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PG’s 25 Year Anniversary
25
YEARS 1991 - 2016
The Trendy Set Like most sectors of retail over the last 25 years, there has always been value, middle and premium segments of the greeting card market, with most retailers and publishers identifying themselves with one of those categories. So how has this three-tiered structure panned out over the last quarter century? The retail value sector, Birthdays and Card Factory, have represented the value side of the market within the last 25 years, while for the most part, Clintons has commanded the benchmark of the middle ground, leaving the ‘trendy’ end of the retail card market in the premium space. In the supermarket sector the latter has been typified by Waitrose, in the department store sector, by the John Lewis Partnership, while in the high street the story over the last 25 years is more complicated. Perhaps one of the first retailers of what can loosely be described as ‘trendy cards’ was, although hard to believe now, was WHSmith. In the 1980s, the stationer had huge success with the cards of a couple of Islington-based companies, Accord and Camden Graphics, not to mention humour ranges called Dino, created by a young artist called Deborah Jones, and published by Andrew Brownsword. By 1991, so strong was its reputation for stocking ‘small house publishers’ cards, WHSmith was by and away the UK market leader on the everyday greeting card front. At the same time, there was a trendy retail chain that was really capturing the imagination of hip young consumers and was
building rapidly. This was Athena, originally set up by Swede Ole Christensen in the 1960s, but by the early 1990s it was under Above: Paperchase’s Timothy Melgund (right) and Robert Warden shortly after the MBO 20 years ago. the ownership of Pentos plc, Below: An historic Emotional Rescue Odd Squad card which makes reference to the iconic ‘tennis who also owned book chain, girl’ image from Athena. Dillons and Rymans, the stationer. Athena’s eclectic mix of poster art, their level best to carry on for a few years, left-field greeting cards, stationery and gifts but the days of Athena as a major high street was really popular and successful in the 1980s brand were over. and early 1990s. Its reputation for This left space for what is now the besticonic posters, such as L’Enfant (of a known upmarket greeting card market retailer muscular man holding a baby) and to emerge and grow, Paperchase. Having been the one of a young lady tennis founded by two art students in the 1960s, player scratching her naked Paperchase went on to be run in a small behind, continued to adorn experimental way by WHSmith in the late millions of student bedrooms for 1980s. In the mid 1990s, its senior years. Athena was a bit of a hi-bred management team, led by Timothy Melgund, as it had its own publishing spotted the brand’s potential and led a division and its own shops but management buyout. Since then Timothy and also a group of independent retail design director, Robert Warden, have, with franchisees who traded under the different financial backers along the way, built Athena banner and format. the chain to over 130 stores in the UK alone. But as the 1990s unfolded, While Paperchase is not by any means Athena seemed to be losing its touch. The the only thrusting player in the hipster head of Pentos, a book loving financial man quarter - Scribbler has been an undisputed called Terry Maher, seemed more interested force for good, especially on the humour in Dillons than Athena. Then, in a cynical front, while Cards Galore has been a major manoeuvre at the end of 1995, having ringshowcase retailer for high-end hand-finished fenced Athena, Pentos Plc put it into publishers - however Paperchase (through administration the day after Boxing Day, its larger retail estate) has long been the leaving a myriad of publisher suppliers with loudest voiced champion for contemporary massive losses. The Athena franchisees did greeting card design.
Bearing Up Ever since a wild grizzly bear was spared a hunting death at the hands of President Teddy Roosevelt, a 100 years ago, and the term ‘teddy bear’ was coined, bears have been considered ‘cute’. And since cute and greeting cards have always been cuddly bedfellows, cute bears have enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with greeting cards in the UK, especially in the last 25 years. Although there have been many ursine characters to have ‘beared up’ on UK greeting cards over the last 25 years, there are two that really stand out - Forever Friends and Tatty Teddy (aka ‘the grey bear’). While Forever Friends dominated the late 1980s and early 1990s, Tatty Teddy stole the show in the late 1990s and from the noughties onwards. The Andrew Brownsword Collection story (original home of Forever Friends) has become a greeting card legend. His eponymous publishing company initially made its mark with a humorous range by
artist Deborah Jones under her pen name of Dino. But when Andrew and Deborah came up with the idea for two immensely cute large faced bears in the mid 1980s, things really started to take off. The bears had no name but appeared in a variety of guises, all expressing emotional warmth and sentiment. For some indefinable reason, Forever Friends caught the public’s imagination in a way and a scale no previous greeting cards had ever done before. The
Above: Forever Friends bears with their ‘father’, Andrew Brownsword (left) and ‘mother’, Deborah Jones (centre).
cards appealed to everyone. Up to then cute had been considered a child genre or bizarrely, better suited to a male send than a female one. Forever Friends managed to transcend generations and was loved equally by children, juveniles and adults. Continued on page 81 PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
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