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From The Editor
ON THE CARDS
@Prog_Greetings
Right: (second left) Amanda Fergusson, ceo of Sitting in the semi darkness in the auditorium the GCA with her Henries’ Honorary of Unity Place in Milton Keynes lapping up Achievement award with (right-left) Warren Lomax (PG), Karen Wilson (Paper Salad) and every word from the speakers and panellists, Jakki Brown (PG). Below: At the Excellence in Housewares I found the whole experience of the GCA Awards, held the evening before The Henries, Conference and AGM deeply enlightening at which Museums & Galleries hosted a table. (Left-right) David and Teresa Colman (Only and empowering. Place for Pictures); Andy Harrold and Sophie Bylina (Museums & Galleries); Beth Robson Maybe it was because it took me back to (London agent); Tiffany Leach (Kingfisher my bright eyed and bushy-tailed student days Cards & Gifts and Hummingbird); Jakki Brown (PG) and Rosie Trow (SW agent). when my brain was super spongey in its ability to soak up any new learnings, or maybe because it felt such a treat to greeting card sector is showing incredible resilience – block out the ‘noise’ of normal 94% of the UK population is engaged in card buying everyday life and just absorb with consumer buying habits signalling that if not what was being said or could it deemed absolutely ‘essential’ by all social democratic be that sitting there in a cocoon groups, they are certainly one of the last products to of fellow cardies engendered be cut out of the household budget. such a lovely comforting feeling – The superb talk given by Sarah-Jane Porter of to be honest it was probably a Moonpig prompted how we, as a sector should shift mixture of all of these. the tone and rethink how we see the whole area of ‘sympathy’ and I am not fully sure what the triggers were for my heightened ‘get well’ cards and move to a more ‘care and connection’ approach. emotional state that afternoon – I confess I had tears running down my SJ’s gentle, considered delivery came across as less of a warning shot, cheeks on three occasions, twice during Dean Morris’ talk about his but more of an encouragement as to how greeting cards really can be cardie life and again when Amanda Fergusson shared her four even more relevant than they have ever been, providing understanding decades in this amazing industry – but I loved every minute of it. to how life feels today – be it for those suffering with their mental The agenda was like a wonderful selection box of all the best treats health, adapting to long-term illness, accepting their neurodivergence, – top retailers, poignant personal stories, insightful research findings as well as great examples of how the the widespread feeling of loneliness that often goes unacknowledged Below: (right-left) Heidi Early of Earlybird until it is too late, or the many other troubles people are experiencing. Designs, Rosie Tate of Cath Tate and Jakki greeting card community has Brown of PG at the GCA Conference and As SJ said, we might not have all the answers or the magic pulled together under the broad AGM with Thinking of You cards that were delivered to them from Aga Marsden of solutions, but by being able to easily find a card with the right tone in a umbrella of the GCA to promote Highworth Emporium. Below right: On the joyful Ornament Art and protect greeting card sending. retailer, select one and send it, means we at least ‘showed up’. stand at the BLE show. (Right-left) Ornament Admittedly right now there a gap between intent and action. Some As the Kantar and GCA Market Art’s Jo and David Short, PG’s Jakki Brown and Happy Street’s Natalie Gladstone and 27% of people have considered sending a Thinking of You or Just Report findings testified, the Sally McArthur. Because card in the past year, but didn’t go through with it with 43% saying they struggled to find a supportive card. As the finalists and winners of The Henries awards demonstrate magnificently, the greeting card publishers in the UK really are maestros of creativity and editorial nuance, which leaves me in no doubt that many more tears of joy and comfort will be shed in the coming years as a result of a new breed of care and connection card designs that will work their special magic.
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CONTENTS 25
22
What’s Inside?
46
43
9-19 News
35-39 Innovations
All the latest happenings and developments in the trade.
A host of new ranges and designs.
40-41 Care and Connection A Shift Of Tone
20-21 Talking Shop One Eye On AI With AI infiltrating our lives and independent retailers not being able to work any harder, David Robertson, coowner of JP Pozzi ponders as to how the new technology can best be embraced.
Moonpig’s head of cards and licensing, Sarah-Jane Porter, as head of the GCA’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee, puts forward a strong case for the industry to ensure that it delivers a care and connection message.
22-23 Cardsharp Postal ‘Hammer’ Blow
43-45 Design Trend: Cakes, Pastries and Breads The Making Of Baking
Cardsharp was delighted that Royal Mail’s performance came up in Prime Minister’s Question Time prompting his views on Daniel Kretinsky’s ownership of West Ham FC and our postal operator.
With the new recipe British Bake Off series now on TV, the penchant for all things patisserie in greeting card design is rising like a perfect Victoria Sponge. PG did some wooden spoon stirring with publishers.
25-27 Viewpoints Christmas Tingles
46-47 In Conversation With… Caroline Quentin Q-ueuing Up For Caroline
An early take on greeting card retailers’ expectations of the upcoming Christmas trading period.
From comedy and acting icon to gardening guru, Caroline Quentin has now added launching her own greeting cards and gift company showcasing her handpainted illustrations to her list of claims to fame.
28-29 Statistically Speaking Facing The Facts Jon Hendy, business unit director of Kantar/Numerator delivers some wonderful insights into consumer’s greeting card buying habits.
31-33 Retailer Revelations Tell Me What You Want Retail buyers Hazel Walker of Waterstones, Louise Cambridge of Stamp/UOE, Tesco’s Ross Lasseter and Tanya Rounding and Sally Matson of Red Card were put on the spot at the recent GCA Conference and AGM.
49 Art Source Alice May’s Wonderland Illustrator Alice May shares her creative journey and how she is inspired by the natural world, using mixed media, vivid colours, playful textures to create her whimsical artworks.
50-51 What’s Hot? A trio of retailers lift the lid on their best-selling ranges.
52-59 Sources of Supply Subscribe to Progressive Greetings from £60 (UK) to £90 (International). You can organise this quickly and easily online at our secure site: www.max-subscriptions.net For assistance, please email subscriptions@max-publishing.co.uk
Jakki Brown
Warren Lomax
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Ian Hyder
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Copyright© 2026. While every effort has been made to ensure the information in this magazine was correct at the time of publication, the publishers cannot accept legal liability for any errors or omissions, nor can they accept responsibility for the standing of advertisers nor any organisation mentioned in the text. Views of contributors do not necessarily reflect those of the publishers.
Rob Willis
PG is the official magazine for the Greeting Card Association GCA: Amanda Fergusson 020 7619 9266 Email: hello@gca.cards www.greetingcardassociation.org.uk
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The Henries Winners 2026
Good Henries Cardbrations
• The Lynn Tait Most Promising Young Designer: Louise Richardson, founder of Two For Joy Illustration • Best Diversity and Inclusion Range: Pride In London Collection from Greeting Card Association (incorporating designs from Cath Tate Cards, Dinosaurs Doing Stuff, Dean Morris Cards, Hallmark, Jessie Maeve Studio, LoveLossDiscoballs, Ohh Deer, Pink and Mint Design, The Queer Store, Ricicle and UK Greetings) • Best Humorous Range: Heard They're Absurd from Bewilderbeest • Best Licensed Entertainment or Character Card Range: The Richard Scarry Collection from Studio Boketto • Best Licensed Heritage, Lifestyle, Art or Design Card Range: Angela Harding from Museums & Galleries • Best Christmas Counter Range:The Natural World Christmas from Ohh Deer • Best Christmas Box or Pack: Showcase from Ling Design • Best Cute Range: Tiny Fluffs from Lola Design • Best Contemporary Words and Sentiments Range: Box Office from Stormy Knight • Best Traditional Words and Sentiments Range: Marmalade Skies from Ginger Betty • Best Art Range: Soleil from Lola Design • Best Photographic Range: David Gilliver’s It’s A Small World from Woodmansterne Publications • Best Children’s Range: Kids Pop-up Cards from Alljoy Design • Best Contemporary Trend Range: Cerealously Good from Ricicle • Best 3D, Handmade or Hand-finished Range: Alice's Garden from Cinnamon Aitch • Best Male Range: Huzzah from The Art File • Best Relations and/or Occasions Range: A Touch of Glass from Wendy Jones-Blackett • Best Spring Seasons Range: Jamboree Valentine's from Paper Salad • Best Wholesale Range: The Studio Collection from Simon Elvin • Best Giftwrappings Range: Paper Salad Collection from Glick • The Henry Cole Classic Award: Fabulous from Dean Morris Cards • Best Service to the Independent Retailer Award • Bronze Winner: Noel Tatt • Silver Winner: International Cards & Gifts • Gold Winner: UK Greetings • Honorary Achievement Award: Amanda Fergusson, ceo of the GCA
Surf was up at the industry’s big night The winners of The Henries 2026 greeting card industry awards were announced at a fabulous event, held at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London, hosted by comedian and writer Bella Hull. Attended by 500 members of the greeting card community, the industry’s big event, saw the upbeat Surf’s Up Good Cardbrations theme being fully embraced by cardies. Everyone really got behind the publishers whose greeting card and wrap ranges, (plus those who had gone the extra mile on the service front) received their shiny trophies. Organised by Progressive Greetings, The Henries are the ultimate accolades in the greeting card industry. As Jakki Brown, director of Max Publishing said: “While there are certainly some ongoing industry challenges for all of us to get in a froth about, not least riding the riptide of Trump’s tariffs, reading the crosswinds of global wars, Royal Mail ripples and adapting to the changing retail landscapes, we as a sector have remained buoyant. As was reported at the recent wonderful GCA Conference, the British public spent over £1.5 billion on
Above: The Henries 2026 award winners, host Bella Hull and members of the PG team. Below: A sailors’ lift for GCA ceo Amanda Fergusson from (left-right) Ricicle’s David NicholsRice, Ohh Deer’s Jamie Mitchell, Mark Callaby and Ricicle’s David Nichols-Rice.
greeting cards in the last year, we actually spend more on cards than toothpaste, and more young people are sending cards, now that really is something to sing about.” The awards ceremony began and culminated with personal awards. The inaugural award, The Lynn Tait Most Promising Young Designer was presented to Louise Richardson, founder of Two For Joy Illustration while the Honorary Achievement Award was presented to Amanda Fergusson, ceo of the GCA for her incredible dedication and contribution to the industry over the last four decades. All Henries winners will be featured in all their glory in PG’s November edition.
Trophies were not the only triumphs The recipients of the shiny Henries trophies were not the only ones who went home with wins, as there was a great line-up of prizes in the charity raffle, which raised £5,500 for The Light Fund charity, half of which is going to Child Rescue Nepal to provide supplies and support for those affected by the recent devasting floods in the country. The other half of the money raised from The Henries’ raffle will join the sums raised by The Light Fund’s other 2026 fundraising events which will then be dispersed to various UK Above: The Light Fund is open to submissions from UK registered charities. registered charities as a result of votes for projects submitted via the online portal (www.thelightfund.org). Charities have until 5pm on November 6 to apply for funding for projects to help men, women or children. “Over the years, through The Light Fund, we have been able to fund well over 250 different charity projects, with monies from The Henries’ and The Retas’ raffles contributing significant Above: As a result of a recent donation from The sums,” commented Jakki Brown, a founding trustee of The Light Fund and co-owner of Max Publishing, Light Fund to Child Rescue Nepal, three tonnes of which organises The Henries. “If you have a UK registered charity close to your heart, please urge them rice, lentils, solar lights, buckets, nappies and to apply for funds now!” medicine have reached affected villages.
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A GCA Conference Triumph Sell-out event of storytelling, insights and emotions
Above: It was (third from front right) Amanda Fergusson’s last Conference as ceo of the GCA. Pictured with members of the Council.
Milton Keynes is famous for its roundabouts, the concrete cows, the birthplace of The Open University, being very close to Bletchley Park, but can now add hosting what was one of the best GCA Conference and AGM’s ever to its list of credits. Greeting the packed auditorium of publishers, retailers and trade suppliers in the auditorium, Amanda Fergusson, ceo set the bar high right from the start, with the buzz, pep and poignancy continuing right through the day to her closing speech, a fitting swansong of her eight very successful years at the GCA helm before she retires at the end of this year.
Adroitly Amanda described the UK greeting card industry as “our creative powerhouse” as testified by the British public spending over £1.5 billion on them in the last year. She stressed how, we as a sector “continue to punch above our weight” due to the passion and commitment of all those involved. What then followed was a smorgasbord of invaluable consumer insights which underscored the resilience of the sector (from the GCA Market Report and Numerator/Kantar’s research); retailer revelations (from John Lewis, Waterstones, Tesco, Stamp/UOE and Red Card); a rally call to confront Left: Dean Morris’ presentation about his story was spot on – a heady mix of humour and poignancy.
Above: The auditorium of Unity Place in Milton Keynes was filled with captivated cardies.
accepted card norms and shift from showing sympathy to care and connection (from Moonpig’s S-J Porter); a raft of GCA developments and initiatives to champion and protect card sending as well as some wonderful storytelling (from Seth Woodmansterne of Woodmansterne, Dean Morris of Dean Morris Cards and Amanda Fergusson). What Dean Morris said as he wrapped up his hilarious and emotional speech undoubtedly will have resonated with pretty much everyone in that room. “This business was never just about selling cards. It was about finding my voice, finding my people, and somehow building a living out of something that still feels incredibly personal to me.”
Woodmansterne moves into art prints
David Falkner to become new GCA CEO in Jan 2027 David Falkner, a current director of Cardology, is to become the new chief executive officer of the GCA from January 1 2027, taking over from Amanda Fergusson who has taken the decision to retire following over eight years in the role. Above: David Falkner with Following a thorough and considered recruitment Danielle McCarthy, GCA’s process, members of the GCA board interviewed a events and marketing co-ordinator at the recent number of strong candidates, unanimously agreeing GCA Conference. that David is the perfect person for the role. Having built and run his own publishing business, Cardology, with wife Kripa Shah and her sister Dipa, following an earlier career in the corporate sector, as well as serving on the GCA Council, the association board are in no doubt that David brings a valuable and well-rounded perspective to the role. GCA president Karen Wilson, owner of Paper Salad said: “David brings something very valuable to the GCA. He understands our industry inside and out – from running a publishing business to championing our members on crucial issues like postal reform. He showed throughout the interview process how seamlessly he can apply that same energy to every area of our association, and we are delighted to have him lead us into this next chapter.” David will officially join the GCA on 1 December, stepping back from his hands-on role at Cardology to work alongside current CEO Amanda Fergusson to ensure a smooth and comprehensive handover before taking on the chief executive role in his own right from 1 January. He said: “I’m delighted to be taking on the GCA CEO role and to have the opportunity to build on the strong platform Amanda has created. I think everyone eventually finds their natural fit within this wonderful industry, and I certainly feel as though I’ve found mine. The greeting card community has given me an enormous amount over the years, and I’m excited to give something back while helping the whole category grow and thrive.”
