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In Conversation With... Simon Elvin
Ignoring Advice “Back in the 1970s, someone who’s opinion I respected said to me: “Get out of the card trade now. This industry is going nowhere”. I am glad that I ignored his advice,” said Simon Elvin, who has whizzed past his half century of working in the card trade and has no intention of slowing down. While Simon’s gaze is instinctively focused on the future, with plans underway for the GCA’s 100th anniversary celebrations this year, he was persuaded to share his views of how the trade has evolved over the 50+ years in which he has been working within, and as a member of the trade association. It is hard not to be totally in awe of Simon Elvin. First there are his achievements including building a formidable group of greeting card and giftwrap businesses that span the market, in Paper Rose, Nigel Quiney, Glick, Polytint and of course the wholesale publishing heart of Simon Elvin. Then there is his unfailing passion for product and attention to detail. He still passes every single design published under the Simon Elvin brand, something that, even by his conservative
estimates, amounts to over 25,000 card designs. Then, there is his calm, strategic thinking, the latter recently demonstrated in the savvy acquisition of the Grassroots/Write from the Heart brands. Added to this is a wry sense of humour as well as a strong sense of justice. When put altogether, he is someone you would want to be when you ‘grow up’. The fact that Simon is now 78 years old and still comes to work every day, and works when he gets there, means he is far from being merely a figurehead.
Much to the frustration of his wife Janet, co-founder of the company (and invariably at her desk in the Wooburn Green HQ too), Simon refuses to even take more than a week’s holiday at a time. “Though when we do go away, I do completely switch off from work,” says Simon in earshot of his wife, as though feeling a need to defend himself. When it is tentatively suggested to him that he must be one of the oldest people working in the UK greeting card industry, his reaction is ambivalent. This is no ‘badge of honour’, more a case of doing what he loves best. He has oft brushed off any suggestion of retirement, saying that he had no intention of taking up golf and would just get bored and want to start a card business, so what’s the point as he already has one. In fact, he has several, but leaves the day-to-day running of the Simon Elvin group’s ‘sibling’ businesses to their respective management
Above: Three greeting card ‘muskateers’. (Left-right) Simon Elvin (founder of Simon Elvin), Jeff Bottomley (founder of Kingsley Cards) and Andrew Brownsword (founder of Andrew Brownsword Collection) at a GCCA event many moons ago. Far left: Then and now: A Simon Elvin anniversary card from 25 years ago and its cleaner looking current counterpart. Inset: Simon Elvin has already scored his half century working in the card trade.
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PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE