Design

Across The Board

Dandelion Stationery

Words Of Wisdom

The Handcrafted Card Company

Callista

It’s just because of the glitter shakies! They are eye-catching.

And there are designs for many different occasions, such as New Home, New Baby or Anniversary.

This range is really good for us.

It’s really simple, featuring adorable characters with a touch of sparkle. The one I’ve picked up is of two little bears cuddling with the caption ‘Sending you hugs’.

The colours the publisher uses are so different, and with the attention to detail they look very classy (and the publisher is Above: James Ellis’ lovely to deal with).

Just lovely simple heartfelt words of messages of Shakies feature shakable glitter. friendship and support.

Very pretty feminine designs in very ‘now’ colours of blush and grey.

Handmade/ HandFinished

Jo Georgiou, owner of The Ark, Stoke Newington, London A small card and gift shop on a high street in a city suburb with a loyal locals customer base.

Category

Name of Publisher

Product/Name Range

Comments

Everyday

Emily Brooks

Across The Board

Cute

Madame Treacle

Petite Vintage Collection

Humour

Rosie Made A Thing

Gin & Frolics

Photographic

Hatty Bones Pickmotion

General General

Art

East End Prints

Studio Cockatoo

Contemporary

Hello Geronimo

General

Children’s Handmade/ HandFinished Ancillary

Rocket68 London Pooch

Zoo Buddies General

Lancaster & Gibbings

Pewter Keepsake

A new range for us and selling really well. A gorgeous bright colour palette, they look smart and stand out.

Whimsical vintage images of kittens and puppies - ticks all the boxes on the cute front.

Hilarious observations that resonate with our customers.

The healthy fruit among the booze ‘unexpected item in the bagging area’ card in particular draws them in and they end up purchasing several at a time.

Witty cards that are refreshingly different.

Tapping into the Instagram age, quirky detachable images in a Polaroid format.

Fun and varied and good for occasions.

Our customers love the geometric images of iconic people like Grace Jones, Frida Kahlo and Freddie Above: The Petite Vintage Collection from Madame Mercury… to name a few. Treacle features whimsical vintage animal images.

Striking black lino-print designs, with felt pops of colour, that are selling really well.

Great animal designs, including ages, with a 1950’s vibe.

These have only just arrived but are already proving popular. They feature collage of cats and dogs with a map featuring our local area.

Stylish cream cards with a pewter charm on a grey ribbon. They look luxurious and are a great keepsake.

Right: London Pooch is in the process of going as green as it can, including biodegradable cello bags.

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To appear in the Product Directories contact

Warren Lomax

020 7700 6740 or email warren@max-publishing.co.uk or contact

Tracey Arnaud

07957 212 062

or email traceya@max-publishing.co.uk

To appear in the Product Directories contact

Warren Lomax

Abacus Cards Limited t: 01638 569050 e: info@abacuscards.co.uk w: www.abacuscards.co.uk

020 7700 6740 or email warren@max-publishing.co.uk or contact

Tracey Arnaud

07957 212 062

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01565 830 546 | bexyboo.co.uk @BexyBooLtd

BexyBooLtd

@BexyBooLtd

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To appear in the Product Directories simply contact

Warren Lomax on:

020 7700 6740

or email on warren@max-publishing.co.uk or contact

Tracey Arnaud on:

07957 212 062

or email on traceya@max-publishing.co.uk

Publishers of quality blank greeting cards Tel: 0115 929 4776 enquiries@bugart.co.uk Order Online

www.bugart.co.uk

Caspari Ltd Linden House, John Dane Player Court

East Street, Safffrron W Waalden Essex, CB10 1LR Teel: 01799 513010 T Faax: 01799 513101 F Email: inffoo@caspari.co.uk ww ww w.CaspariOnline.com

Products: Everyday cards - birthday,

www.cathtatecards.com

blank & occasions, charity Christmas cards, gifftt wrap, bags, tissue, ribbon, hankies, napkins, paper plate, candles, placemats, crackers,invitations, placecards, notecards,diaries, address books, journals, advent calendars and bridge gifftts.