Woodmansterne has unveiled its inaugural Art Print collection, featuring the work of over 20 artists, across 51 SKUs. The collection, which was given its first showing on the publisher’s stand at the recent GLEE exhibition, broadens the Woodmansterne portfolio beyond greeting cards and gift packaging, further deepening its commitment to art across many genres. “Recognising the power of imagery to Above: Kate Rebecca Leach with communicate and bring joy has been at some of her prints that feature in Woodmansterne’s new Art Print the heart of Woodmansterne since our collection. very beginnings in 1953,” Louisa Guelcé, Woodmansterne’s head of marketing explained. “From colour slides to greeting cards, we have been curating imagery and creating products that help people express who they are and connect with loved ones. We are now bringing that same passion for exceptional design and quality into the home with our carefully curated Art Print collection.” Covering a broad mix of genres, styles and subject matter, the 20+ artists whose work features includes Stephanie Dyment and Kate Rebecca Leach from Essoldo Design, whose art already graces greeting cards from Woodmansterne. The collection spans A4, A3 and LP (305 x 305mm) unframed prints with display options also available. Left: A contemporary collection of Art Prints from Woodmansterne.
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Royal Mail Gets Behind Thinking of You Week Postal operator delivers the message on envelopes and social media message: send a card, deliver a smile. Consumer awareness of This year more than 1,000 retailers got involved across the country. Every display, Thinking of You Week this year post, school activity, community event and customer conversation reminds people reached new heights, thanks to what cards do best: tell someone, ‘I’m thinking of you’.” engagement by Doing its bit big time to retailers, publishers and convey the TOYW Above: The Royal Mail’s mission to ‘send a card, Royal Mail special Thinking of You Week postmark. deliver a smile’, Royal with the GCA instigated card sending initiative. Mail franked millions of items of post with a As Amanda Fergusson, ceo of the dedicated postmark. In GCA relayed at the association’s recent Conference and AGM: addition, it invested in a “Thinking of You Week is one of the Above: An Instagram post fully-fledged grassroots by Stow News & Post and social media loveliest examples of the industry Office to urge people to coming together behind the simple campaign which saw it connect.
Hand Picked by Henrietta connects generations in Poynton Hand Picked by Henrietta, the Poynton-based independent card and gift shop owned by Sarah Halsall has been instrumental in forging links between the generations through greeting cards in several different ways. Tying in with Thinking of You Week, following on from the success of the last few years Sarah donated a whole batch of greeting cards to Lower Park Primary School in the Cheshire town where the shop is located. The pupils then enjoyed writing messages to residents of a local care home, delivering the Above: Sarah Halsall (right) heartwarming missives with one of the pupils of Parklands. themselves. As Sarah commented: “We've donated the cards for this project for several years now, and it never fails to be heartwarming. The children love taking part, and the residents are always so touched to hear from them.” In addition, the windows of Hand Picked by Henrietta have been festooned with wonderful greeting card designs created by local youngsters, which are entries to its Happy Cards competition. Sarah followed the blueprint which is the brainchild of Heidi Early of Earlybird Designs and used the toolkit hosted on the Below: The Hand Picked by Henrietta GCA website, with shop window filled with entries to its Windles producing the Happy Cards project. winning designs as actual cards. As Sarah summed up: “We had a wonderful response to the competition. There’s definitely some real talent among the next generation of card designers!”
take to the streets, interviewing members of the public about card sending, inviting them to write a card and post it, capturing it all in engaging reels which were shared far and wide on Instagram and other media channels.
Above: Royal Mail filmed in Leeds telling people about Thinking of You Week, encouraging them to write and post cards and saying why.
Sky’s the limit… Just Because initiative Bristol-based indie, Sky put its own spin on Thinking of You Week with its Just Because free card sending initiative. Colette Foster, owner of The Retas-award winning card and framing shop in Clifton, was inspired by her daughter Ruby’s reaction to some flowers she had received. Asking her Mum why she had been sent the flowers, when Colette answered: “No specific reason”, Ruby retorted: “Just because flowers… they are the best kind.” Recognising the relevance and joy of receiving an unexpected greeting card, Colette worked with Sky’s social media and marketing maestro Romilly Rees to create its Just Because card sending weekend. “We wanted to celebrate the joy of sending and receiving cards by encouraging people to write more cards to loved ones, just because!” said Colette. Putting her own creative talents to good use, Colette designed and printed two specially designed Just Because cards, created a window display, repurposed a postbox and went to town with a social media campaign to fanfare the project which demonstrated the many reasons - from the silly to Above: Colette (right) and the deep - for people to send cards. Whether that is Romily harvesting the 148 cards from the postbox before adding to reassure someone that their too short fringe will stamps and mailing them. grow back or ‘because you’ve been hired, fired or at Below left: Customers loved writing and sending the Just long last retired’. Because cards. Over a weekend last month customers were invited to help themselves to the cards, craft a personal message, and pop it in the bright orange postbox, with all postage costs covered by Sky. “It was so wonderfully received, especially by younger people who relished considering who to send the card to and what to write. It was so heartwarming,” said Colette. “I was blown away by just how many were eager to sit down and put pen to paper - from students writing home to reassure worried parents to old friends reaching out. It was definitely a ‘wow’ weekend for us.” At the end of the weekend,148 of the cards were stamped and posted to recipients all across the country. “I will never know what good will come out of those cards, but receiving them will definitely brighten a lot people’s days… just because!” summed up Colette.
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The Highworth Emporium Delivers 2,000 Cards Indie’s all-encompassing Thinking of You Week effort Earlybird, Hallmark, “We did it!!! 2000 cards. Woodmansterne UK 2000 smiles” exclaimed Greetings, Cath Tate Cards, Aga Marsden, owner of Paperlink and Wendy The Highworth Jones-Blackett, Aga forged Emporium having reached links with several local schools her high self-imposed target whose pupils were only too which has seen 2,000 keen to write messages of greeting cards being written care and support to care by school children and customers and delivered to Above: Aga Marsden (front left) home residents and hospital with some of the nursing team residents of care homes at the Great Western Hospital in patients to brighten their day. Customers, local Mayor and and those in hospital as part Swindon before the cards were given to patients. even the twin musical stars of part of the indie retailer’s Billie & Louie (from The Voice) also got Thinking of You Week activities. involved writing their positive missives, Doubling up on her 2025 efforts to get which were all delivered by behind the GCA TOYW initiative, Aga the end the weekend to sought card donations from card grateful recipients, publishers so she could put her plan for helped by the Scouts this year into action. Armed with cards and Wildcats. from Grace Jackson Design, Paper Salad, Rush Design, Emotional Right: Aga (left) with celebrity twins Billie & Louie wrote Rescue, Ling Design, Abacus, cards as well singing in the Scentiment Gifts, Ohh Deer, shop.
Shmuncki relaunches its DTR business Helen Walters knows how to put her words into action and has done a lot of thinking and writing of late, relaunching her Shmuncki Poem Gifts business on a B2B footing as well as finding time to pen a special poem in homage to Thinking of You Week. Having started trading 10 years ago, for the last four years, Shmuncki’s distinctive poembased cards have only been available B2C from platforms such as Etsy. However, founder Helen has now turned her business’ focus back Above: Helen Walters on her to retailers. stand at the Autumn Fair. “We just missed dealing with lovely shops, plus If this cannot be big enough to read the words (just the even our regular consumer customers were asking poem) then leave it out us which retailers stocked Above: Helen always gets behind TOYW, this year is our products. So, we have no different. taken the plunge and jumped back in with four brand new ranges,” revealed Helen. The relaunched Shmuncki made its debut at the recent Autumn Fair with Helen also having booked a stand at next May’s PG Live too. “Most cards can manage ‘I love you’, ‘I’m proud of you’ or ‘thank you’. But quite often that’s where they stop. And actually, the meaningful bit is what comes next. I’m proud of you because… Thank you for… I love you because of all these ridiculous, ordinary, wonderful little things you do that make you you. So that’s the bit I write,” explains Helen. “The detail. The reason. The bit that makes somebody reading it think, God, that’s exactly us. That distinction sits at the heart of the Shmuncki relaunch.
Full of praise for the collaborative support, Aga said: “From children, Scouts, Wildcats, our Mayor, Billy & Louie, our wonderful customers Above: The Scouts and so many others not only got involved writing cards to writing cards, but also in delivering them. countless counting, sticking, sorting and delivering them to hospitals, care homes and people across our community. Together, we did it. A huge thank you for everyone involved.” As she summed up, rightfully feeling somewhat emotional: “More than 2,000 little reminders that somebody is thinking of you. More than 2,000 opportunities to make somebody smile. What a community. What a week. What a lot of smiles!”
What’s been bugging The Eco-friendly Card Co? The Autumn Fair saw The Eco-friendly Card Co kick off its 20th anniversary celebrations of attaining its own FSC accreditation. And in keeping with the publisher’s pioneering and Above: Sue Morrish is generous ways, it gave away 20 free hotels to proud to have customers – bug hotels that is! championed environmental concerns With environmental concerns at the heart of for decades. the business since it started, The Eco-friendly Card Co, then known as Glebe Cottage, was the first direct-toindependent-retail greeting card publisher in the UK to become FSCcertified. Previously, as now, the vast majority of publishers rely on their printers to assure the FSC chain of custody for their products. “Obtaining our own FSC Chain of Custody certification back in 2006 was incredibly exciting and opened up many opportunities for us,” said Sue Morrish, who co-owns the business with her husband Scott. “By becoming FSC-certified, we could commission our own FSC-certified board for greeting cards – for example, our ‘coffee’ board back in 2015 used 50% coffee-cup manufacturing waste and 50% FSC Mix fibre (another first). Now, all the board we use for cards is FSC recycled.” As part of marking this important milestone, The Eco-friendly Card Co teamed up with FSC-certified bird and insect manufacturer, The Nestbox Company, and gave away 20 FSC-certified bug hotels to the first five customers who placed orders on each of the four days of Autumn Fair. Rosie Teasdale, executive director of FSC UK, said: “Greeting cards are one of the products on which consumers most commonly recall seeing the FSC label, providing a really visible way of getting the FSC logo, and hopefully also the sustainable forestry message behind it, in front of mainstream consumers. The Eco-friendly Card Co is a leading light in its industry and we would like to congratulate it on an impressive two decades of commitment to FSC, helping to support responsible management of the world's forests.” Left: A 5 star FSC bug hotel from The Nestbox Company.
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NEWS TOP STORY
Funky Pigeon Boosts Cardfactory’s Results The deeper dive into partywares reaps results As the UK’s largest specialist greeting card retailer, and main stock market touchpoint for the sector, when Cardfactory’s results are announced they also shine a spotlight on greeting cards per say. While not sparkling, Cardfactory’s half year results, for the year to the end of July, certainly echoed the resilience of the sector. Above: Cardfactory’s store estate ended the financial period trading from 1,126 UK stores. Group revenue was up 5.3% to £260.8m achieving £12.7m in profits. Its like-for-like store sales saw a slight dip of -2% while its decision to acquire Funky Pigeon was ratified, delivering a £12.8m increase in its digital sales. Commenting Darcy Willson-Rymer, ceo of Cardfactory made a point of highlighting how progress has been made its strategy of “building a broader, more diversified celebrations business” evidenced by its strengthened position in the digital field through Funky Pigeon as well as expansion in other areas, such as partyware. "We remain focused on strengthening our store estate and increasing our share of the celebrations market,” Darcy said, with the rollout of its new Party proposition, resulting in a 13% uplift in sales from this product area since mid-July, which he describes as “an important step in increasing our share of customers celebration spend.” Also citing its business activities away from its own high street stores, Darcy added how “the ongoing development of our partnerships and international businesses are broadening our reach and creating further opportunities for growth, and the integration of Funky Pigeon and delivery of the expected synergies remain on track." The mention of ‘partnerships and international businesses’ are references to its 13.6% rise on the wholesale front through its partnerships with The Reject Shop and Aldi, as well as the result of its acquisition of Garlanna in the Republic of Ireland. Cardfactory’s Republic of Ireland stores also continued to perform strongly, with total store sales there up 24.3% and like-for-like sales up 5.6%. Looking forward, Darcy said: "We are confident of delivering full-year expectations with strong Golden Quarter plans in place, supported by significant product newness and a further strengthening of our great value offer."
Above: The Cardfactory stores’ story. Right: The rollout of its new party proposition into 116 stores is seeing positive results with sales up 13%.
Raspberry Blossom’s “biggest moment” “It feels hugely significant for us, probably one of the biggest moments in our 12year journey,” stated Rebecca Green, who coowns Raspberry Blossom with her husband Mark, about the recent launch of the company’s lifestyle, stationery and gift collection. “Greeting cards will always be at the heart of what we do. They’ve Above: Rebecca sporting one of allowed us to build the the Stitch & Bloom tote bags. Below: A selection of the new brand, develop our Raspberry Blossom gift and distinctive design style and lifestyle products on its most importantly, understand what our customers respond to. But for a long time, Mark and I have had an ambition to bring other products into our portfolio,” Rebecca added about the recent expansion of its homegrown product ranges. Prior to this, the only Raspberry Blossom giftware had been produced under licence. On show for the first time at Autumn Fair, available to pre-order for delivery in January, were the two inaugural lifestyle collections – Happiness and Stitch & Bloom.
Thortful’s sweet spot with Hotel Chocolat Thortful has forged a partnership with leading confectionery brand, Hotel Chocolat, with the inaugural collection of exclusive chocolate card gifts having recently launched on the online publisher’s platform. The new collection combines Hotel Chocolat's bestselling chocolates with Thortful's personalised greeting cards, allowing consumers to send a card and gift together in a single letterbox-friendly package. “Hotel Chocolat and Thortful are a natural fit — both challenger brands that have earned our place by doing things differently, not by following the pack,” stated Amber Bradley Welch, head of gifting at Thortful. “That same spirit of innovation shows up in our card gifts, exclusive to Thortful, and it's exactly the kind of retail thinking Hotel Chocolat is known for too; being one of the few to connect cocoa-growing and ethical farming with imaginative chocolate crafting. We're incredibly proud to bring a powerhouse name like this to our customers.”place.”
Above: The collab with Hotel Chocolat features prominently on Thortful’s website.
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NEWS TOP STORY
Good training! Postmark opens in St Pancras International
Temu’s Copycat Cards Takedown Success GCA intervention sees over 57,000 designs removed Left: Temu’s collaboration with the GCA and publishers has reduced copycat incidents. Below: Lola Design’s Amanda and Frank Mountain, who have been very vocal about copycat designs on Temu are involved in the programme.
The Temu-GCA takedown programme has gained significant ground in stamping on copycats as 57,000 infringing designs have already been removed from the platform. Temu’s recently released IP Protection Annual Report shows how participation with 15 GCA publisher members has resulted in more than 402,000 artworks now being proactively protected. GCA CEO Amanda Fergusson explained the protection supplied by the scheme from the Chinese-based online marketplace means infringements are detected and uploads are refused before customers ever see them, and this is often where card designs are being used on other products. “We’re seeing impressive results from the protection programme that was developed with support from GCA member Emotional Rescue,” said Amanda. “We are delighted to have made a real difference to reducing the theft of members' designs on Temu. Working with Temu has been an involved and, at times, frustrating process, however, we have built understanding through our collaborative approach and the team
at Temu have worked hard to resolve this issue for our members." Fiona Yang of Temu’s IP protection team acknowledges the success of the pilot partnership with the UK Greeting Card Association, recognising that it “represents a vibrant community of creative SMEs and independent designers whose insights and collaboration have helped shape this initiative.” As a result of the work with the GCA and card publishers, Temu is now actively expanding the framework to a broader global network across different product areas. It reveals that over 40% of applications from potential sellers were rejected during the onboarding process for failing to meet the platform’s verification requirements, and over 16,000 stores were terminated for repeated IP violations.
Woody’s Wayzgoose winners Woodmansterne Publications is rightfully proud of its state-of-the-art printing and fulfilment facility in Milton Keynes, but a few weeks ago the publisher paid homage to a centuries old tradition by holding a Wayzgoose for its team. Providing a modern twist on this historic celebration, a Wayzgoose was typically held by master printers for their workmen, originally marking the start of the season when printing was done by candlelight rather than daylight. It is closely associated with St Bartholomew’s Day Below: The three team captains of the Woody also known as Bartholomewtide. Wayzgoose. Woodmansterne’s modern take on this was a ‘school sports day’ with mixed teams from across the business, with some good food and drinks helping things along. “What a day it was!” commented Danielle Rhind-Tutt, personal assistant to the md and head of people at Woodmansterne about the event, which took place in the grounds of Putteridgebury Conference Centre in Luton.
Postmark’s considered expansion continues with its new store (pictured above and below) having recently opened in London’s St Pancras International station complex. This is in addition to Postmark’s shop in the adjacent Kings Cross station concourse, taking the family-owned business, headed up by Mark and Leona Janson-Smith up to 17 stores, with all being in London with the exception of its store in Glasgow. “We have had a phenomenal start,” revealed Mark of its latest addition. “Opening in St Pancras is the closest we have come to being international!” he joked, referencing the proximity to the Eurostar part of the station. “I love feeling part of big historical buildings, with our store in Battersea Power Station being another example.” The new store encompasses Postmark’s curated mixture of greeting cards, stationery and a small collection of gifts. The “better than expected” sales right from the off saw a run on certain products. “We ran out of playing cards on our first day with so many people buying them for their train trips!” said Mark. The store’s selection of tasteful Londoncentric greeting card and stationery products has also proved very popular, and is an area highlighted as ripe for more expansion. “We will be looking to work with publishers and designers develop more bespoke London ranges to retail in our relevant stores to add differentiation for customers,” Mark told PG. The new Postmark store continues a greeting card retailing legacy as the unit was occupied by WHS Travel for its Curi-o-city brand for several years and was a Paperchase shop prior to that.
“We had tug of war, rounders, dodgeball, and handball, with our three teams battling it out for the Wayzgoose trophy. We saw plenty of diving, falling over, some questionable sporting techniques, ripped t-shirts but most importantly, lots of laughter.” The event also raised almost £1,000 for two local chosen charities, the Milton Keynes branch of Little Miracles and Watford Women’s Centre. The Green Team, captained by Rob Kee, production floor manager was crowned the Wayzgoose 2026 champions, with the Orange Team, captained by Ryan Kershaw, external production manager (UK), being the runners-up. Daniel Johnston, production planning manager was captain for the Blue team, which came third.
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OVER THE
COUNTER
BY DAVID ROBERTSON OF JP POZZI, ELGIN AND BUCKIE.
One eye on AI
We are probably living through one of the fastest periods of change retail has ever experienced. Covid and all it brought with it are said to have accelerated the decline of traditional retail and now, with AI and all the new ways to shop we really are living in a constantly changing world. Arguably the important question isn't whether we like all this technology, but whether we're learning how to use it effectively to help us. Most independent retailers can't work any harder or fit many more ideas into the day, so can that monthly subscription to ChatGPT or another AI platform actually pay dividends? The old mantra was ‘do more and work longer’, but working harder has its limits. Anyone who has run an independent shop understands there are only so many hours in the day. We are already answering emails at 10 o'clock at night, coming in on our day off because someone is sick and spending evenings thinking about social content. Quite simply, you eventually run out of hours. Technology, however, has suddenly given small businesses access to tools that only a few years ago would have required extra employees, agencies or expensive software. I can take figures from a spreadsheet and ask AI to analyse them, compare this week's sales with the same week last year and identify which 20 PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
departments are growing or falling. I can give it an idea for a social media post and have several versions produced in seconds, or use it to help draft a staff contract, write a safety policy or simply challenge my own thinking. That doesn't mean I blindly accept what it tells me. Far from it. AI gets things wrong and still needs human judgement, but used properly it can save an enormous amount of time and time is probably the commodity of which most independent retailers have the least. I know a huge number of retailers in the convenience sector and, more than anyone I know, they are embracing AI within their businesses, especially around pricing. In the independent gift and card sector our pricing is still pretty rudimentary as Left: David has put his real brain into action to create a job advert recently, not falling for the AI tricks to get the right person.
Top: With a little bit of help from AI, David Robertson sprouted some hair! Above: AI is put to good use to lure people into competitions on social media.
many of us use the same multipliers we always have while some retailers apply bigger margins because they know they can command them. With a smaller purchase such as a greeting card I doubt people would search to find it cheaper, but with something easily searchable, will your customer type in the name of that diffuser and immediately see how your price compares with an unknown competitor online? It isn't just pricing. Systems can analyse sales patterns, predict stock requirements, show when stores are busiest and identify products that aren't selling. The interesting thing isn't necessarily the technology itself, it is the principle behind it: use information to make better decisions. We might not have 20,000 products or 500 stores, but exactly the same principle applies to an indie card and gift shop. Which card captions are selling, which price points are growing, which suppliers are actually
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OVER THE COUNTER producing our profit and which gifts are selling through quickly? More importantly, which products are sitting looking beautiful on a shelf but haven't actually sold for six months? We independents have traditionally relied heavily on instinct which remains incredibly important in retail, but perhaps the future is instinct plus information. The catch, of course, is that we need the information in the first place and that is where till systems and stock-control management become such a big deal. I have been doing some of the aforementioned by physically counting stock and inputting the information into AI alongside what I bought, the purchase price and retail price. It has highlighted some really key areas Stores of course sometimes need products which serve a different purpose; perhaps to make the shop look ‘wow’ even
Above: David’s son Hudson is certainly someone who appreciates the real appeal of greeting cards.
though it doesn't sell through particularly quickly. A spreadsheet doesn't necessarily understand theatre, which is why human judgement still matters. Another fascinating thing about modern retail is how something completely unrelated to your business can suddenly affect it. Take another hot topic just now: weight-loss drugs. Just think about the consequences. If millions of people start eating less, what happens to supermarkets, restaurants, confectionery companies and convenience stores? If someone buys fewer snacks, drinks less alcohol or changes what they eat, potentially £billions of consumer spending starts moving around. Where does it go instead? Nobody can know exactly how this develops, but that's almost the point. Think too about how quickly trends now appear. A product appears on TikTok and suddenly everyone wants it. It doesn't always need to be the latest viral
Above: Like many indies, David is able to respond quickly to trends and opportunities, such as the recent release of the Gruffalo Granny book.
craze. For example, we have recently built a whole category and display around the new Gruffalo Granny book. Cards, gifts, puzzles, confectionery and plush all sit alongside the book and have given us a good sales boost. Jellycat is another obvious example. What was once simply regarded as a beautiful soft toy company has become something much bigger. Collecting, social media, scarcity, new launches and younger adult customers have transformed the category. The product didn't suddenly become beautifully made, it always was, but the way customers interacted with it changed. Sometimes the next big retail opportunity isn't a new product, it's a new behaviour. The greeting card industry has had to deal with plenty of predictions about its future. We have all heard them: people don't send cards anymore, young people won't buy cards, social media will replace birthdays and WhatsApp will replace Christmas cards. Yet people still walk into our shops every day looking for the right card because sending somebody a message and choosing something specifically for them aren't quite the same thing. That doesn't mean we can ignore changing behaviour. Think about Christmas. We don't send as many cards as we once did and the folk you met on holiday may no longer receive one, but while customers may want fewer cards, they may also want better cards. The new customer may want more personalisation or perhaps wants a physical card precisely Below and right: A giant Jellycat rabbit outside Pozzi as well as an AI interloper inside!
because so much of their life is digital. Our job isn't necessarily to predict exactly what will happen; it is to notice when it starts happening and jump on it quickly. This is one area in which independent retailers sometimes underestimate themselves. We spend a lot of time talking about the advantages the big boys have: buying power, technology, marketing budgets and huge amounts of customer data. All true, of course, but we have something they would dearly love — speed. An independent can have a conversation on Monday and have something new in the window by Tuesday. That is an extraordinary advantage, but only if we use it. Working smarter isn't simply about adding technology either. Sometimes it means removing things and making brave decisions. One of the dangers of running a business for a long time however is that you accumulate ways of doing things. There is also a lovely irony in all this technology because the more automated the world becomes, the more valuable genuine human experiences may become. AI can generate a beautiful photograph of a shop and analyse which birthday cards are selling, but it can't welcome Mrs Smith when she comes through the door and remember her grandson is turning five. That is what independent retail does brilliantly. Perhaps the answer isn't humans versus technology at all, but using technology to give humans more time to do the things humans are actually good at. Five years from now there will almost certainly be products, technologies and consumer behaviours we're not discussing today. The trick isn't predicting every one of them, it is building a business resilient and capable enough to react when they arrive. We need to remain curious because I don't think the winners in the next decade of retail will necessarily be the businesses with the most shops, the biggest buying power or even the best technology. They might simply be the businesses that learn the fastest. And if AI wants to generate a picture of a six-foot rabbit welcoming people to Pozzi while we're doing it, I'm quite happy to let it. l To contact David email: jppozzi@btconnect.com PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE 21
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cardsharp
POSTAL ‘HAMMER’ BLOW We in the greeting card industry are so dependent on an organisation on which we have so little control. Cardsharp is of course referring to Royal Mail. And at the moment it is not serving us very well. A few weeks ago the issue of Royal Mail’s performance (or lack of it!) actually made it Prime Minister’s Question Time in what was one of Andy Burnham’s first performances in front of the despatch box.
A recent release of performance figures revealed that only 75% of First Class post arrived next day against a requirement of 93% and Royal Mail was fined £37 million for missing targets. Meanwhile its chief executive saw his salary triple to £7.3 million. Encouragingly, in the second week of September, in the Prime Minister’s Question Time the Member of Parliament Left: Countless pieces of mail have not been delivered in timely fashion by Royal Mail.
22 PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
Top: For all his £billions, the jury is still out on Daniel Kretinsky’s true intentions with West Ham FC and Royal Mail. Above: Royal Mail’s performance made it into Andy Burnham’s second ever Prime Minster’s Question Time in the House of Commons.
for Nantwich and Crewe, Connor Naismith, accused Royal Mail of not carrying out the recent Select Committee’s report's recommendation that it was failing to provide a basic service and that the management was failing in its obligations to provide a universal service. Also that consumers waiting on medical notifications and County Court judgements were being let down. Connor could have also added greeting cards not arriving to that list. This was an easy ball for PM Burnham, who having lavished praise on the Communication Workers Union, reiterated that Royal Mail’s service is just not good enough. We can all cite personal examples of
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Royal Mail’s ineptitude. One egregious example was that at last month’s Autumn Fair, the post box at the National Exhibition Centre was so packed with letters and cards that nothing else would go in. The estimation was that it had not been emptied for weeks! How many birthday, wedding and anniversary cards were stuck in there, obviously missing their due date? Royal Mail is now under the control of a certain Daniel Kretinsky as the major shareholder. However, many readers will not be as familiar as Cardsharp with his other major shareholding in the UK, namely his large stake in Cardsharp’s beloved West Ham, otherwise known as The Hammers or The Irons. And those in West Ham’s huge fanbase (although relegated to the second tier last season, its average attendance is only surpassed by Manchester United in the Premier League) far from enamoured with him. In fact, Kretinsky’s Machiavellian manoeuvres as coowner of the club reveal an amoral and unscrupulous nature that does not bode well for the Royal Mail’s future. As a fanatical Hammer, Cardsharp is more involved in the intricacies of the developments than the average cardie, but Kretinsky’s action's reveal a lot about the man who has been dubbed the 'Czech Sphinx’ because of his inscrutable nature. Recently David Sullivan, the cochairman of West Ham, a position he held along with along with Kretinsky, resigned his position in the wake of a high profile TV documentary that had seven women accusing him of sexually exploitative and predatory behaviour. Without wishing to go into too much detail, this comes after Vanessa Gold, owner of the Ann Summers sex toys and lingerie chain, put her 25% shareholding up for sale. Kretinsky then entered into an unholy alliance with Sullivan to keep out the interest of the business woman and part ex-owner of Newcastle United, Amanda Stavely. After some complex shenanigans, rather than getting kicked
Left: It has not been all smiles at West Ham FC on the shareholder front.
out as decency would demand, Sullivan has emerged with his shareholding increased from 25% to 42%. Sullivan is universally despised and hated by The Hammers’ fan base, so Kretinsky’s actions in aiding and abetting and keeping out Stavely (who would have been a popular choice), has meant that he generally lost the trust of the vast majority of Hammers’ fans. Sullivan, thanks to Kretinsky, has Right: Daniel Kretinsky siding with David Sullivan has blocked the way for respected football entrepreneur Amanda Stavely. Below: The chat is that Daniel Kretinsky only bought West Ham FC so he would have chance to convert the stadium site into a residential development.
strengthened his position. In addition, there is a strong suspicion that Kretinsky has only got involved with West Ham to eventually pick up ownership of the Olympic stadium, which was built with public money, on the cheap, to develop the vast area for residential property for a huge profit. As with his involvement with West Ham, Cardsharp can’t help thinking that for all of Kretinsky’s talk about improving performance at Royal Mail, his intentions are not as clear cut as that. The cynical side of Cardsharp, based on Kretinsky’s involvement with West Ham and indeed some of his other businesses, is that he would not be too unhappy to see the trust in the postal service fall further, eroding postal revenues, so he can force the case for ditching the Universal Service Obligation. This would leave him free to concentrate on the more profitable parcel business. Is Cardsharp being over cynical and pessimistic? Perhaps, but if his actions at West Ham are anything to go by, Cardsharp is not so sure. It will need constant vigilance by the government and the Greeting Card Association to make sure this scenario does not materialise. Time to push some more MPs to speak up at Prime Minister’s Question Time, thinks Cardsharp.
PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE 23
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VIEWPOINTS Below: Christmas comes but once a year, let’s hope it is a good one!
Christmas Tingles With the nostalgic trend at an all-time high, does this mean Christmas trade be like the good old days?! John Lewis has certainly opened its Christmas Shop full of festive cheer, reporting that charity Christmas card searches were up 75%, gift wrap searches were fivefold what they were in 2025 and Christmas cracker sales were already 25% up. PG canvassed the strength of the Christmas tingles of a selection box of retailers who attended the recent GCA AGM and Conference.
John Procter, co-founder of Scribbler “Is Christmas Day on December 25th this year? As long as that is a definite, I predict Christmas trade will happen! I really believe that Christmas card sales will be really strong this year, for Scribbler at least. We’ve already had a big pick up of cards at the upper price points which bodes well and continues a trend of the last few years. We have had a super strong year on gift packaging so far and see no reason this will not continue with Christmas trade. If only Royal Mail saw wisdom in introducing a discounted stamp for Christmas card sending it would have such a positive effect on people communicating at this important time.” Above: John and Jennie Procter, cofounders of Scribbler. Right: A Scribbler Instagram post heralding the playing of Christmas music!
Sally Matson, owner of Red Card and Little Red in Petworth “Given the economy, if we can match last year’s Christmas trade, I will be pleased – and I am feeling confident that we can. We are planning to put out our Advents shortly with our main Christmas card selection following during October with giftwrappings soon after. Above: A Primrose Hill design from I am blown away by the Cinnamon Aitch, one of the publishers Sally feels has excelled on magnificence of some of the the Christmas card front this year. ranges this year, notably from Cinnamon Aitch and Caroline Gardner. I do get a sense that the pattern of customers spending more on individual cards rather than packs will continue this year. Our customers respond positively to higher added value cards so I have bought accordingly. My big hope is that after a super dry summer that we don’t have a super wet winter as that would definitely dampen Christmas sales!”
Above: Enjoying the Woodmansterne drinks party the evening before the GCA Conference. (Clockwise from bottom right) Sally Matson (Red Card/Little Red), Jakki Brown (PG), David Falkner (Cardology), Sarah Laker (Stationery Supplier), Vanessa Harnik (Notes & Queries), Heidi Early (Earlybird) and Lizzie Parker (Penguin Ink).
Cydney Ball, buying manager of John Lewis “With greeting card sales having held up well so far this year I feel positive about this continuing. A significant number of people only shop with us at Christmas and with our Christmas shop having just opened we have looked to create a magical environment. Christmas and Christmas card sending ties in beautifully with the popularity for all things nostalgic. There has been a massive trend back to the analogue – from pastimes, vinyls, cassettes, we even have Christmas baubles based on retro mix tapes. Christmas is all about connecting and the sending of Christmas cards and giving of gifts are very much part of that, as our Gifting strategy this year plays into.” Above: John Lewis’ Cydney Ball, who spoke at the GCA Conference, believes the nostalgic pull and gravitation to all things analogue bodes well for Christmas card trade this year. Right: A selection of Christmas baubles based on retro mix tapes feature in John Lewis’ nostalgic line up this year.
PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE 25
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VIEWPOINTS
Mark Rees, owner of Henry & Co, eight card and gift shops in the Midlands “I get a feeling that Christmas trade this year will be OK for us. Our suppliers have enabled us to create a brilliant product selection to tempt our customers. Plus, when times feel tough, as they do currently, people want to celebrate at Christmas. No doubt all of us in the trade will get very panicky about sales not being where we would like them to be, then we will pin our hopes on ‘the extra day’ in the Christmas week, and then as we shut the doors on December 24, we will all breathe a massive sigh of relief. It is ever thus… Happy Christmas!” Above: Mark’s shops’ Christmas selection include Henry & Co’s fragranced products. Right: Henry & Co’s Mark Rees (left) with Wendy Jones-Blackett and Miles Robinson, co-founder of House of Cards.
Hazel Walker, buying manager of Waterstones “Our everyday sales have been strong and the Spring Seasons mostly beat our plan so we are hoping Christmas will go the same way. Non-book sales represent 10% of our sales and cards account for a quarter of all those sales, so they are hugely important to us and we are keen to continue growing in the sector. As the high street evolves we are expanding with the opportunities, be it in number of stores – we have opened half a Above left: Waterstones’ Hazel Walker dozen already this year with another 10(right) with Belly Button Designs’ 12 hopefully opening in time for Rachel Hare. Below: One of the two designs in the Christmas – and by broadening our Charlie Macksey Christmas box, which is exclusive to Waterstones. selections. For example we are trialling relations cards in 60 stores and have lots of refits planned in which cards will hopefully feature prominently. On the Christmas card front, we are especially excited by an exclusive collab with Charlie Macksey as well as our other bespoke boxes to raise funds for Book Trust.”
Miles Robinson, co-owner of House of Cards.com
Above: A Foxwood Tales Advent calendar from The Porch Fairies which is selling online from House of Cards.com
“Christmas trade will happen, but it will be a challenge and come together very late. The public will spend money, but it won’t be a record breaker, nor a disaster. So far on our website, sales of calendars and Advents have been very
Left: There has been a surge in interest in the RNLI charity Christmas cards from Woodmansterne.
strong and sales of Christmas card packs have been good, which I take as positive signals. Notably, we have experienced a surge in sales of RNLI charity Christmas card boxes, which I can only assume is a public backlash of support following the protests against the lifeboat team receiving abuse for saving refugees’ lives. Who would have thought this would have a knock-on effect on Christmas card buying?!”
Kaye Thurgood, owner of Sincerely Yours in Hornchurch and Shenfield “We put out our Christmas boxes and packs out in the last week of September, largely as customers have been asking for them. Our single Christmas cards go on sale at the beginning of October. I have cut down on my quantities of smaller charity packs as they no longer have the perceived value for our customers. Conversely, I have really ramped up on the Above: Kaye Thurgood with the larger cards that they are prepared to pay for. Conference agenda card. I have also trebled my orders of singly Right: Kaye has tripled her single boxed Christmas card boxed cards for Christmas, with ICG, Ling orders, which includes Ling Design, which has recently Design and Nigel Quiney Publications launched into this product area. coming up trumps on this front. We have seen really strong everyday greeting card sales this year, particularly in September, and my hunch is that we are in for a good Christmas trade.
The public are fed up with doom and gloom and see Christmas as delivering the feelgood factor everyone is craving, and buying and sending cards is very much part of that. While we steer clear of politics in the shops, I do get a sense that more important than Andy Burnham’s appointment as Prime Minister as adding a sense of hope for the nation it was the departure of Rachel Reeves as Chancellor that has made people feel a bit happier about the future economy. Looking broader, I can’t remember the last time any customer complained about the cost of a card, after all they are cheaper than the average cup of takeaway coffee, so that is no longer an obstacle to card buying, be it for everyday, occasions or Christmas.” PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE 27
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STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
Inset: Jon shared not only macro trends, but those specific to greeting card buying. Like the graph (pictured left) showing that over the last year, greeting card sales have risen up the ranks, beating many other consumer products.
FACING THE FACTS The Bayeux Tapestry wasn’t the only ‘big picture’ that piqued interest last month. While the ancient 70ft embroidery enthralled at the British Museum, up in Milton Keynes’ Unity Place at the GCA Conference and AGM, Jon Hendy, business unit director of Kantar/Numerator delivered a tapestry of modern day tallies that collectively wove an arrow sharp scene of the public’s buying habits and how greeting cards are faring in the battle for consumer spending.
machinations of the collective consumer purse. Setting the scene by looking at the broader picture of life in the UK today, he acknowledged that “we were hoping for a bit of stability, but I suppose with Trump in the White House and fuel prices rising, that is difficult to get. In the UK, we've got a little bit of political instability, although we
Drawing on every purchase 60,000 members of the public make each and every day enables Numerator, part of research giant Kantar, to build a very real and trackable picture of what shoppers are spending their money on and where.
Below left: The good news is that all consumer groups, apart from low spenders (due to their lack of disposable income) are increasing their spend on greeting cards. Below: According to Numerator’s research, John Lewis, Clintons, Etsy, Thortful, Moonpig and independents are where the UK’s Mega Spenders (the top 25% UK spenders) are more likely to buy their greeting cards. (The size of the font in the graphic is proportional to their spend).
28 PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
Back by popular demand to present at the recent GCA Conference, Jon Hendy proved yet again that he is certainly a handy man to know for his ability to translate the data from those shopping receipts into invaluable insights about the
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STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
have seen a confidence boost with Andy Burnham coming in as Prime Minister, while the Ukraine war continues. This all means there is a general level of uncertainty as we move forward.” Encouragingly though, against this backdrop there is an improvement in how the general population is coping financially. There has been uptick in those who describe themselves to Kantar as “managing” okay as well as those who are “comfortable”, while a dip in those who say they are “struggling”. That said, 61% are still saying they are “struggling” or just “managing”. “But it is an improvement, signalling that the population is moving in the right direction,” points out Jon. Drilling down into what people are buying, Jon highlights that people are buying more items than they were a year ago, mainly though on the essentials of groceries and fuel. He also cites how more of a concentration on these ‘essentials’ and a decline of spend of discretionary items (notably fashion) has seen bricks and mortar retailers benefit at the expense of online purchases, which is good news for the card sector.
Above: Numerator’s business unit director Jon Hendy is a handy man to know if you need statistical context of consumer buying habits.
Sharing even better news on the card front, Jon relayed how the last year has seen greeting cards hold their own at a time when consumers have shunned other product purchases, such as electronics and DIY items. He shared a chart which
showed how in the last month, greeting card purchases have held their own through being deemed as more important than say eating out, cosmetics, homeware and fashion, areas where the public have to cut back on. Arguably the most encouraging data Jon shared ratifies that greeting card buying is on the up among Gen Z and Millennials. He also showed an uplift on the card front from consumers (across all ages) who rank as mega spenders, heavy spenders and medium spenders, while on the downside there has been a bit of a dip in terms of spend from the older generations and those in the lower spenders bracket. Jon urged the importance of the industry pulling together to ensure that greeting cards remain in “the essential bracket” as that will protect their sales from periods of low confidence. “It will become a routine purchase because people use cards a lot, and as we saw last year, they are more popular than tea and toothpaste, and also a card is a relatively cheap product, so therefore it should have good resilience within the marketplace,” he believes, which is better than one in the eye with a sharp arrow!
Market forces at work
Being a member of the GCA brings many benefits, one of which is having access to the annual UK Greeting Card Market Report, which is sold to non-members for £750. Ashton Duckitt, UKG’s strategic account director shared snippets from this invaluable benchmark research into the value and volume of single greeting cards at the recent Conference, with the full report available for GCA members to download from the association’s website. As Ashton summed up: “Despite economic uncertainty and the cost of living pressures, ours remains a resilient, highly valued market. The market generated £1.51billion of sales, only 0.9% lower than in 2024. Everyday cards, the foundation of this, accounted for £1.17billion of this, down only 1.4%, Spring Seasons sales were broadly stable, sales of Christmas singles grew 2.2% and the average retail price of a greeting card rose from £1.95 to £2.”
Above: The results of the recent GCA Market Report reinforce the resilience of the UK greeting card sector. Above: While Spring Seasons card sales as a whole dipped very slightly, sales of Mother’s Day cards were up in the last year.
Inset: GCA Council member Ashton Duckitt, UKG’s strategic account director presented the GCA UK Greeting Card Market Report at the recent GCA Conference and AGM.
PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE 29
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TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT
“You have to do your homework. You have to know the market. You have to know my shop and my name. You have to make sure that your product fits with its pricing. It's got to tick all the boxes. It's got to follow all the industry standards, and then it's got to have something special that I don't already stock,” was the quickfire answer from pocket rocket retailer Sally Matson of Red Card and Little Red in Petworth when asked at the recent GCA Conference and AGM to give a piece of advice for would-be suppliers wanting to be stocked in her shops. PG was all ears for the retailer panel session hosted by Mark Callaby, co-founder of Ohh Deer which saw Hazel Walker, buying manager of Waterstones; Tesco’s buying and merchandising manager Ross Lasseter and everyday card buying manager Tanya Rounding; Louise Cambridge, card buyer for Stamp/UOE and Red Card’s Sally Matson tell publishers what they wanted from them. So, how’s trade? Hazel: “Trade is good. We've seen continuous growth on cards throughout the year. Our Spring Seasons did really well and we’re Above: HAZEL WALKER, buying hoping Christmas manager for non-book products from will go the same Waterstones, which way. And we’re operates from over 300 locations, and also own hopefully opening Hatchards, Foyles, and Blackwells. Some 10% another 10 stores of all Waterstones’ sales are non-book related, between now and and a quarter of those Christmas.” purchases contain a greeting card. Ross: “Overall Tesco is having a great time. Obviously, the weather has been fantastic over the last 12 weeks so lots of people have been buying
barbecue food, booze, ice creams, which is great. Not so great though from a greeting card point of view as sales have been slightly slower, but we are seeing some green shoots. Christmas launched a couple of weeks ago and we're seeing some really good sales from that.” Louise: “We have pretty high footfall, but it's tough out there. We do have four new stores opening between now and the end of the year, so that will give us some good growth.” Sally: “Sales at Red Card and Little Red are doing very well. At the start of this year I put 40% more greeting cards into Red Card so right now it is as full of greeting cards as it will ever be. Little Red, which opened two years ago, is a more specialist sort of shop, but I increased the card offering in there as well and it's going very well.”
If a publisher wanted to get their cards stocked in your shops, how do they get your attention without annoying you? And how long does the process normally take to get cards into your shops? Sally: “I'm a very quick buyer, and a very honest buyer. If I do like something, I tend to order on the spot, and I do it very quickly. I love Above: SALLY MATSON trade shows and opened Red Card in 2012 and is celebrating two place a lot of years since opening Little Red in the same town. orders, in fact She works with over 170 suppliers, the bulk of they are where I which are greeting card companies. s contain a do the bulk of my greeting card. buying. If you PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE 31
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want to get my attention and there's not a trade show happening, or you're not exhibiting at a trade show, you need to know my shop and you need to know who I am because we all buy it differently, and our shops all stock different cards. If you send me a letter or an email that says, ‘Hello, shopkeeper, I've seen your shop, and I think we'd be a great match’, I just think you don't know my name so you obviously don't know my shop. The best way really to get to me is to send me one card sample with an introductory letter that says, ‘Hi, Sally. I'd really like you to stock our cards. Here's an example. You can see our range online’.” Louise: “I echo Sally’s views on this. We can be quite flexible getting suppliers set up our system quickly. It is about getting my attention, either at a trade show and following up proactively, but understand our business. Have a look at who we are, what our look is and if you would fit.” Tanya: “Without stating the obvious of just putting all of your beautiful products in front of me, it's all about getting our attention and Above: TANYA sharing the ROUNDING is the everyday card buying knowledge behind manager of Tesco. Approximately 40% of all your pitch. So, go Tesco shoppers buy greeting cards in the into our stores, store, making them one of the highest volume look at our ranges, greeting card identify key trends destinations in the UK.. or areas which you feel that we are missing, tailor your products and ranges to fill that gap and bring excitement with innovation and new ways in which we can differentiate ourselves from the competition. As a buyer, I'm really looking to you as the experts to really show us what we need to be buying.” Ross: “From an operational point of view, we're probably slightly more complex. We are partnered with UK Greetings and so there are three main ways in which you could get your products into Tesco. One is to sign up to the brokerage model through UK Greetings. Another would be to sell some of your designs to UK Greetings if you weren't confident of being able to service such a vast number of stores, and then the third way would be to licence your product to one of the publishers that are already within the brokerage model. In terms of timelines, we work a very long way in advance, probably at least a year in most instances, but we do have some other ways for you to get into stores. For more trendbased products we can get that in quicker, and we also do pocket swaps on a regular 32 PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
Above: Louise Cambridge sharing her views.
basis. So if there's something that's going to outperform something we've already got in range, we can probably switch it within a month. To summarise, it could take anywhere between a month and 18 months to get a product into a Tesco store.” Hazel: “Initially, it would be sending an email to myself or my colleague Megan Douglas with a PDF of your catalogue or a link to your website, and then we'll take a look. We do try and get back to people, but the reality is we can't respond to everyone's emails. We're likely to come back to you if a product is not right for us, but if it is right, we will keep you on our radar. We might ask for samples to be sent in or will look out for your cards at trade shows, or other events that you go to. In terms of time, as Tim from Objectables knows, it can take years. It took Tim seven years to get his cards into our stores. So just have patience, if you don't get in straightway, it's not necessarily a “no” forever. It might be that we've got somebody doing that ‘job’ already, or that we love your cards, but they're just not right for our customer, but do still keep the conversation going and keep trying.” What are you looking for product wise right now? Hazel: “I mentioned when I presented last year about the trend for mythical witchy stuff. It is now moved on to a more romantasy vibe that we're seeing a lot of coming through. As to what we would like more of, new humour is always good to see. There's not a shortage of cat cards out there, but we do very well with cats, but we have to limit ourselves on how many we buy! On trends, nostalgic licences such as Snoopy, Aardman, Brambly Hedge and Wind in the Willows are doing well.” Tanya: “The biggie we're looking at right now is Christmas. So, Christmas trend is really key. However, as our business is very large and we cover a very broad customer base, this means we have to have a very broad range of cards to cover all voices for all customers. So, we're always looking at that
new innovation while exclusivity can really help in offering differentiation as well as value for money.” Louise: “Well, I'm still looking for Spring Seasons. And also, picking up on those care and connection sends.” Sally: “I am always on the lookout for teenage cards; cards for parents and grandparents of teenagers to buy that are on trend. The teenager trends change so quickly and we always want to reassure the people that are buying the cards that they reflect what teenagers are into at the moment. The other thing I've been discussing today is the idea of a card as gift. My key customers are affluent 50-90 year olds. I have a lot of customers that spend a lot of money on cards. For example I sell a huge amount of concertina cards for £5.95 and a lot of Ohh Deer’s beautiful diorama cards because there is a lot of ‘card gifting’. Customers buy them because they know they will be kept, put in the bedroom or on the mantelpiece, so these more expensive cards have become a big part of what I'm offering.” Where do you find new products from both your existing and new publishers? If you are going to trade shows, what are your favourite shows? Sally: “I do a lot of buying at trade shows and I probably find most of my new ranges at trade shows. I also look at other shops. I do look on Faire for Little Red because it's a little boutique shop and the card offering needs to reflect that, rather than being one of 20,000 cards in my larger shop. Without a doubt my favourite trade show for cards is Progressive Greetings Live. I've just been to Maison et Objet for the first time, which was fabulous. I love Harrogate because it's a summer show. I tend to go to most of the trade shows in the UK because I like the vibe, seeing all you guys, and that's where you find new product.” Louise: “In terms of trade shows, PG Live and Top Drawer Spring and Autumn have Below: Sally Matson (left) with Rosie Harrison, founder of Rosie Made A Thing at the recent PG Live.
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together. You don't get your steps up, but it's great, and there's always such wonderful energy at the show.” Hazel: “PG Live is the best trade show for us. Top Drawer is also good timing-wise because we refresh our everyday range four times a year. We also use Instagram to see whatever what's going on out there.”
Above: (Left-right) Waterstones’ Megan Douglas, Hazel Walker and Megan Hoslett with ArtPress’ Anne Viney and Katy Golden at PG Live in June.
been good. We don't buy directly at trade shows, but they are where I connect with our existing suppliers as well as meet new suppliers and potential new suppliers. I always look on PG Buzz, StationeryNews.net and in Progressive Greetings magazine, reading the feedback from other retailers on what ranges they do well with. I had the opportunity to be a Dragon at the GCA Dragons’ Den Speed Dating event which was amazing - 12 one-toone meetings and I came home with all participating publishers' samples that were really great. And last year I was a Henries judge for the first time which is great exposure to publishers. I did the online judging as well as the in-person judging which meant I physically saw and touched the cards which was invaluable.” Sally: “I always come away with new card publishers from judging The Henries, so please enter because what you've got is well over 50 judges looking at your cards against others in the same category. So, we're seeing everything that's the best in that sector next to each other with no pressure to buy because you're not standing beside us at a trade stand. I always come away with new publishers from judging The Henries.” Ross: “Our focus a lot of the time is on our core everyday range and core customer, and for that, we've got a core group of publishers that we use for most of our products. So, most of the newness we see is presented by those publishers on a regular basis. So that's great. That being said, we're always looking for something to differentiate ourselves. So we do get involved with The Henries judging and we do the Dragons’ Den Speed Dating. We also look at what competitors are doing, independents and multiples, to make sure that we're not missing out on any great product. In terms of trade shows, while we don't order at trade shows, it's a great opportunity for us to meet people and catch up with the publishers that we work with really well. PG Live is our favourite because everyone's so close
What makes a publisher easy to work with, and what mistakes are publishers making that are turning you off? Hazel: “Have a good variety. So, have everyday, occasions, relations and seasonal designs, because we want the relationship to have longevity. We don't want to just buy six card designs from you, put them on sale, and then in three months' time when we need to refresh we have something to choose from. We need to know that it’s a range that's going to go somewhere so we can keep building on it. Once you become a supplier, it's about being organised with your communication. So, respond to our emails, give us the right barcodes etc.” Ross: “On the ‘what puts us off’ is probably just taking a broadbrush approach and trying to push too many products and too many Above: ROSS ranges at the LASSETER, the buying and merchandising same time. What manager of Tesco which operates from over we're really 3,000 locations across the UK, has over 23 looking for is a million active card users. supplier who has identified a gap in our range through looking in the store and then proposing something that fits that bill, rather than us being swamped by everyone sending us hundreds and hundreds of cards. It's just easier if it's more focused.” Tanya: “Proactivity is key for us. If you are a supplier with us, test your products, rank them, so you can show us what is doing Below: Hazel Walker in full flow.
really well, thereby giving us confidence. Also put in meetings before range change selections, just so you can show us your ranges beforehand meaning we can view a more condensed range rather than having a scattergun approach of a sea of cards in one go.” Louise: “I think definitely it's building the relationship and seeing the longterm opportunity. We're a business in growth, and there's lots of change coming within our Above: LOUISE business. So, CAMBRIDGE is the greeting card buyer of things like SOR Stamp/UOE which now operates from over 40 have become locations. more important to us. Data is really important so when we ask for the data it needs to be accurate and the descriptions are clear.” Sally: “I have a very small buying team; it's just me. So, the things that are important when I'm buying are sensible minimum orders, sensible carriage paid, clear invoices. It really helps if they're emailed prior to delivery, so that we can be all set up for pricing and getting the stock out. Having to wait for an invoice is a pain in the butt, and companies who are set up with fulfilment, whereby the invoice is only emailed once the product has left the warehouse, that's a bit frustrating because we want to get the product out on the shelves as soon as the box arrives. Delivery notifications are helpful eg ‘your parcel is going to arrive sometime today from X’. I really don’t like short deliveries. You said you're going to fulfil. You haven't, and I really want them. If I go to a trade show or if I'm buying from an agent, in my head I have a picture of my shelving and I'm buying nine cards from a range so that I can put them on the slat wall and have three rows of three, so then if my order arrives and four of those designs are out of stock, it doesn't work. I don't want any of them. I don't want the five that are in stock because my display that I've planned is not going to happen. For us small indies, when we order stuff, it's because we've got space for it. We want to have it in the shop, so you need to make sure that you communicate effectively with us on product availability, how long things are going to take, and what you're actually going to supply us compared with what we've ordered.” PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE 33
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A selection of new products that have been launched recently.
New Dawning Ling Design has unveiled its January 2027 catalogue for pre-sell. It comprises 200 designs, spanning a number of new collections as well as additions to several of its bestselling ranges, including further expansions to its humorous cards offering. Ling Design 01892 838574 www.lingdesign.co.uk
Catch The Tube Kali Stileman Publishing has been getting ever more creative with its giftwrap collection. Among the latest introductions is one featuring paint tubes, inspired by Kali’s favourite medium, her trusty oil paints that are found in every corner of the studio! Kali Stileman Publishing 07344707167 www.kalistileman.co.uk
Tail Wagging Off The Leash is Dandelion’s new doginspired card range, including depictions of Obi, designer Meg’s pooch. The 12 designs are packed with canine charm, questionable behaviour and irresistible faces you just can’t stay mad at because sometimes, all it takes is a waggy tail, a silly grin and a little four-legged chaos to brighten someone’s day. Dandelion Stationery 01332 504940 www.dandelionstationery.co.uk
Paint The Town Pink Pig has launched an Add Your Town Christmas card range. There are over 20 designs available, all featuring pretty festive backgrounds combined with cute colourful characters, as well as a Scottishthemed range. All 150mm square, they come with an eko kraft envelope, available naked, with eko clasp, or cello wrapped. Pink Pig Cards 07795 574548 www.pinkpigcards.co.uk
Have A Heart Among the newness from White Cotton Cards is its Heart Shaped collection. Printed on a shimmering board, designs cover Valentine’s, Mother’s Day, wedding, anniversary, engagement as well as general birthday with each featuring a diecut heart shape top. White Cotton Cards 07909 911229 www.whitecottoncards.co.uk
Spice It Up Nutmeg is just one of several new ranges from Happy Street. The 12 card designs, all 105mm x150mm, feature soft earthy nature-inspired illustrations with a cinnamon, buff and peachy colour palette coming to the fore. Happy Street 07956 680935 www.happystreetcards.co.uk
PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
35
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A selection of new products that have been launched recently.
Added Dimensions On a mission to make Christmas even more enchanting, Santoro has augmented its award-winning 3D Pop Up collection with new designs. Blending intricate paper engineering with nostalgic festive storytelling, the Festive Carousel Swing Card and Christmas Toys Pirouette are among the new festive keepsakes. Santoro 0208 7811104 www.santorotrade.com
Gallery Glory
Musical Notes
ArtPress has worked closely with The National Gallery to curate a range of Christmas cards that features a prestigious roll call of artists including Fra Angelico, Sandro Botticelli and Fra Filippo Lippi. The collection spans 22 Christmas card wallets, each containing 10 cards featuring a single design. ArtPress Publishing 020 7231 2923 www.art-press.co.uk
Ornament Art has created Flashbacks, a range of original words and sentiments cards that really turn up the volume. Using the publisher’s signature retro-inspired, photo art style and bold, contemporary colour the designs borrow well-known pop lyrics to deliver some catchy greetings. Ornament Art 07971 704650 www.ornament.art
Inky Fingers All Loved Up
New from Paper Rose is Bloom & Ink, a range of eye-catching designs that blend loose, hand-drawn inky illustrations with striking splashes of colour. Each card features multilevel embossing that gives the artwork real depth, while a warm, textured copper foil adds a stunning metallic shine. Paper Rose 0115 986 0115 www.paperrose.co.uk
Not Today Tuesday has launched its Romantic Lace and Love Larder collections. Romantic Lace features floral designs, enhanced by gold foil detailing and sentimental messages while Love Larder (pictured) is a collection of foodthemed designs with witty puns and shimmering gold foil. Not Today Tuesday hello@nottodaytuesday.com www.NotTodayTuesday.com
Chapter And Verse Inspired by book classics, Ohh Deer has launched its Literary 3D Card Collection. From the whimsical world of Alice in Wonderland to the romance of Pride and Prejudice, each multi-layered card features a realistic spine on one side and ‘pages’ on the other. Ohh Deer 01509 649478 www.ohhdeer.com
PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
37
Available in store and online
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A selection of new products that have been launched recently.
