Cards and Gifts for Garden Centres

Garden party

Cards and gifts have become a key sector for garden centre retailers, attracting footfall all year round. Greetings Today talks to retailers and suppliers about how important they are to the business

Eco-friendly Card Co What the retailers say

“Our cards department is imperative to our gift shop; customers don’t just buy one they sometimes walk away with a handful. Our garden centre over recent times has become a destination for customers; it’s a day out and our shop just adds another aspect to their trip. And it’s hard not to have a look round and not pick something up.’’

Brittany Bojko, gift shop manager, The Langton Greenhouse and Garden Centre, Leicestershire “Our card departments are normally located in high footfall areas and usually positioned near fragrance, houseplants or food. All of which pull in a large customer footfall and are key categories within our business.’’

Emma Davis, group gift buyer, British Garden Centres Garden centres have become ever-more popular over the past few years - and the pandemic increased interest in gardening as a hobby, helping to improve footfall to centres.

According to the latest figures from the Garden Centre Association (GCA), excluding catering, retail growth increased by 30.47% in 2021 compared to 2020 and was up 29.77% compared to 2019.

And gift sales at garden centres rose by 30.51% in 2021 compared to 2020 and were up by 18.26% compared with 2019. So what do card and gift companies offer garden centres to reflect this increase in demand? Sue Morrish, joint director, The Eco-friendly Card Co, says: “We’ve always offered a lovely diverse selection of images that do very well in garden centres, especially our blank card collections. With themes across all our ranges to do with the natural world and wildlife, our imagery sits really well in the garden centre market. For garden centres that are not specialist card retailers, having a rich diversity of designs from one publisher is very welcome.’’

Anthony Temple, managing director, Rainbow Designs, adds: “Rainbow Designs has been inspiring kids for over 50 years and we have a beautiful and extensive range of award-winning, gorgeous, soft toys and gifts, to complement any garden centre display. We have a host of bunnies, bears and woodland characters from some of the most treasured classic children’s brands including Peter Rabbit, Disney’s Winnie the Pooh, Paddington Bear, Guess How Much I Love You and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. All these collections are thoughtfully created, premium legacy toys and gifts, which are perfect for enhancing garden centre gifting.” So what benefits do card and gift ranges bring to a garden centre? Anthony Temple says that Rainbow Designs offers something for all generations of consumer: “A visit to a garden centre is now very much a family day out, with garden centres today offering so much more than just plants and gardening accessories. The addition of carefully selected gifts, for all generations of consumer, catering for every season and occasion, is a brilliant opportunity to create extra revenue streams all-year-round. Playful plush gifts that spark imaginations also provide the added benefit of delivering wonderful in-store theatre, along with family classics such as Peter Rabbit, Winnie the Pooh and The Very Hungry Caterpillar, which appeal to all generations.”

Sue Morrish, meanwhile, recognises the added benefit of cards in a garden centre setting: “Gardening is such a popular hobby now - lots of people see garden centres as a great place to buy gifts, especially for those hard-to-buy presents for people. (I love my garden and always love a garden-related present!)

“Adding cards makes sense when you already have people buying plants as gifts. Cards are also great as spontaneous purchases – if you don’t have a dedicated greeting card area then a spinner positioned by a till always works well – with a good margin and no best-before dates, cards are a sure-fire winner!’’

And with garden centre visitors more likely to be aware of environmental issues, how important is sustainability to these companies? Rainbow Designs’ Anthony Temple comments: “Sustainability has always been very important to our business and continues to be. We develop and create high-quality, joyful forever toys for some of the most-loved brands with huge longevity, so it has been an integral part of our process. We have produced soft toys using recycled plastic bottles for a long time now, and we are making big changes to reduce the amount of single-use plastic to pack our toys. Earlier this year we launched our Classic Pooh Always and Forever collection, an adorable selection of luxury soft toys and plush nursery gifts. The range has been designed and created with FSC and reusable packaging, and with stuffing made from recycled plastic bottles and recycled plush fabric.”

And the clue is in the name for The Eco-friendly Card Co, as Sue Morrish explains: “Our dedicated Eco-friendly Card Co spinners have a header that lists our eco-commitments: 100% recycled cards; 100% recycled envelopes; alcohol-free print technology; powered by green energy; carbon balanced paper; made in GB - and we are a CarbonZero company. This information is also printed on the back of the cards.’’

Belly Button Designs

For 25 years, Belly Button has created elegant, sustainable, beautiful, purposeful design-led products – from ‘planet-friendly’ greeting cards, gift bags and eco wrap and soy wax candles to china mugs, giftware and stationery.

Garden centres is a channel Belly Button Designs has chosen to work more closely with this year, having joined the Garden Centre Association in recent months. The Belly Button portfolio has a strong selection of nature and garden-inspired designs across cards and giftware that really capture the moment, are inspirational and eye-catching. The breadth of offer at garden centres has expanded, just as the Belly Button giftware and stationery offer has expanded over the past decade, and this offers plenty of great opportunities for the two to work together.