Method of Sale: Direct to Retail

To appear in the Product Directories contact

Warren Lomax

Witty, gritty, switched on humour.

Cards and gifts with a real difference.

Unit 1, 45 Morrish Road London SW2 4EE Tel: 0208 671 2166 Fax: 0208 678 1119 info@cathtatecards.com

020 7700 6740 or email warren@max-publishing.co.uk or contact

Tracey Arnaud

07957 212 062

One of the UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading suppliers of Greeting Cards since 19995 Products: High quality greetin ng cards with superb finishes. All maajjor and minor titles, covering traditio onaall to the latest in innovative design, n both Everydaayy and Seasonal. Providing an all NEW selection of Muggs and Notebooks. k Brands Include: Down Memory Lane, W Wo ot A Mug and T Tw wist & Shout Methods of Sale: Direct to retail Desiggners welcome contact beverley@cherryorchardpublishing.co.uk

Unit 10 Duddage Business Park Brockeridge Rd Twyning Tewkesbury GL20 6BY 01684 295500 info@cherryorchardpublishing.co.uk www.cherryorchardpublishing.co.uk

or email traceya@max-publishing.co.uk

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made with great imagination

@thecuriousinksmith

Tracey Arnaud

Ch C hin nese ese HE IS

Beautiful greeting cards from contemporary British artwork

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LIFE

01892 838 574

sales@thecuriousinksmith.co.uk

or email on warren@max-publishing.co.uk or contact

www.dryredpress.com

on:

07957 212 062

or email on traceya@max-publishing.co.uk

T +44 (0) 1273 241210 E info@dryredpress.com

Polissh Po h

Te T el: 0161 1 64 641 0 06 655 Email: m sales@da sales@d avora.co.uk av 135 Hea 13 135 eaton Moorr Rd | Stockp ock kpo port ort SK4 4HY 4 4H HY

High Quality Greeting Cards, Gift Bags, Gift Wrap & Ta Tags for every occasion.

*GCF 1HĆ&#x201A;EG +353 (0)404 20528 Email info@garlanna.com www.garlanna.com

Welsh and English cards

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GRASS ROOTS

INTERNATIONAL

G RASS R OOTS INTERNATIONAL

www.draenog.com Ç&#x2C6; 07815 153582

agents wanted

A U.K owned Greeting Cards Publisher.

Our everyday ranges for all occasions and relations include traditional, contemporary, cute, humour and photographic designs. We also have a full range of Christmas and Spring Seasons.

All products are designed and printed in the U.K on the finest quality board.

BRANDS â&#x20AC;&#x153;Write from the Heartâ&#x20AC;? brand includes; Corsage, Sentiments, Champagne, Celebrations and Jelly Beans.

M ETHOD OF SALE Direct to Retail

G RASS R OOTS INTERNATIONAL

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Units 4 - 4A Valentines Buildin g Ra cec our se Bus in ess Par k Aintr ee, Liver poo l, L9 5 AL Tel: 0151 52 3 9600 Fax : 015 1 523 494 9 e-m ail: s ales@ writefr om th ehear t.co.uk

from the

Innovative high quality gift wrap, gift bags, tissue paper and accesssories galore for all seasons and occasions.

0127 74 4 655980 sales@glick.co.uk www.glick.co.uk Glick, Unit 1 Allenby House, European Ind. Park, Knowles Lane, Bradford BD4 9AB

@glickgiftwrap

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• UK Market leaders with humour, art, photographic, contemporary and traditional occasions & relations cards, plus seasonal.

• 2΍HULQJ D IXOO SODQQLQJ VHUYLFH with merchandising and retail development opportunities.

• Specialists in garden centres and the independent trade.

Find The Great British Card Company on:

PHOTOGRAPHY SUPPLIER

www.greatbritishcards.co.uk Waterwells Drive, Gloucester GL2 2PH Tel: 01452 888970

glebecottage.co.uk 01626 369269 Estaab blished 1993

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CHARITY GREETING CARDS

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Warren Lomax

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AR RT TISTS CARDS glebecottage.co.uk 01626 369269

Tracey Arnaud

07957 212 062

or email traceya@max-publishing.co.uk

One of the UK’s leading publishers of Charity Greeting Cards.