Words Paint Pictures The Painter’s Palette from UK Greetings encompasses designs that combine traditional iconography with heartfelt rhyming verses. The collection includes designs which span various degrees of closeness, from Mum and Wife sends through to birthday messages. UK Greetings 01924 465200 www.ukgreetings.co.uk
Time Of Life Menopause Mayhem is Sabivo Design’s newest capsule range, which explores a period in a woman’s life, marked by dramatic changes in her body, the peri/menopause. The humorous cards have a clean contemporary look, combining typographic style with linedrawn icons. The 145mm square cards are supplied with brown kraft envelopes and come wrapped in cello bags. Sabivo Design 01858 683 278 www.sabivo.co.uk
In The Pink
Golden Moments
Stormy Knight is expanding its Rosie Pink range with some brand-new Valentine’s Day cards. This marks the publisher’s third drop of designs from its collaboration with Rosie, whose bright, cheerful illustrations are bursting with positivity and cuteness. Each design is finished with gold foil and comes paired with a GF Smith Callisto pearl envelope. Stormy Knight 01924 465200 www.stormyknight.co.uk
Apple & Clover has recently unveiled Monochrome, a striking extension of its bestselling Reflections Collection. The range combines a classic cream-andblack colour palette with timeless glamour, elevated by embossed gold foil detailing and finished with a luxurious gold-foiled envelope. The cards measure 133mm x 184mm. Apple and Clover 07790 900976 www.appleandclover.com
On The Edge Poet and Painter has recently unleashed 30 new designs, including a stash of occasions cards, into its Sketchy Collection. All 105mm x 148mm, the Sketchy cards all feature a scallop shaped edging. They are supplied with a coral blue envelope either nested, with a branded eco-clasp or in a recyclable self-seal poly bag. Poet and Painter 01225 690067 www.poetandpainter.co.uk
Characterful Display Following the positive reaction to its FSDUs at PG Live, Cardology has launched a new range of countertop display units for indies. Available initially across its Battersea and Original Stormtrooper collections, the CDUs bring together coordinated greeting cards, stationery and gift products. Cardology 07710499970 www.cardology.co.uk PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE 39
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CARE AND CONNECTION
Inset: Sarah Jane Porter captivated the audience at the GCA Conference and AGM with her talk.
A SHIFT OF TONE “We started our work on Care & Connection with one question: If relevancy is at the heart of a sustainable future for greeting cards, how do we ensure our cards remain relevant to both existing and future customers? In a world that is ever-changing, it is imperative that greeting cards reflect life’s connecting moments,” began a thoughtprovoking talk by Sarah Jane Porter, Moonpig’s head of greeting cards and GCA Council member who is spearheading the association’s Diversity & Inclusive Committee. While this starting point may have sounded something akin to a set piece reminder for publishers that is trotted out at regular creative meetings, SJ’s ensuing presentation really hit home as to how the industry really needs to reassess how it is approaching the new challenges people are facing. Not only that but to further facilitate card senders to show that they care while not feeling burdened with the need to have a magic solution, as well as making it easier to find these cards instore by retailers tweaking selections and display graphics. SJ is no stranger to confronting historic practice and then acting on it. A few years ago she led the GCA/Moonpig workshop with Winstons Wish, the children’s bereavement charity, which saw publishers listen to how the industry was falling short in delivering cards catering for these youngsters experiencing loss of a parent or those close to them. The penny dropped with several participating publishers as the charity’s young 40 PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
ambassadors relayed how the word ‘sympathy’ on a card just didn’t resonate, how they didn’t understand the word ‘condolences’, but also how they would have loved to have received cards that effectively gave them a hug. Raspberry Blossom and Earlybird are two prime examples of how they turned the learnings of that Winstons Wish workshop and resultant guidelines into specific card ranges – with Raspberry Blossom’s Healing Hugs collection going on to clinch a Henries award last year. The results of SJ’s recent talk at the Conference is likely to be even more far reaching as it is not confined to the Below: Annabel was one of the Winstons Wish Young Ambassadors who didn’t hold back in their criticism at the GCA/Moonpig workshop of how many of the current sympathy cards on offer being inappropriate for their loss.
‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ is often the appropriate validation to continue to do things the way they have always been done for years. However, that doesn’t ring true in all cases, including for an important communication product whose remit is to get right to the heart and soul of a society that is somewhat fractured, suffering and in need of a hug – namely supportive and reassuring greeting cards. In her speech at the recent GCA Conference and AGM, Moonpig’s Sarah Jane Porter, who heads up the association’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee, jolted the minds of the attending publishers and retailers with a call for a rethink on our industry’s approach to care and connection greeting cards. devastation a death of a close relative can cause, but recognises grief in its many guises – from miscarriage to loss of a pet, breakdown of a relationship, unexpected redundancy or business failure. And it is not just rethinking the ‘sympathy’ zone. Added to this SJ shared worrying stats about society’s mental health being in crisis, how the arrival of AI and ChatBot buddies is not the solution, how so many are living with ongoing serious health conditions and how 1 in seven people are neurodivergent and process things in a different way. As SJ acknowledged, the UK greeting card industry has done a marvellous job in being there for all of lives’ grand moments, as well as many of the mini ones, but the signals are that it could do better on the care and connection front. “Something happens. Someone becomes ill. Someone experiences a bereavement. Someone is going through a recognised difficulty. And we respond with a card,” said SJ. “The language often reflects that structure too: ‘Get well soon’, ‘With sympathy’, ‘Things will get better’. But those messages can assume there has been a clearly defined event, followed — hopefully — by some form of resolution.” As she quite rightly pointed out, increasingly, that’s not how life feels. “Many of the things people want to acknowledge are
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CARE AND CONNECTION
STATiSTiCAL SENSE CHECKiNG
Above: SJ with a piece of art that just happened to be on display at Milton Keynes’ Unity Place where the GCA Conference took place.
ongoing, invisible, complicated or without a clear end point. A diagnosis. Treatment. Anxiety. Burnout. Caring responsibilities. Loneliness. Fertility struggles. A bereavement anniversary. The loss of a pet. A friendship or relationship ending. These are all real experiences. They matter. And they are all moments when connection can be incredibly powerful.” As SJ highlighted, historically the industry’s focus has been on publishing cards for the more emotive sending occasions: Get Well, Thinking of You, Just Because and Sympathy, but while these traditional occasions sit at the heart of what we as an industry do, the cards on offer don’t always reflect the complexity and nuances of modern life. “Many of the things people want to acknowledge are ongoing, invisible, complicated or without a clear end point,” said SJ. She believes that a shift from an occasionled approach to an emotionally led one would
SJ highlights a host of statistics which further underline why a commitment to care and connection is so needed. Here are just a few of them… Mental Health - Around 1 in 4 adults experience a mental health problem each year. Demand for NHS mental health services continue to reach record levels. ■ Loneliness - 24% of adults say they feel lonely at least some of the time; younger adults report the highest rates. ■ Neurodivergence - NHS estimates suggest around 1 in 7 people are neurodivergent (including autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia and Tourette's). Autism diagnoses have risen significantly over the last decade, alongside rapidly increasing ADHD referrals. ■ Disability - Approximately 1 in 4 people in Britain now identify as disabled, with mental health strengthen the part greeting cards play in showing care and connection, proving a precious tangible, intentional expression of emotional effort in an increasingly digital world. “This could mean evolving Get Well cards into health and ongoing illness support; Thinking of You cards into an active emotional check-in; Sympathy into a broader space for loss, grief and Remembrance And Just a Note or Just Because into proactive connection: reassurance, appreciation, missing you, friendship and everyday care.” Delving deeper, research instigated by SJ
UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL Forming part of the project, research findings give a practical guide for how Care & Connection should be presented in store. As SJ revealed: “Customers responded best to headings based on the message they want to communicate, rather than the event the recipient is experiencing. The strongest descriptors that came up included: Thinking of You, Here for You, Checking In, Comfort & Support, You’ve Got This and Take Care of Yourself. That does not mean we remove familiar occasions. They remain important and reassuring, but it does mean we can make the category
easier to navigate by helping people shop by intent: what they want to say, rather than what they think they need to label. That can make a difficult purchase feel simpler, more appropriate and more human.”
Above: SJ prompts retailers to reconsider changing their POS so that consumers can more easily find care and connection cards.
becoming an increasingly common cause of disability. ■ Dementia - Nearly 1 million people are currently living with dementia in the UK, projected to rise to around 1.4 million by 2040. ■ Bereavement - Around 600,000 deaths occur annually in the UK, meaning millions of people are affected by bereavement every year. Grief is increasingly recognised as a long-term journey. ■ By the mid-2040s, around one in four people in the UK will be aged 65+ with the fastest growth among those aged 85+.
Above: The GCA’s Caring at Christmas initiative in action. Penguin Ink’s Lizzie Parker, Stormy Knight’s Sarah Jackson and Kelly Knight Ricicle’s David Nichols-Rice made connections with Bishopsmead Lodge residents writing Christmas cards with them.
and Moonpig on behalf of the GCA, showed that while the ‘want’ is definitely there for people to send a supportive card there is a gap between that intent and actuality, partly because they couldn’t find a suitable card or that they didn’t know where to find them in stores. As she summed up, the Care & Connection genre is not a rebrand of existing occasions, it is an expansion of what greeting cards can do. “It gives us an opportunity to reflect more of life as it is really lived: the difficult periods, the unseen effort, the quiet progress, the fresh starts, the ongoing grief and the everyday need to feel less alone,” believes SJ. Greeting cards have always been about connection, it’s what we do! Our task now is to ensure that our language, imagery and categories reflect the many ways people now want to connect. Because relevancy is at the heart of nurturing the next generation of card sending. And perhaps the future risk isn’t that people no longer want to send cards, Perhaps, it is that we are not yet offering enough ways to help them say what they feel. PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE 41
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A big thank you to all of the lovely judges who gave us their vote... It means the world to us and we’ll be keeping our fingers crossed until the big night!
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DESIGN TREND: CAKES, BREAD AND PATISSERIE Below: Life got a bit sweeter when the latest series of The Great British Bake Off started, hosted by (left-right) Paul Hollywood, Alison Hammond, Nigella Lawson and Noel Fielding.
The Making of Baking
With the new recipe British Bake Off Channel 4 series now on air, the nation’s penchant for all things patisserie is rising like a perfect Victoria Sponge. Whether it is part of the nostalgic yearn, the lure of the exuberant decorative potential or whether it is we all just want our cake and eat it, bakery-related designs are ‘profiterole-ing’ like never before. PG took the biscuit and did some wooden spoon stirring with publishers to find out why this is such a ‘cherry on top’ trend.
Monica Gabb, founder of Twenty Birds The Cakey Uprising: “Baking has always been part of my life. I have baked with my wonderful grandmother and mother as a child, being trusted and invited into the kitchen as a child is a real privilege. As soon as my children were old enough I introduced them to stirring, rolling and mixing and learned to let the mess go and enjoy the experience. My daughter has requested to make her own birthday cake since the age of 10! The reason they work well on cards is that cakes are so beautiful, we enjoy the look of them as much as the taste. They are also totally linked to celebration and indulgent moments, a perfect partner to a Below left: Some of the die-cut Baked Goods cards that come with gift of giving.” a parchment envelope. Below: Inside Betty’s Tea Rooms, a Baker Bestie: “I’m torn between two. Firstly, I was haven of baked goods. Above: Monica Gabb ready inspired by a trip to the traditional village bakery in the to scrape the cake mix out of the bowl. 80s with my parents, an ice bun squidgy that was given its own personality with sprinkles or icing drizzle. However, since moving to North Yorkshire you cannot beat the theatre of Betty’s Tea Rooms and its stunning window displays and tasty treats.” Patisserie Penchant: “Squidgy and fruity is a win for me. I would find it hard to pick a firm favourite, but my aunty baked a fantastic apple cake with her apples from her garden. This summer I baked lots of rhubarb flapjacks.”
Kate Hall, founder of Kate Hall Design
Above: Kate harnessing the power of cake from Ole & Steen to get her through the breakdown of Top Drawer.
The Cakey Uprising: “I think cakes and baking bring people together and help us connect. Sharing cake, especially one you have made, feels celebratory and special. With independent bakeries and coffee shops opening all over the country, treating yourself to a cake or pastry feels exciting and accessible and is the perfect excuse to catch up with loved ones. I think the recent upsurge in cake-inspired greeting cards is a reflection of this new cafe culture.”
Baker Bestie: “I do love Apple Blue Bakery in London’s Balham and Pooky's in Leeds - its lemon and pistachio cannoli is to die for.” Above: A trio of designs from Kate Hall Design, Patisserie Penchant: “I including one featuring a Pastel de Nata. adore the pistachio and chocolate croissants from Gail’s, they're absolutely perfect with a strong black coffee.” PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE 43
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DESIGN TREND: CAKES, BREAD AND PATISSERIE
Jo and David Short, co-owner of Ornament Art desserts. We began researching and creating lavish cakes of our The Cakey Uprising: “What we love own, making them as deliciously kitsch and colourful as we could, about cakes is the spectacle that sourcing vintage toppers and decorations to create our menu of surrounds them – that big ‘ooh’ retro-inspired tasty greetings.” moment when one is carried into a Baker Bestie: “Our favourite baker is Cath Williams, a lovely room and placed on the table, drooling customer who we met at a tradeshow. When we started to follow her over a mouthwatering selection in the at @catherine_cakelady, we realised she made the most amazing cake shop to pick out your favourite, cakes including some very extravagant Lambeth style designs. So, hours spent leafing through the Above: Jo Short ready with her we collaborated with Cath for our hand-finished Exhibitionists range cookery books to choose which one to icing bag on an Ornament Art’s trade show stand. and her indulgent cakes now star in our keepsake photo-mount bake. Cakes are a sensory joy and cards. We try to find as many excuses as we can to get over to her baking your only own adds to that – café and gift shop, Catherine Braidy Cakes in Liverpool – her rhubarb the rolled-up sleeves, sticky hands, messy kitchen, licking the and custard tart is the best!” spoon, the smells from the oven, the ritual of Below: Some of the relations designs in Ornament Art’s Hot Cakes range. Patisserie Penchant: “Aside cutting that first slice… For us they are such a Below right: Cath of Catherine Braidy Cakes with some of her cakes. from Cath’s rhubarb tart I like nostalgic treat, just our cup of tea (in a vintage a good old-fashioned fruit scone tea set with a slice of cake of course!) - and the accompanying debate We see cakes as an intrinsic part of the about how to pronounce it! It language of greetings and celebrations, rather should have a nicely knobbly than a trend and it’s not a proper party without crust, still be a little warm from one. The joy we get from receiving birthday the oven, and be eaten as it is: cakes inspired us to use them in our designs, as no butter or jam.” did indulging ourselves in the world of retro
Laura Skilbeck, co-owner of Laura Skilbeck The Cakey Uprising: “Maybe it’s the colours, the nostalgia, the sugar, the icing, the possibility for creating a new thing, the memory of making them with your mum/granny or the cherry on top that have contributed to cakes increasing in popularity. Above: Laura Skilbeck We launched a range of relishing the cake eating to come. die-cut cake cards a couple of years ago, maybe we started something!” Baker Bestie: “I really like my daughters’ baking, since being very little they have both loved getting out a recipe book and whipping up some little things, most recently some delightfully imperfect pink French macaroons.” Patisserie Penchant: “I have spent many happy hours googling failed birthday cakes on the internet, so I would say that a classic failed birthday cake is my favourite, there is a really great hedgehog one that I see sometimes.”
