Club Green

Party in style!

Michele Gaudelli, commercial director of Club Green, talks to Gifts Today about the company’s heritage and its vision for the future

What’s your background?

I have more than 20 years of commercial sales experience, initially in recruitment and IT, and latterly with Club Green - where I’ve been commercial director since 2015.

Tell us about your company.

In 2022 Club Green celebrated its 40th anniversary. It started off as a small family firm run by Agostino Cipullo and Pino Aina, who are still involved in the business today.

Club Green was the very first company to bring wedding favours to the UK. This trend came over from Italy and became very popular in the UK and in many parts of Europe. At the start, the wedding favour concept was mainly popular within cosmopolitan communities, but soon became a must-have at all weddings. Club Green quickly established itself as the market leader in wedding favour and craft supplies: a position it held for over 25 years.

Initially, the business supplied a large number of wedding favour-makers and cake craft shops across the country. However, as the number of independent cake and craft shops has declined, we have diversified our product range.

This diversification saw the launch of our partyware brand in 2018, Hootyballoo, which now supplies a growing number of party retailers across the country.

Club Green continues to supply wedding favour and craft businesses, as well as a growing number of party and homeware retailers.

We have a team of 22 full-time staff, and a large office/warehouse in the Surrey village of Ockham - very close to the A3 and M25. We welcome visitors to our office, where we have a fully-stocked showroom.

What’s your company ethos?

We’ve always run an honest business and the focus has been to offer quality products at affordable prices, backed by the very best customer service.

We have grown the business organically, which has given us longevity and stability. We control our own logistics from our own warehouse/offices.

We also pride ourselves on having a great team. Our staff turnover rate is incredibly low; many team members have been with us for 10 or more years. Two have been with us for over 15 years, and one has just returned to the business after a 20-year gap. Our team is hardworking, loyal, and incredibly keen to offer great service to our clients. Our customers appreciate this, and benefit from our team’s product knowledge and great customer service.

Tell us about your range.

Our Hootyballoo range features plates, cups, balloons, candles, and banners. Our Club Green craft ranges include chocolate boxes, PVC display boxes (with bases), ribbons, nets on roll, paper flowers and a range of giftware for every occasion. For further information, our online brochure can be viewed at www. hootyballoocollection.com.

What’s the inspiration for your products?

Our design team is incredibly creative, and follows all the current fashions to make sure our range is both contemporary and on trend. We’ve always tried to develop ranges ‘that we would

want to buy’, and over the past few years, our team has become recognised for innovative, fun and stylish designs.

Who is your core customer base?

Our Hootyballoo brand focuses on party ranges, which can be found in national retailers such as Morrisons supermarkets, WHSmith, TK Maxx, M&Co and New Look, as well as regional chains such as Lorimers. Our range can also be found in approximately 500 independent outlets, from garden centres to party and gift shops across the country. Our craft and gift ranges can be found in Hobbycraft, as well as party and gift shops nationwide.

In recent years, we’ve also seen increased interest from customers around the world, and we now regularly supply customers across Europe, the US and Australasia.

What sets you apart from your competitors?

Our people, products and processes ensure that our customers love dealing with our very friendly team. On many occasions we have been told that our customer service is the best! We will always be on hand to help our customers, and nothing is ever a problem.

Plus, we have our very own talented design team who continue to keep an eye on evolving trends to ensure we keep designing and producing exciting new products and ranges.

And, we control our own logistics/ distribution. We don’t rely on third party warehousing partners to distribute to our customers. This gives us and our customers huge flexibility.

Finally, we listen to our customers. Understanding them and their needs helps ensure we keep our product range fresh and on trend. We’re also happy to create bespoke items for clients, and never shy away from a challenge.

How can retailers order your products?

Ordering is simple and easy. New customers can either ring our customer service team on 01483 281 313 or visit www.clubgreen.com. We supply trade customers all over the UK, Europe and worldwide.

How are you finding the current trading climate in the UK?

We’re all operating in a challenging market at the moment, with customers placing smaller but more frequent orders to manage their stocks and cashflow. However, we are continuing to secure new customers (both at home and internationally) and there is a real positivity about 2023 and an expectation that events like the Coronation will provide a welcome boost to the economy.

Will you be exhibiting at any trade shows this year?

At the Spring Fair, we are planning the biggest display of new products that we’ve ever had. We also have a new style exhibition stand which will enable us to display our beautiful new ranges and products in a unique way.

We have something extra special to launch at Spring Fair too. So if you own a party shop or want to retail our products but don’t have much space, then make sure you visit us so we can show you how.

Tell us about your Spring/Summer 2023 collection.

We have brand new ranges for themed birthday parties, baby showers, weddings, Easter, and an extra special celebration range for the coronation of King Charles III.

Finally, do you have any exciting news you would like to share?

For the Queen’s Jubilee last year we created a lovely Jubilee Party range which was incredibly popular. For the coronation of Charles III, I’m excited to confirm that we have created a similar range, which we also expect will be incredibly popular.

It’s the first time we’ve had a coronation for three generations, so we expect that Coronation Weekend will be a great opportunity for the country to come together - and we have a fantastic range available for our customers.

Call: 01483 281313 Email: sales@clubgreen.com Visit: Trade: www.clubgreen.com;