11_13_17_19_21_News Pages.qxp_9/11/13/15/19/23/25 08/07/2025 18:47 Page 13
NEWS UOE’s 30-store expansion
TOP STORY
The Retas Hoedown
A yee-haw afternoon for 400 cardies
Below: All The Retas 2025 winners on stage.
“This year’s Retas Country and Western theme with the emphasis on big hats, cowboy boots and distinctive music is very appropriate for The Retas, as excellence in card retailing is all about standing out from the crowd while surviving the bucking bronco of challenges that attempt to lasso you,” began PG’s Jakki Brown in her welcome speech at The Retas greeting card retailer awards event, which took place recently at approach and commitment to greeting cards. London’s Grosvenor House Hotel. Moreover, they have achieved this by The country and western theme of the event retaining total control of their greeting card was embraced by the 400 attendees, and selection with a dedicated and talented buying host Ignacio Lopez really caught the mood team whose passion and product knowledge while the Honky Tonk Angels provided great shines through.” musical accompaniment with a line-dancing The regional independent winners were session crowning a memorable afternoon. Earlybird (Stoke Newington), Inklings It was especially memorable for (Hungerford), Abigail’s Cards & Gifts Waterstones’ Hazel Walker and Megan (Dereham and Norwich), Occasional Cards Douglas as the bookstore chain was awarded and Gifts, (Kingsbridge), Daisy Daisy the prestigious Greeting Card Retailer of the (Cardiff), Hugs & Kisses (Tettenhall), Year, as well as Best Celebrations Non-Specialist (Carlisle), Cards & Multiple Retailer of Gifts (Dronfield) Greeting Cards. and Penny Black As Ged Mace, md (Glasgow) while of category sponsor The Letter Arty The Art File said (Manchester) won before the final trophy the Best Newcomer was presented: “All of today’s Above: Waterstones’ Hazel Walker (left) and Megan Douglas award. with their two trophies. Other winners winners are truly Above left: Cardiff-based host Ignacio Lopez (centre) was magnificent which delighted that his local card retailer Daisy Daisy, owned by included Scribbler, Rebekah and Andy Mudie won the Best Independent Retailer – Utility, UOE Store, makes the choice of Wales category. Blue Diamond, our retailer of the year Bradbeers, The Kitchen Range and award, a really challenging one. Polkadot Gifts, Archerfield Walled Garden, The Award goes to a retailer who has really More Than Just A Gift and Jackson’s CRS. excelled in last few years not only by The August edition of PG will feature the expanding its estate on our nation’s high winners in all their glory. streets, but more importantly through its
UOE Store group has unveiled a massive expansion programme that will see its mix of post office services, greeting cards, stationery and gifts take it from nine outlets to Above: UOE’s greeting card category manager, Louise at least 39 by the Cambridge was presented end of the summer. with The Retas trophy from Lynsey Burbidge, md of The retail group Pigment, sponsor of the which won The award category. Best Non-Specialist Below: UOE is more than tripling its estate over the Retailer Of Greeting next few months. Cards South category is run by Elliot Jacobs and private equity backed by Next Wave Partners. The expansion follows the shake-up of the UK’s Crown Post Offices. “I’m honoured to announce that UOE has been appointed to operate a further 30 Post Office locations across London and the Home Counties,” said Elliot, who is CEO and postmaster at the retail chain that he’s built up over the past 27 years as well being a non-executive director at Post Office Ltd and chair of the postmaster panel. “Building on our existing capabilities and network of stores, UOE will shortly become a network of 40-plus stationery retail and Post Office stores serving around 9 million people every year with a team of nearly 250 amazing people! The new store list includes 24 in London as well as locations in Cambridge, Leighton Buzzard, Milton Keynes, Oxford, St Albans, and Windsor.
Clintons is in the pink Clintons is in the pink as the first of the new-look stores was unveiled by owners Cardzone a few weeks ago, following 15 months of working on turning around the long-time greetings retailer. “We’re incredibly excited to unveil the first Clintons 2.0 store at Metrocentre,” said Clintons trading director James Taylor, who is also trading director at Cardzone, the family-run retail group whose parent company Pillarbox Designs bought the 163-store business from the Weiss family, founders of American Greetings, in March last year. Having had queues waiting for the reopening on Monday 9 June, James added: “This new store design marks an exciting step forward for Clintons, creating a modern and interactive shopping experience for our customers. With a complete overhaul and relaunch of greeting cards, an expanded gifting range, and exclusive product offerings, we believe our customers will love the refreshed store. “We were pleased to see huge support from local customers on our opening day and are buoyed by the momentum in trading we have seen over the last few days. The re-opening of Clintons Metrocentre is a bold and positive step forward as we continue to evolve the Clintons brand and continually improve our offering to customers.” Of the new pink-themed branding, which contrasts with the original orange and the later red colouring brought in after the US-based Weiss family took over the business in 2012, James commented: “We are delighted with the look but recognise Left: Clintons’ pink new look has gone there are lessons to be taken from the first one which we will then carry into selective down well with customers. future stores. It’s early days but we are very encouraged by the performance.”
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