Above: One of Laura’s daughters with some of homemade macarons. Left: One of the many cake designs from Laura Skilbeck.
44 PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
Louise Richardson, founder of Two for Joy Illustration The Cakey Uprising: “Cakes hold a lot of sentimental value, even though they are quickly demolished, they create a dedicated moment of celebration, whether it be a birthday, wedding, anniversary etc. Baking a cake is extra special because it requires so much effort, and skill! Despite Above: One Year Hotter is the best seller in Two for Joy’s Cake range. them being eaten up immediately, I Above right: A Christmas design from Two for Joy’s Cake range. expect we can all remember many special cakes from our lives and the stories and or baker behind them. Cakes are timeless (and also fun to draw), but I think we are still seeing the effects of ‘Lockdown baking’ and the simple joy of baking. Trends also always look back and there’s a lot of 80s influences at the moment, which is when I discovered vintage-inspired cakes popping up at lots of celebrations; with elaborate icing and real ribbon bows. This inspired me to create a range of diecut cake cards. I leaned into this over-the-top adornment vibe by adding spot gloss and foiling too.” Baker Bestie: “My favourite baker is called Kitty Bakes, who is local to me in Kesgrave, Ipswich. She makes cakes and brownies and sells them with her dad, from a renovated horsebox, popping up at so many local events with the most amazing goodies. She’s currently on maternity leave so I can’t get my fix until next year! She has created birthday cakes for my children and for baby showers that I’ve organised. She's such a creative and lovely person. And it's lovely to support a small business.” Patisserie Penchant: “My ultimate favourite is coffee cake with a thick coffee icing. My mum makes a good one, despite not liking coffee!” Right: One of Louise’s home-baked cakes that she made for her son.
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DESIGN TREND: CAKES, BREAD AND PATISSERIE
Natalie Gladstone, co-owner of Happy Street Cards The Cakey Uprising: “Cakes are just made for greeting cards! They are colourful, joyful and celebratory, and there are so many lovely elements for designers to play with - icing, candles, Below: Now aged 90, Mary Berry is cherries, sprinkles and gorgeous colours. still a cake queen. Cakes are closely connected with the same occasions that we buy and send cards for – birthdays, celebrations, congratulations, weddings and just generally happy moments. A birthday cake covered in candles instantly says ‘celebrate’ without needing lots of words, which makes it such a brilliant image for a greeting card. Above: A trio of cake baking-themed It’s such an iconic birthday image that most of our ranges include a card with cards from Happy Street. a cake design of some kind. They all have quite different design styles, but each one still has that fun, colourful and feel-good Happy Street personality.” Baker Bestie: “It has to be Mary Berry. Aside from being a baking icon, she has that lovely warm, familiar quality that is similar to a great greeting card – something that makes you smile and feel good!” Patisserie Penchant: “My favourite has to be carrot cake… although I’d never say no to a custard cream with a cup of tea! Oh, and how can I forget the classic Victoria sponge – lots of jam and cream! It’s simple, pretty and instantly recognisable, and exactly the sort of cake that looks perfect illustrated on a birthday card.”
Sarah Jackson, founder of Stormy Knight The Cakey Uprising: “Personally, I think the attraction is in the eating! Jokes aside, I think baking is often a way that people can express their creativity - it's a wonderful mix of artistry and science - following a recipe is important, but you can go wild with the decorating... which is my favourite bit! I think the kitsch cake decorating is having a big comeback and that has made it into Above: Stormy Knight’s Sarah Jackson (right) and Kelly Knight about design and illustration as well as fashion. to taste some Anna Cake delights. Bows, frills and cherries on top make for playful imagery and have given a new lease of life on a more traditional birthday cake illustration.” Baker Bestie: ”Anna Cake of course! Our collaboration with fellow Bristol-based Anna Cake Couture was one of the Below: One of the designs in Stormy most fun projects we've had the pleasure of working Knight’s Anna Cake on. The team at Anna was really open to all of our range. Below left: Sarah’s requests and interpreted our brief perfectly. We picked creations, a cake and her daughter Phoebe! the cake colours, decoration and wording, and then their talented team 'whipped them up'! It was great to be able to bring a real cake to PG Live so that our customers could have a taste too!” Patisserie Penchant: “I love a Black Forest gateaux - dark chocolate and cherry is a dream combo!”
Lottie Murphy, founder of Lottie Murphy The Cakey Uprising: “Baking is fun, creative, and of course very British! It is also closely tied to the moments we enjoy sharing with family and friends, whether that’s a birthday, celebration or enjoying a slice with a cup of tea. Cake designs have always been popular on cards because they’re instantly Above: Lottie Murphy with a couple of her associated with birthdays and cakey cards, including the pink drip cake design that was nominated in Top Drawer’s celebrations, and they’re Spotlight awards. Below right: A profiterole design from Lottie great for a wide variety of Murphy. people. My Delicious die-cut range celebrates many of the flavours/styles we love, from classic cupcakes to macarons, profiteroles and chocolate gâteau. Each card is handillustrated and die-cut into its own unique shape.” Baker Bestie: “Mary Berry – she’s iconic and for me represents the start of the bake off.” Patisserie Penchant: “My fave would be a Victoria sponge. It’s a classic; you can never go wrong!”
Sarah Tanser, creative studio manager of Paper Rose The Cakey Uprising: “We love all things cakey at Paper Rose! There is something beautiful about a slice of celebration, which is why cake-inspired designs perform so phenomenally well for us, and why you will always find one taking centre stage in every single collection we create. Below: A Dottie cake from Paper Rose’s Artisan collection. We have seen cake trends transform over the years and have moved our designs from more Below right: A design from Paper Rose’s Daiquiri range traditional tiered sponges to rustic ‘naked’ cakes dripping with fresh berries, all the way to today’s featuring stacked pancakes. extravagant showstoppers loaded with macarons, delicate gold leaf, and lush florals. We are seeing a vibrant younger generation falling in love with baking, sparked by the incredible surge of showstopping creations taking over Instagram and TikTok. That viral inspiration has encouraged us to expand our horizons to other sweet treats too, like stacked, berry-topped pancakes, bringing a playful, modern energy directly onto the card. By constantly playing with emerging foodie trends, textures, and colour palettes, we make sure our latest collections serve up something fresh, stylish, and utterly irresistible.” PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE 45
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IN CONVERSATION WITH… CAROLINE QUENTIN
From comedy and acting icon to gardening guru, Caroline Quentin has now added launching her own greeting cards and gift company showcasing her handpainted illustrations to her list of claims to fame. PG caught up with the star of Men Behaving Badly, Jonathan Creek, Doc Martin, author, current university fresher and now card publisher. Book, TV, song, film, and theatre – for anyone playing charades Caroline Quentin’s career is a veritable cornucopia of choice already, and she’s now thrown greeting cards and gifts into the mix. The star of Jonathan Creek, Men Behaving Badly, and numerous other telly, radio and theatre shows, who is also an acclaimed Royal Shakespeare Company actor and scored a hit single with co-star Leslie Ash, now has two gardening books to her name, is running the CQ Gardens (www.cqgardens.com) gift business with husband Sam Farmer, and has just started a two-year postgraduate diploma in history of art! The books and business came out of her love of gardening which she started sharing on Instagram during the pandemic: “Basically because Sam just didn't want to talk to me about the garden. He said, “go talk to someone who's interested”!” Drawn To The Garden was released in 2024, with Caroline writing about running a vegetable and flower garden on the 35 acres at her then home in Devon – they’ve since downsized to a bungalow in Somerset – hand-drawing all the illustrations. Right: Caroline Quentin (bottom right) with fellow Men Behaving Badly stars, Martin Clunes (top right), Neil Morrissey and Leslie Ash back in the early 90s.
46 PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
Q-UEUING UP FOR CAROLINE Above: Caroline Quentin has growth in her sights in more than one direction. Right: Spring Fair launched CQ Gardens to the trade.
And the couple are currently on a book tour for her recentlyreleased second tome focusing on the wider natural world, having travelled 1,000 miles by mid-September promoting Drawn To Nature, which is already a Sunday Times bestseller. She explained: “I started an Instagram account, which took off very, very quickly and from that I got offered a book deal. Because I draw and paint, I asked if I could do my own illustrations, I didn’t want a photographer, I'd rather have painted pictures. “The first book went much better than anyone could have anticipated, particularly me, and people were starting to say ‘can we buy prints of your
pictures’, and from that this small business has sprung up whereby I print, you know, some of my designs on to tea towels, some on cards. “We are going to start doing other things, but the cards are the thing everyone can afford. They can have a little bit of my artwork, but it's only going to cost them a few quid and quite a lot of people very sweetly, frame them.” Cosmetic scientist Sam said her 200,000+ followers (www.instagram.com/cqgardens) had helped as “she asked what they’d like and greeting cards and tea towels were top of
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IN CONVERSATION WITH… CAROLINE QUENTIN
Above and right: Flower and veg cards are Caroline’s mainstay.
the list”, and their wishes were granted with the launch earlier this year of a range of greeting cards using the actor’s designs – deliberately choosing to offer a larger card as part of the collection to honour both their mums. “I started doing them because I use cards a lot,” Caroline said. “I always have used cards a lot. My mother Kathleen used to as well. She’s gone now, but she was really a big user of greeting cards. I went away to school when I was little, and she used to write me a lot of cards. So they're part of how I grew up and how I communicate.” Embracing greeting card sending is also part of her husband Sam’s life. “Sam's mum Lesley will cram every card too,” says Caroline. “She's so funny, she fills a card with writing so I've made a slightly bigger card. I do a series of slightly bigger ones for people that like to write letters in cards, to use it as the kind of notelet that we used to have in the 70s,” adds Caroline. The cards and gifts, including tea towels, aprons, and the celery seed hand salve and soap that Sam developed to deal with the dry and chapped skin earned from working in the garden in all weathers, were launched to the trade at Spring Fair in February, printing them in Norwich, and working with UK manufacturers who share their sustainable ideals. They’re now exploring the possibilities offered on the licensing front. Right: Caroline designed the packaging for Sam’s creations.
Interested to hear that not all card retailers can cope with unusually-sized designs, Caroline said: “I'll bear that in mind, because we're starting to go into retail now. I’ll make note of that and see what people are ordering, because we're just in the nursery slopes of retail,” she admits. “It's such a learning curve for us with all of this – every day really is a school day with the company. Actually, it was the size of the cards,
how they weren't the normal standard, that attracted a lot of our people who are now stocking them from Spring Fair! Now with her first bunch of retail stockists on board, Caroline is happy to be “starting slowly with likeminded people.” “They are independent places, shops, garden centres, a couple of stately homes that have gift shops. It'll be lovely to work with those people, and they're all quite different businesses. “We had a guy come to us at Spring Fair who, because a lot of my designs are vaguely humorous, little vegetables cuddling each other and things like that, said ‘could you do me a tea towel with onions on it?’. I said: “Yes, I can do that”. It was really lovely, because then it means I’ve got a proper working relationship with people.” Continuing with her acting work while running the business and now studying part-time at the prestigious Courtauld Institute in London, Caroline is also busy painting more cards and plans a series of cards inspired by the packaging designs of seeds she created for Sam’s soap and hand salve. She added: “I’m flat out designing – if I haven't got a paintbrush in my hand, I feel like I'm slightly wobbly. And the other thing I'm learning about the greeting card game is that you have to work a year or a year and a half in advance. So I'm drawing and painting, or trying to have ideas for witty, charming or different designs.” Caroline freely admits: “It's completely consuming and I really love it – I've got to go and do some acting soon, and I shall really resent having to give up the time to it because I'm really enjoying the creativity of CQ Gardens,” adding how she is keen to maintain connections with her newfound fans of her cards and gifts. “I'm in touch with a lot of people that follow me and they send me pictures of my cards or the tea towels framed in their kitchen. It's been a really unexpected quite late in life, delightful thing to have found something which uses drawing and painting, which I just have always loved.”
PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE 47
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Alice May’s Wonderland Inheriting deep roots of artistry from her grandmother, illustrator Alice May is inspired by the natural world, using mixed media, vivid colours, playful textures to create her whimsical artworks. PG finds out more about her creative journey so far. “I was always described as “the art kid” growing up. I’d quite often be sitting quietly in a corner scribbling flowers on a torn piece of paper, Above: An illustrative depiction of annoying my sister as I paused the Alice May TV to sketch the characters on screen, or even drawing in the bath with my favourite set of bath crayons. As a relatively quiet child, drawing provided me with an outlet where I didn’t have to talk, and I could just get lost in the page. Outside of drawing, I was very studious throughout my younger years. The perfectionism I strived for in art had also found itself in my academic work. So, I’d often hear from peers “why would you want to be an artist” as though my studies would be going to waste if I followed a creative career path. Looking back, I would say this noise from the world around me, only made me more motivated to hold on to my creativity. But as much as I loved art, I did also, deep down, have a real passion for academia. So, I went to university to study in the humanities department, despite my younger-self’s stubborn need to ‘prove’ I could be an artist. But even though I didn’t study art, I knew I couldn’t have a life without it. I would take my sketchbook out after lectures and paint in local parks, sketch my morning coffee, or draw on my iPad in the late evenings after I’d finished my readings. I started to experiment with my style, using mixed media to try and add as much vibrancy and texture to my drawings that I could. Seeing people’s comments about a piece of art I’d done making them smile made it clear to me that I had to keep going. Opportunities to work with some brands I really admired followed. One of my early collaborations was with a company called Hippy Feet. The founder, Michael Mader, had reached out to me about working together and told me Below number of pigeon about the company’s mission to end youth artworks. Below right: Promotional homelessness, by donating 50% of the artwork by Alice May for a Hippy Feet sock launch. profits to organisations that help young people affected by homelessness. I was so excited for the project, and got to make a collection of fish socks (and later a goose socks and sweater collection) that I was beyond proud of! Since then, I’ve been so lucky to be able to do some other incredible projects,
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like creating still graphics and a mixed media animation for UGG’s LA Pop Up ‘Feel House’. One of my most recent projects was an illustrated cookbook with Viction:ary, creating artistic representations of dishes from worldrenowned chefs. I think I felt a lot of pressure (mostly from myself) to make it my best piece of work yet, even Below: Nature and contemporary vibes though I had never done anything like it combine in this Alice May before. I was in my final year of university image. Below right: Everyone and was balancing writing my dissertation needs a breakdancing bunny by Alice May in with illustrating dozens of recipes week their life! after week. Around the time I was starting to come to the end of the recipe illustrations, my grandma passed away after a short illness. This was a difficult period for me; my grandma was my biggest creative inspiration, and the person I would always send my latest work to for approval. Her opinions meant the world to me, and I so desperately wanted to lead a life like hers, with creativity at the centre of it. After she passed, I spent some time looking through the (many) binders full of her illustrations. The way she captured the world around her was so inspiring to me, and she had the most incredible understanding of colour and movement in her work. Everything felt so alive, almost like you could step into the drawing and find yourself right there in the moment she captured. Now, as I embark on new journeys in my creative career (most recently signing with the Bright Agency), I imagine what she would say if I sent her a text explaining everything that I’ve been up to since she’s been gone. Above: A Bug Parade artwork by Alice May. Most likely, she’d say something lovely and kind, followed by a series of extensive xs. I’m excited to see where my career takes me from here, and hopefully try to find the beauty in it all, in just the same way as she did.” Alice May is now represented for commissions and licensing by The Bright Agency (www.thebrightagency.com)
•
If you are an artist, photographer or verse writer and would like to be considered to appear in Art Source, please contact PG’s Jakki Brown on jakkib@max-publishing.co.uk. This is an editorial feature and as such is free of charge. PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE 49
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PG ASKED A TRIO OF RETAILERS FOR THEIR BEST SELLERS
Sarah Laker, owner of Stationery Supplies in Marple and Wilmslow A duo of stationery shops with a wide greeting card selection in two Cheshire enclaves.
Category
Name of Publisher
Product/Name Range
Comments
Everyday
The Art File
So many great ranges
“Continually sell well. My current favourite is Bird Tone.”
Mini Cards
Heyyy Earlybird Designs
Generally Generally
“Customers are really embracing mini cards - they never buy just one.
Humour
Running With Scissors Bewilderbeest Brainbox Candy
Generally Generally Generally
“Nothing better than hearing customers laughing at your cards.”
Cute
Ginger Betty
All ranges
“The cards sell so well.”
Relations & Occasions
Molly Mae Two Little Monkeys
All R&O All R&O
“Good all-round ranges with a massive choice of titles.”
Art
Ohh Deer
Frame It
Tatty Co
Autumn Series
“The scenes as well as cats and dogs images sell well.” “New to me. The images of plants and flowers are popular.”
Photographic
Stormy Knight
Anna Cake Couture
“The icing on the cake! I am about to place a top up order.”
Trend
Ricicle
Cerealousy Good
“Nothing else like it – and everyone has their favourite breakfast cereal.”
Children’s Ages
Heyyy Objectables
Taking Shape Jumbers Numbers
“So appealing.” “There is so much in each design.”
Adult Ages
Molly Mae Paper Salad Earlybird Heyyy
Generally Generally Generally Generally
“With adult ages it is all about offering a variety and we can do this with these publishers.”
Notebooks/Journals
Ohh Deer The Art File
Tiny Notes Generally
“Super cute and funny.” “The design and quality are outstanding.”
Pens
Legami
Erasables
Right: Roka socks it to Stationery Supplies’ customers.
Stabilo
Highlighters
“Never had a pen like it for sales – cute, functional, refillable and collectable.” “We offer 34 colours. Youngsters love creating their combos.”
Gifts
Roka
Bags and socks
Right: A mini card from Earlybird.
Right: A Tatty Co blackbird and berries design.
Right: A Cerealously Good design from Ricicle.
Right: Legami erasable pens have been phenomenal sellers for Sarah.
50 PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
“Who knew a stationery shop could sell so many socks!”
50-51_What's Hot.qxp_Grid 30/09/2026 14:33 Page 4
International Focus
Wendy Harris, owner of Tickles and Co, Wimborne Minster
Category
Name of Publisher
Product/Name Range
Comments
Everyday
Caroline Gardner
Across the board
“The simplicity of the designs suits everybody.”
Humour
Rosie Made A Thing
Gin & Frolics
“Highly appropriate for ladies who lunch.”
Relations & Occasions
Paper Salad
Across the board
“The designs are so bright and cheerful.”
Trend
Floh (from Toasted Crumpet)
Mini Picky Bits
“The scalloped edges and their small size appeal.”
Children’s
Rachel Ellen Designs
Across the board
“Bright designs that offer great value for money.”
Adult Ages
Belly Button Designs
Mabel
“Great design at a great price.”
Cute
Ginger Betty
Across the board
“Lovely combo of cute and sentiment.”
Giftwrappings
Paper Mirchi
Sheet wrap
“Amazing designs. Also bought for crafting.”
Gifts
Speks
Gump Memory Gel Stress Balls Erasable pens
“Both of these companies’ products are still trending.”
A family-run card and gift shop in a Dorset market town.
Legami
Above: The size and scalloped edges on Floh’s Mini Picky Bits appeal. Below: One of the new designs from Rachel Ellen Designs.
Right: Speks Gump Memory Gel Stress Balls are a current trend at Tickles.
Colette Foster, owner of Sky, Clifton A Retas-award winning card and framing shop in a ‘villagey’ area of Bristol. Category
Name of Publisher
Product/Name Range
Comments
Everyday
Laura Skilbeck
Across the board
“Beautiful and characterful illustrations.”
Right: A 1973 design.
1973
Across the board
“The artists they work with are all brilliant.”
Humour
Brainbox Candy
David Shrigley
“Shrigley’s mad, but not cruel take on the world suits our customer demographics.”
Relations & Occasions
Halfpenny Postage Paper Salad Lucky Ink Press
Across the board Hunky Dory Across the board
“A PG Live discovery. They will be big.” “Big and bold. They just work.” “The designs are always so good.”
Art
Joy Jen Studio Sophie Potter
Across the board Across the board
“Beautifully printed of outdoorsy or nature-led images.”
3D
Art Angels
Concertina cards
“Great keepsakes.”
Children’s
Studio Boketto
The Richard Scarry Collection
“So clever and endearing.”
Giftwrap
Wrap Lagom
Across the board Across the board
“Innovative patterns and colourways that are well considered.”
Stationery
Portico Designs Abrams & Chronicle
Arthouse Unlimited One Line A Day Memory Book
“Joyful and beautiful.” “They change the design every year.”
Right: A few designs from The Richard Scarry Collection from Studio Boketto
22 PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
Below: Joy Jen Studio’s brush with nature.
PROGRESSIVE PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS GREETINGS WORLDWIDE WORLDWIDE 2151
52-59_Classified New 2026.qxp 28/09/2026 18:12 Page 48
PRODUCT DIRECTORY
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+44(0)1243 792600
52 PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
52-59_Classified New 2026.qxp 28/09/2026 18:12 Page 49
PRODUCT DIRECTORY
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CHARITY GREETING CARDS
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One of the UK’s leading publishers of Charity Greeting Cards. Impress offers a wide collection of images, including fine art, graphic, photographic and cute. We also offer a bespoke design service for bulk orders and/or mail order fulfilment.
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Including firm favourites and brand new designs
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Te T el: 0161 1 64 641 0 06 655 Email: m sales@daav sales@d avora.co.uk
Impress Publishing Appledown House Barton Business Park New Dover Road Canterbury, Kent CT1 3TE Tel: 01227 811 611 Fax: 01227 811 618 email: info@impresspublishing.co.uk
Brands include: Keepsakes, Words of Love, Jelly Beans, Bella Rose, Champagne and many more
135 Hea 13 135 eaton Moorr Rd | Stockp ock kpor port ort SK4 4HY 4 4H HY
Award winning designers and manufacturers of luxury gift wrappings and accessories
Tel: +44 (0)115 986 0115 customerservices@paperrose.co.uk www.writefromtheheart.co.uk
01274 655980 sales@glick.co.uk glick.co.uk trade.glick.co.uk @glickgiftwrap
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Enquiries: warren@max-publishing.co.uk or Tracey Arnaud traceya@max-publishing.co.uk
PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE 53
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PRODUCT DIRECTORY
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paperbirdpu blishing.co.uk
Great brands, Great service Bespoke planning We can help with all your planning requirements. From smaller displays to redeveloping complete card departments
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help 020 7582 8244 @NoelTattGroup 01227 811 600 sales@noeltatt.co.uk www.noeltatt.co.uk
info@paperlink.co.uk p a p e r l i n kc a rd s www.paperlink.co.uk
To appear in the Product Directories contact Warren Lomax T: 020 7700 6740 email: warren@max-publishing.co.uk Te l : + 4 4 ( 0 ) 1 1 5 9 8 6 0 1 1 5 customer ser vices@paper rose .co.uk w w w. p a p e r r o s e . c o . u k
54 PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
or contact Tracey Arnaud T: 07957 212 062 email: traceya@max-publishing.co.uk
52-59_Classified New 2026.qxp 28/09/2026 18:12 Page 51
PRODUCT DIRECTORY
l PRODUCT DIRECTORY
l PRODUCT DIRECTORY
THE GREATEST COLLECTION OF GREETING CARDS IN THE WORLD
Market Leaders in
Verse &
entimen
an extensive range of superior quality,
design-led Greeting Cards for all occasions, Spring Seasons & Christmas.
Method of Sale: Direct to Retail Orders can be placed on our trader site
www.cbgtrader.co.uk or call our customer services team on
+44(0)1243 792600
6 Heron Trading Estate Alliance Road, Park Royal, London W3 0RA T: 0208 385 4474 F: 0208 385 4471 E: info@Xpressyourselfcards.co.uk WWW.XXPRESSYOURSELFCARDS.CO.UK
PRODUCTS: World’s leading publisher of high quality plastic greeting cards. Also an extensive range of quality greeting cards covering Everyday, Occasions, Christmas and Spring seasons. BRANDS: Cherished Thoughts, Sweet Sentiments, Buddies Always, Symphony, Thinking of You, Style, Special Wishes, Special Times, Young Editions, Groove Sensations, Forever Blessed, Grey Skies, Classics. METHOD OF SALE: SENSATIONS – Direct to retail XPRESS YOURSELF – Now one of the leading wholesale publisher suppliers in the UK
THE GREATEST COLLECTION OF GREETING CARDS IN THE WORLD
We offer a
COMPREHENSI collection of moder n high quality Greeting Cards for
To appear in the Product Directories contact Warren Lomax T: 020 7700 6740 email: warren@max-publishing.co.uk or contact Tracey Arnaud T: 07957 212 062 email: traceya@max-publishing.co.uk
THE GREATEST COLLECTION OF GREETING CARDS IN THE WORLD
ALL Occasions, CHRISTMAS and
Spring Seasons.
Method of Sale: Direc
greeting card association
Email: info@words-n-wishes.co.uk Web: www.words-n-wishes.cco.uk
Tel: 01942 233201
PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE 55
52-59_Classified New 2026.qxp 28/09/2026 18:13 Page 52
DIRECTORY OF WHOLESALE l DIRECTORY OF WHOLESALE
EUROPE’S LEADING GREETINGS CARDS, PARTY PRODUCTS, GIFTS, CANDLES, TOYS, STATIONERY AND FLORIST SUNDRIES DISTRIBUTION CENTRE 75000 SQ FT BESCOT CRESCENT, WALSALL, WEST MIDLANDS. WS1 4NG 01922-646666 www.greetingshouse.co.uk info@greetingshouse.co.uk MON,WED,FRI 8.00am-4.45pm TUES,THURS 8.00am-7.45pm SAT,SUN 8.00am-1.45pm
BAGS
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BAGS
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Polypropylene & biodegradable bag specialists
GREETING CARD
ĎĶġƕbĄËƅ|İĎĞƕ|âĎĞ ʼnū͗ƤưŶƜĠ͗ŶƜ͗ŶūŠʼnūĠ͗òư İæÛËġÚËËİŰ¾Ďă Over 40 years quality service to the trade Hotfoiling also available
T 01206 396209 E sales@badgerconverters.co.uk www.badgerconverters.co.uk
BAGS
Manufacturers of 30% recycled content packag ging
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www.transrappackag ging.co.uk sales@transrap.cco.uk CALL US TODA AY
01773 537 7810
30 YEARS EXPERIENCE - QUA ALITY SERVICE EXTENSIVE STOCK RANGE - QUICK K DELIVERY Y ASSURED
56 PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
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52-59_Classified New 2026.qxp 28/09/2026 18:13 Page 53
l CLASSIFIED
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BAGS
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We’ve been producing p bags of high clarity and high q quality for over 30 years. 01274 220 220 www w.wrapid.co.uk sales@wrapid.co.uk
l PRINTERS l ENVELOPES
Hello Cards are FSC approved digital printers, offering high quality print at competitive prices, working with both large and small publishers. Contact us to discuss your requirements.
W W W. EN VE CO .CO .U K
01 90 83 78 86 6
ENVELOPES
IN FO @E NV EC O. CO .U K
‘we we make Envelopes and Stationery’
MOREE THAN 50 COLOURS 6 POPULAR GREEETINGS CARD SIZES 50+ WH HITE SIZES IN STOCK BESPOKE ENV VELOPES AV AVAILABLE PEEL A AND SEAL CLOSURE RECYCLED / KRAFTT / 140GSM / 120GSM 11 SUPER BRIG GHT NEON COLOURS BESPOKE NOTEBO OOKS & STATIONERY
PLEASE GET IN TOUCH FOR YOUR COMPLIMENTA TARY RY ENVELOPE OR NOTEBOOK SWA WATCH PA PACK
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Additional Services • Foiling with no dies • Inhouse fulfilment
• Distribution • Wiro Bound Notebooks
T 01274 305832 E info@hellocards.co.uk
www.hellocards.co.uk
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THE SPECIALIST GREETINGS CARD PRINTER
To appear in the Classified Pages contact:
Litho Print
Die-cutting
Digital Print
Packing
Foiling
Distribution
Embossing
CNC Die-making
Tel:01274531828 Email: info@herbertwalkers.co.uk
or Warren Lomax warren@max-publishing.co.uk
www.herbertwalkers.co.uk
or Tracey Arnaud traceya@max-publishing.co.uk
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PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE 57
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