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CARDSHARP
A Tale Of
Two Retailers
Charles Dickens wrote his A Tale of Two Cities novel in 1859, based on the plotline of changing life and circumstances in Paris and London in the run up to and during the French Revolution. Re-reading the first part of the book’s opening sentence, ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness…’, Cardsharp’s thoughts turned to Clintons and Card Factory, both of whom have both been in the news recently for differing reasons. This led Cardsharp to reflect on their contrasting fortunes in this ongoing ‘greeting card retailing revolution’. Making a mental scan of the multiple card retailing landscape, Cardsharp reflected that if you discount Paperchase (on account of the fact that it is a bit of a hybrid); Scribbler (which, although very successful, is still essentially something of a niche player); Cards Galore (predominantly London-based) and Cardzone (still much stronger in the Midlands and North), Card Factory and Clintons are the only two major national specialist greeting card chains left in the UK. So, their fortunes are closely linked to the health of the whole greeting card industry. Card Factory is clearly still on a crest of a wave. Its like-for-like sales were up 3.1% for the six month period to the end of July, no mean achievement given the flat at best retail environment. In the same period, it opened an additional 30 stores, and is on course to open its targeted 50 stores by its year end, taking it to over 900 stores. It continues to expand into retail parks and is also targeting Ireland. A year or so ago, Card Factory experienced its first slowdown in
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PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
like-for-like sales, but under newish chief executive, Karen Hubbard, who with her experience in value retailing at B and M, and with her love of greeting cards, it seems to have regained its momentum. Even its online businesses, Getting Personal and cardfactory.co.uk, which had struggled in the last couple of accounting periods, increased by 5%. In addition, in a poll conducted by consumer group, Which?, Card Factory was voted to be the ninth most attractive retailer to visit in the UK. It also won the Best Specialist Multiple category at The Retas this year, where Karen Hubbard insisted that a host of Card Factory area managers joined her on stage to accept the trophy. There is no doubt, whatever your view on Card Factory and its effect on the industry, that the
Below: The film Carry On... Don’t Lose Your Head was ‘loosely’ based on A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.
value player has exploited its unique vertical supply model superbly, much to the understandable chagrin of indies who feel aggrieved that they cannot match the low prices and have lost custom as a result. Cardsharp has also noticed in recent months, that although Card Factory still has keen prices and some ridiculously cheap front of store offers, the overall quality of the cards is going up and there does seem to be more higher price points, the vast majority of which are created in its in-house studio that now employs over 60 designers. Licensed products are also more in evidence (sourced from established publishers who have the licensing agreements), along with ranges that look suspiciously like they could well be created by publishers ‘anonymously’. By contrast, Clintons does seem to be facing quite a few challenges. The 400 strong chain has been owned by American Greetings (UK Greetings’ parent company) for five