The Belly Button Designs giftware line-up now includes 10 categories of gift bags, social stationery, china mugs and candles. This year saw the offer widened still further with the launch of a broader stationery range and now includes To Do Lists, A4 Padfolio, ceramic pen pot, sustainable notebooks, weekly planners, spiral notebooks and two pen sets. 0161 902 0200 enquiries@bellybuttondesigns.com www.bellybutton.cards

The Eco-friendly Card Co

The Eco-friendly Card Co is releasing a new brochure, dedicated to photographic cards, at Autumn Fair. Among its collections is a new range of occasion cards of striking images paired with simple wording.

Cards are printed on 100% recycled carbon-balanced board printed using alcohol-free print technology powered by green energy. They come with 100% recycled envelopes and are available with either card clasp-label or a compostable bag.

Designs can be ordered alongside the publisher’s other art and photographic collections – carriage paid order just 30 designs in sixes. 01626 369269 hello@ecofriendly.cards www.ecofriendly.cards

Western Sketch

The Deck the Halls Collection comes from Western Sketch. Greeting cards have been created from original handpainted watercolour illustrations by Melissa Western and are printed in small print runs in the UK. The paper is FSC certified and made at a British mill in the Lake District. The company also uses 100% recycled Kraft envelopes and is plastic free. mnelissa@westernsketch.co.uk www.westernsketch.co.uk

UK Greetings

UK Greetings has a number of prestigious licences that are perfect for garden centres, including the charming Peter Rabbit card range. Inspired by the whimsical world of Beatrix Potter, featuring classic illustrations and pairing sweet sentiment with foil finishes, this range makes a beautiful addition to any display and is sure to be a favourite among garden centre shoppers. Additionally, the Eco gift wrap range, featuring botanical design alongside innovative paper handles, is perfect for stylish garden centre gift giving. 01924 436384 www.ukgreetings.co.uk

Joe Davies

Snoozies! Cosy Little Foot Covering… The original and the best, these have been one of Joe Davies’ best sellers for well over 10 years, with more than 2 million pairs sold. New for 2022 are the Frosty Fur Ladies snoozies!, which are super soft and snuggly. Wild Side snoozies! are right on trend as animal prints are back with a force! Add to this 11 new snoozies! pairable designs including specific mum, nan, dad, grandad and friend captions to go with this popular range. What’s more there is an attractive and practical free snoozies! spinner available with any order of 144 pairs.

Joe Davies offers free nationwide delivery, carriage paid orders of just £100 and an easy to buy ‘little and often’ ordering policy. 0161 975 6300 sales@joedavies.co.uk www.joedavies.co.uk

Rainbow Designs

Rainbow Designs has beautiful collections of award-winning soft toys and gifts, perfect to brighten any garden centre display. There’s bunnies, bears and woodland characters aplenty, including timeless favourites; Peter Rabbit, Disney’s Winnie the Pooh, Guess How Much I Love You and The Very Hungry Caterpillar, all of which are very much at home in garden centres.

Passionate about creating best-in-class products designed for all ages, Rainbow Designs offers contemporary newborn gifts including comforters, rattles and baby gift sets, through to classic early years wooden toys, as well as premium plush soft toys of classic characters, for fans of all ages.

Rainbow Designs has added a new wooden toy collection to its best-selling Beatrix Potter collection, in celebration of Peter Rabbit’s 120th Anniversary. This Peter Rabbit Once Upon A Time collection, created from FSC wood, features a Peter Rabbit and Flopsy Bunny Pull along, a five-piece Shape Puzzle and a 28-piece Domino Set, alongside soft toys and nursery gifts.

Rainbow’s extensive Disney; Winnie the Pooh collections include the whimsical Hundred Acre Wood range, featuring the much-loved bear and his adorable friends in an array of trusted plush toys, comforters and ring rattles. For 2022, is the new Classic Pooh Always and Forever collection; a deluxe range that has been designed to last a lifetime with a focus on sustainable materials. This range of Winnie the Pooh heirloom toys features a bespoke nature-themed print, and makes a special gift for any garden centre visitor. 01329 227300 www.rainbowdesigns.co.uk

ExaClair

For those looking for an alternative to traditional sweet and scented gifts such as chocolate and perfume, the Jacques Herbin scented inks gift box presents five elegant 10ml bottles - each with a delightful floral or fruity aroma.

The inks are made using hydrosols, which are water-based and made from the distillation of fresh flowers, fruits, and other plant materials, making them an eco-friendly choice and a joy to ink connoisseurs.

They contain no pigments and are naturally and delicately scented with different aromas and colours: blue with lavender scent, brown with cocoa scent, red with rose scent, amber with orange scent, and purple with violet scent. Jacques Herbin has also recently added a lemonscented bright green ink to the range, which is available as individual bottles.

Scented inks give an extra dimension to the pleasures of using a fountain pen and bottled ink to write, not only for the scribe, but for recipients too. This collection makes a perfect gift not only for ink lovers, but also for those wishing to experience the joy of escaping technology for a while by writing or drawing with pen and ink. 01553 696600 enquiries@exaclair.co.uk www.exaclairlimited.com