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CARDSHARP
Inset: Will a no-deal Brexit mean panic stations?
Don’t Panic
Brexit! A withdrawal agreement or a no-deal? The subsequent effect of either on the UK economy! Boris Johnson as Prime Minister! Jeremy Corbyn as Prime Minister? The continued threat of global trade wars with the unpredictable Trump as US President! A global economic downturn or an oil crisis sparked by an international incident in the Persian Gulf? Cardsharp knows every businessman hates uncertainty and there is certainly an awful lot of it around at present. In fact that is the only thing that is certain. Added to this are all the challenges any retail-facing business is confronted with, notably the decline in bricks and mortar footfall, and it is no wonder that the UK greeting card industry finds itself in a tricky old year. All this got Cardsharp thinking nostalgically. Cardsharp thinks back to the period from 1991 up until the financial crisis of 2008-9, when the greeting card industry enjoyed unparalleled growth on the back of the longest periods of sustained economic growth in modern history. Consumer spending rose consistently every year and physical shopping was the nation’s favourite pastime. There were admittedly a few major international crises, such as the invasion of
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PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
Iraq, the bitter civil war in former Yugoslavia, and the 09/11 terrorist atrocity in New York, but none of this really impinged on the daily life of the UK consumer. Governments, whether Labour or Conservative, were moderate and there was far less of the rancor in political debate than there is now. Cardsharp accepts he may be looking at that era with rose-tinted spectacles, but
in hindsight these were the golden years for the greeting card industry. True, there were casualties both on the publishing side and the retail side - Cardsharp recalls the Athena collapse and the disappearance of many historic wholesale publishing names. However, these were mainly brought about by poor management decisions or structural changes in the market. Margins were great and sales were growing. Clintons dominated the prime positions in the high streets. Fortunes were made, the largest one being the estimated £200 million that Andrew Brownsword received from Hallmark for his eponymous company in 1995. The Spring Fair saw publishers building stands that were three storeys high and/or the size of football pitches, which seems astonishing now in these more chastened times. It really was the days of wine and roses for the UK greeting card industry, and so many of the grizzled veterans of the industry that Cardsharp talks to about this era willingly agree, adding that they