Impress offers a wide collection of images, including fine art, graphic, photographic and cute.

We also offer a bespoke design service for bulk orders and/or mail order fulfilment.

Impress Publishing Appledown House Barton Business Park New Dover Road Canterbury, Kent CT1 3TE Tel: 01227 811 611 Fax: 01227 811 618 email: info@impresspublishing.co.uk

Esta ab blished 1993 PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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60 years

Your Number One Supplier of Numerals, Name, Relation & Age Labels for Greetings Cards.

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Silk Screened Retro, Pop & Classic Cards Inspired by Music and 1960’s American Advertising.For all Vinyl & Rock n’Roll lovers

L E T U S TA K E YOU BAC K

Huge selection with immediate delivery y.. Buy direct or from your wholesalerr..

Listan Labels 3 Isis Court, Wyndyke Furlong, Abingdon Business Park, Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX1 5JN Te T el 01235 465489 Fax 01235 532118 www.listanpublications.co.uk sales@listanpublications.co.uk

For further details please get in touch.

info@vincentmcevoy.com

+44 (0)7779 578340

LING DESIGN The UK’s leading privately owned publisher of Greetings Cards and Stationery. ...The home for and

Products: Greetings cards for all occasions, Christmas and Spring Seasons cards, gift wrap and bags, charity cards, social stationery.

Bespoke service for charities and other fundraisers.

Ling Design Ltd 14-20 Eldon Way, Paddock Wood, Kent TN12 6BE Tel: 01892 838574 enquiries@lingdesign.co.uk www.lingdesign.co.uk

LING DESIGN

www.lingdesign.co.uk

01892 838 574

information@lingdesign.co.uk

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Products An exciting and innovative range of quality Birthday, Relations, Special Occasions, Art and Humorous greeting cards. Full range of Christmas and Spring Seasons merchandise. Comprehensive collection of handmade cards.

Pizazz Gifts.

Brand Names Pizazz, Pizazz Gallery, Pizazz Jewell, Pizazz for Men, What a Picture, Time Out, Bon Bon, Marshmallow Cloudesley House â&#x20AC;¢ Shire Hill â&#x20AC;¢ Saffron Walden â&#x20AC;¢ CB11 3FB T: 01799 520200 F: 01799 520100 www.nigelquiney.com

AG E N T S WA N T E D : Æ« Æ«Ä&#x2018;Æ« Æ«

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p p paperlink... the home of fabulous cards!

Design-led Stationery, Gifts, Calendars, Diaries and Cards Brands Laura Ashley, Roald Dahl, Lily & Val, Vintage Ladybird, Caroline Gardner, Monsoon, Born to Shop, Flash Gordon, Boofle and many more.

TRADE WEBSITE:

Ä&#x2039;

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Ä&#x2039; 01780 763 368

Our In-house design studio and established supply chain enables us to offer bespoke services.

356 Kennington Rd London SE11 4LD T 020 7582 8244 info@paperlink.co.uk k www.paperlink.co.uk Paperlinkcards

tel: +44 (0) 1225 329494 email: sales@porticodesigns.com website: www.porticodesigns.com

@ @paperlinkcards

Exquisite Design, Beautiful Cardss Key brands include Marzipan, Portobello, Mosaic, Daisy Patch, Aquarupella and Designers Guild, plus many more.

originalposter.com LUXURY GIFT PACKAGING All our cards are supplied on consignment, so you only pay for what you sell.

Tel: +44 (0)115 986 0115 Email: info@paperrose.co.uk www.paperrose.co.uk www.artgroupcards.co.uk PaperRoseCards TheArtGroupCards The_Art_Group

We also supply card fixtures and spinners free-on-loan.

We replace slow sellers and damaged stock free of charge.

We merchandise regularly, so you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to.

THATâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S WHY WEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;RE ORIGINAL!

