28-29_31_GCA AGM.qxp_Grid 04/10/2023 16:01 Page 1
GCA Conference and AGM
the card
#Cardmitments
It was something of a facts and figures fest at the recent GCA Conference and AGM. Sounds a bit dreary? Not at all, with colourful brushstrokes, they each helped to paint a true picture of the greeting card industry today and seemingly, it is indeed a very pleasant scene. Presentations from consumer insights agency Kantar, card retailing market leader Cardfactory and the GCA’s own annual Market Report highlighted how the industry is worth £1.5billion, how card buying penetration is growing, that consumers are turning away from online back towards bricks and mortar, and encouragingly how the youth really are embracing card buying. “The ONS suggests that, generally across retail, 26.5% of consumer spend is now going online,” GCA council member and Cardology co-owner David Falkner told the audience, before bringing it into a greeting card context, with a stat that sets us somewhat apart from other consumer goods markets. “In our industry, we're now down to an 11% share [for online sales]”. While in other sectors this would have been seen as a cause to feel downhearted, in the greeting card scene not so, as it is a reflection of a strong bounce back sales in physical shops, with the buying 28 PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
The Commitments film and musical, based on the novel by Roddy Doyle, featured star performers, each contributing to a wonderfully uplifting experience that ignited an appreciative audience. The recent GCA Conference and AGM, which took place at the Royal Armouries in Leeds, very much echoed this, with the 180 members of the greeting card community who attended, all leaving very much in tune, and full of voice to amplify the #Cardmitment campaign chorus. PG shares some of the high notes from a trio of speakers whose insights delivered reassurance about the resilience of the UK greeting card market, backed up by data to prove it’s bucking the downward trend of the current costof-living crisis.
Above and above left: The passion, the talent, the feelgood tingles are common to both The Commitments 1991 film and the GCA’s recent #Cardmitment-focused Conference and AGM. Below left: Cardology’s David Falkner in full performance mode. Below right: The GCA Market Report paints a reassuring picture.
public preferring to see, hold and compare the cards they are buying, rather than clicking a button. Reinforcing the robustness of the Market Report research findings, David explained that 90% of the data in the recent Market Report “is directly underpinned” by responses from GCA members, with the rest backed up by publicly-available
sources, David said the association had looked back at previous years and resized the market to ensure the year-on-year comparisons are credible, and added: “The impressive thing is that we still believe the UK greeting card market is worth over £1.45bn per year – and that's just single cards alone.” In an “exceptionally resilient market” David revealed that volumes fell by just 2% in 2022 v 2021, a paltry amount when compared to the “post-pandemic horror shows” in other sectors he used as examples, such as furniture which fell by