01932 267 300

ICONIC LICENCED BRANDS

01892 838 574 www.pennykennedy.co.uk PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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Products:

Uk publisher of Greetings Cards with an extensive range of quality Birthday, Relations, Occasions and Seasonal product... available from

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Greetings Cards, Gift Wrap, Gift Bags, Social Stationery, Mugs and Glasses, Partyware

LING DESIGN

Brands: Card Essentials Designer Collection Greetings Impressions Inspirations In Touch ,VDEHO·V *DUGHQ Planet Happy With You In Mind

Our Brands: Laughter with Animals, Sporting Fun The Funny Side of Life.

Method of sale: Wholesale Distributors

Simon Elvin Limited Wooburn Industrial Park, Wooburn Green, Bucks HP10 0PE Tel: 01628 526711 Fax: 01628 531483 www.simonelvin.com mail@simonelvin.com

Method of sale: Direct to Retail 14-20 Eldon Way, Paddock Wood, Kent TN12 6BE Tel: 01892 838574 enquiries@lingdesign.co.uk www.lingdesign.co.uk

Sensations International Ltd Unit 6, Quad Road,East Lane Business Park,East lane, Wembley,MIDDLESEX HA9 7NE Tel. 0208 3854470 Fax: 0208 385 4471 Email: sales@sensationsinternational.com PRODUCTS: World’s leading publisher of high quality plastic greeting cards. Also an extensive range of quality greeting cards covering Everyday, Occasions, Christmas and Spring seasons.

BRANDS: Cherished Thoughts, Sweet Sentiments, Buddies Always, Symphony, Thinking of You, Style, Special Wishes, Special Times, Young Editions, Groove Sensations, Forever Blessed, Grey Skies, Classics.

METHOD OF SALE: Direct to retail.

2@= 29KL= M<K Just food and their friends....

NEW COLLECTION

5= N= ?GF= ?J==F raspber r yblossom.com hello@raspberryblossom.com 020 3723 5405

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greeting cards & contempoRary gifts www.redbackcards.com e: info@redbackcards.com t: 01803 712793

All greeting cards printed with vegetable inks on recycled boards/envelopes, including biodegradable packaging...

www.the-taste-buds.co.uk info@the-taste-buds.co.uk 07906 367 663

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&DUGV &DOHHQQGDUV &R & RDVWHUV 1RWHEER RRNV

w: www.tomcatcards.co.uk e: tomcat@tomcatcards.co.uk t: 01243 837300

We offffer a COMPREHE

range of hig Greeting Ca ALL

Occasions, AS

and easons.

The UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading publisher of highest quality handmade Greetings Cards.

Sale: Direct to R

Products: Greetings cards for all occasions, Christmas and Spring Seasons. Spinners and other retail displays available.

Market Leaders in

Verse

& entimen

Talking Pictures Cards Ltd 14-20 Eldon Way, Paddock Wood, Kent, TN12 6BE

Tel: 01892 838574 enquiries@talkingpics.co.uk www.talking-pictures.co.uk

il: inffo o@words-n eb: www w..words-n

Tel: 01942 233201

view by rufus designed in thames ditton

order our latest bestselling card

design-led Greeting Cards for all occasions, Spring Seasons & Christmas.

DIRECT TO RETAIL & EXPORT

Method of Sale: Direct to Retail Orders can be placed on our trader site

www.cbgtrader.co.uk or call our customer services team on

+44(0)1243 792600

topdog@view by rufus.com 020 8972 9706

viewbyrufus.com register fo for a trade account: www w..viewbyrufus i b f .com/b2b /b2b

Art Cards eA Botanical Fine

an extensive range of superior quality,

Vibrant and nd elegant gree greeting cards A freshly fr modern perspective on nature

Call Now 075 7700 1145 www.zaquarella.co.uk info@ zaquarella.com

TEL: 01480 435562 FAX: 01480 450599 www.tracksltd.com UNIT 2, 12 BLACKSTONE RD, STUKELEY MEADOWS IND EST,

Top-notch British Greeting Cards for Thoughts that Count

HUNTINGDON, CAMBS, PE29 6EF

01923 200600 | www.woodmansterne.co.uk PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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EUROPEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S LEADING GREETINGS CARDS, PARTY PRODUCTS, GIFTS, CANDLES, TOYS, STATIONERY AND FLORIST SUNDRIES DISTRIBUTION CENTRE 75000 SQ FT BESCOT CRESCENT, WALSALL, WEST MIDLANDS. WS1 4NG 01922-646666 www.greetingshouse.co.uk info@greetingshouse.co.uk MON,WED,FRI 8.00am-4.45pm TUES,THURS 8.00am-7.45pm SAT,SUN 8.00am-1.45pm

103-106_Classified 2018.qxp_Layout 1 25/10/2018 10:32 Page 103

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BAGS

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Polypropylene & biodegradable bag specialists

GREETING CARD

Over 40 years quality service to the trade Hotfoiling also available

T 01206 396209 E sales@badgerconverters.co.uk www.badgerconverters.co.uk

GIVE E YOUR

BAGS

Manuffacturers of high quality fllexible packaging 30 YEARS EXPERIENCE - QUA UALITTY Y SERVICE EXTENSIVE STOCK RANGE - QUICK DE ELIVERY ASSURED

- HEADER BAGS - WA WALLET BAGS - ZIPPER BAGS - FLEXOGRAPHIC, HOTFOIL & THEERMAL PRINTING www.transrappackagin ng.co.uk sales@transrap.co o.uk

V VIP

CALL US TODA AY

TREA AT A TMENT

01773 5378 810

HIGH CLARITY L TY Y BA AGS FOR R GREETING G ET T NG CARD DS, CALEND EN N ARS ARS AND AND D ARTW TWORK WORK

ENVELOPES

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FOIL LB BLOCKING NG G EXTE XTENSIVE NSIV VE R V RANG RA ANGE OF ST STOCK S SIZES IZ ZES AND B AND BES E ESPO OKE KE MANUF KE MANU UF FACTU TUR TURE T U E AT TED D WRAPPING SERVICE NEW AUTOMA

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0122 1228 228 2 28 8 56 5605 60 052 26 6 www.fful ulcrumfilms. ulcrrum mfillm ms s co.uk uk

FOR ALL YOUR ENVELOPE NEEDS! Largest range of in-stock colours Over 400 Bespoke Envelope Sizes 8 Sizes Permanently in Stock RECYCLED

100% Recycled Paper Av Available

PAPER A

Stock & Bespoke Cello Bags Peel & Stick Envelopes p Bespoke Service on Request

ORDER ON LINE AT: www.regentenvelopes.com 01274 583000 sales@regentenvelopes.com

We’ve been producing p bags of high clarity and high quality q for over 30 years.

01274 220 220 www w.wrapid.co.uk sales@wrapid.co.uk

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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Quality Bespoke Envelopes!

From 5,000 quantity to many millions we can produce excellent quality envelopes for you.

Plain, printed, coloured & textured finish.

100% recycled & FSC available.

Please call us on 0843 5066684 with your enquiry or visit our website

www.ukenvelopecentre.co.uk We will be delighted to help!

FLITTERING FOR ALL YOUR FLITTER REQUIREMENTS

ABL Foil Ltd Unit 1, Industrial Estate East Hanningfield Chelmsford Essex, CM3 8AB

Contact DAVID JIGGINS Tel: 01245 400104 Email: david@abl-ltd.co.uk

PRINTERS

PJ Print

(London)

The Capitals only specialist Greetings card printer

HOME OF THE LASER CUT GREETING CARD We are proud to be recognised as the specialist UK and global manufacturer for the greeting card industry for over 40 years

PJ Print (London) The Capitals only Greetings card printer

PJ-PRINT E-mail: sales@pj-print.co.uk The Print Works Colville Road, Acton London W3 8BL tel 020 8993 5160 www.pj-print.co.uk

E-mail: sales@pj-print.co.uk The Print Works

To discuss how we could To d work with you, contact Simon King 0115 928 77 7 66 sales@sherwoodgroupuk.com www w..sherwoodgroupuk.com

Colville Road, Acton, London W38BL tel 020 8993 5160 www.pj-print.co.uk Hadden Court, Glaisdale Parkw Parkway, way, Glaisdale Drive West, Nottingham, NG8 4GP

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Introducing a joint venture from

Following new investments in our digital printing facility we can help you with shortt run prints, rapid stock replenishmeent, market testing, design sampling and promotional produccts.

Our expert digital printing, finishing and packing facilities allow us to provide • high quality • fast turnaround • competitive pricing

Our specialist services includ de: Digital and personalised greeting caards Short-run print Flitter, foil, emboss, die-cut finishess Bespoke gifts including mugs, coasters, notepads and much moree Promotional items Marketing literature Exhibition graphics /stands Stationery Brochures... and many more Pick, pack and distribution

If you would like to discover how we could help you, please contact our saless team:

0114 250 1150 •

YOUR MANUFACTURING PARTNER FOR VALUE ADDED PRODUCTS English speaking production team, prices quoted in sterling... and only 3 days delivery to THE UK...

Really... and there s no VAT to pay or customs procedures either...that's a great deal!

• Hand made and hand finished greeting cards • Boxed sets and acetate packs of cards / envelopes • Giftwrap and tag packs • Individually open and closed wrapped cards • 'Pop up' and cardboard engineered products • Notelets and social stationery • Specialised printing on plastics & lenticular

07974 133735 • sales@digitalhubukk.com

DISPLAY AND SPINNERS Tel: 01929 550085 Email: sales@westminsterwire.com Web: www.westminsterwire.com

Home of the Wire Spinner Stand

The Wire Spinner is proven to be the most cost effective method to display and enhance products.

We also offer sheet metal, wood, acrylic and cardboard solutions or a combination of materials.

For production enquiries, estimates etc., please contact our UK Agent:

Rob Pearson 07710 132 232 rob@solutions-polska.com FSC accredited (BV-COC-002485). Audited member of SMETA. Printing to ISO12674-2 standard.

To appear in the Classified pages simply contact

Warren Lomax 020 7700 6740 or email on warren@max-publishing.co.uk PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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WAREHOUSING & DISTRIBUTION

SPECIALISTS IN SHORT RUN MULTI IMAGE PRINT s Foiling Services without the need for dies s Wiro bound notebooks, no minimum quantity s In House Fulfilmment Services

T 01274 305832 E info@hellocards.co.uk www.hellocards.co.uk

AND NOW FO OR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT... .

Same day order turna around Accurate fulfilment Value added only as you sell the product Exclusively Greeting Cards Dedicated Account Managers

Our innovative greeting gs card finishes include:

With an excellent reputation we work as an integral part of yourr team bringing

Thermography Foil Intense Glitter Snowraise Liquid q M Metal Blended Glitter Embossing Textured Foil Laser Cutting

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LB Warehousing ask about our ‘Mrr Abbot’ sample pack

To discuss your nextt greetings card range call us on 01797 223355 www.abbotprint.co.uk bb i k sales@abbotprint.co.uk l bb i k 106

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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APPOINTMENTS

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One of the UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most recognisable & well established suppliers to the greeting card & gift retail sector now requires a new Sales Agent for the West Midlands/ Derbyshire/Leicestershire/Nottinghamshire/Lincolnshire/ StaďŹ&#x20AC;ordshire/Nothamptonshire & Warwickshire.

Good rates of commission paid and ample opportunity to expand and develop the territory, backed up by us with a ďŹ&#x201A;exible and progressive attitude towards new business.

Contact Erik in the ďŹ rst instance on sales@alexclarkart.co.uk or on 01207 560447 Alex Clark Art Ltd Unit 5, Taylors Building, Hownsgill Drive, Delves Lane, Consett, Co. Durham DH8 9HU www. alexclarkart.co.uk

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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ever started with water!

december 2018 www.pigmentproductions.com

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