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Greats Finalists Announced A Record-Breaking Entry Despite a year of lockdowns and shop closures, there was an outstanding, record-breaking response to The Greats Awards 2021, with this year’s outstanding finalists announced on pages 14 and 15. The winners will be revealed at an exciting, glamorous awards afternoon event, which will be taking place live at the historic Honourable Artillery Club (HAC) in London on Thursday September 23. “Entrants and nominees exceeded expectations, with the pandemic challenging all retailers to really up their game, especially while the doors were closed,” commented PG&H/GiftandHome.net’s editor Sue Marks. “Gift shop owners magnificently rose to the challenge, showing their resilience and their
calendar - contact event organiser Clare Hollick for tickets at Createvents: tel: 01183 340085 e: clare@createvents.co.uk or visit Max-Tickets.net. To date, the impressive line-up of Greats sponsors include (in alphabetical order): Candlelight; Carte Blanche Greetings (CBG); Gift Republic; GiftsandHome.net; Gisela Graham; Harrogate Christmas & Gift; Joe Davies; Life Charms: Progressive Gifts & Home; Premier Decorations; Progressive Greetings Live; Spring Fair and Autumn Fair; Wrendale Designs and The Giftware Association. For remaining sponsorship opportunities, please contact Jo Pilcher on 020 3764 1694 e: jop@max-publishing.co.uk; for all Greats enquiries, please contact Sue Marks on 020 8361 2055 or e: suem@max-publishing.co.uk. For more details, visit www.thegreatsawards.co.uk Left: London’s Honourable Artillery Club (HAC). Below: The team at Highworth Emporium, winner of last year’s Best Retailer Initiative award.
resourcefulness in finding ways to go on trading successfully. The bar has been set very high this year, and every one of our finalists excelled in their category.” Added Sue: “It is also wonderful to be able to confidently confirm that The Greats Awards will be live this year, with the opportunity for the whole gifts and home industry to get together and clink glasses to toast the winners in person and to network!” To be a part of The Greats Awards - a very special highlight on the gift industry’s
Firebox.com Acquired By MH direkt Online gift retailer Firebox.com, among the first UK e-commerce success stories, and best known for its quirky, giftable products - that include Unicorn Tears Gin, the Mystery Box, CrapWrap and Mushions - has been acquired by Austrian e-commerce service provider MH direkt for an undisclosed sum. As a one-stop provider for the e-commerce sector, MH direkt currently works with several online retailers, and also owns European gift sites Radbag, Troppotogo and CadeauxFolies, seeing the acquisition of Firebox as an important milestone in its growth strategy. “Both shops will be operated separately, while working closely together in terms of marketing and product development,” confirms Philipp Schindler’s ceo of MH direkt. “There are a lot of synergies between the brands and we see Firebox as an excellent addition to our portfolio.” Firebox has served over 5 million customers to date and has become a platform for novelty gift items outside the mainstream.
Industry
NEWS G7 Gift Hampers
Sisters and co-owners of newbie gift retailer (and Greats finalist) The St Ives Co. - Ainslie Fowler, Tegen Mackay and Safi Mackie were thrilled to receive a surprise call from the Cabinet Office earlier this year, inviting them to supply gift hampers featuring Cornish goodies for each of the world leaders at the recent G7 Summit in Carbis Bay, Cornwall. As a result, delegates received miniature toiletries featuring hand soap, shower gel and body balm, as well as shampoo and conditioner. “It was such an honour to be a part of it,” co-owner Ainslie Fowler told PG&H. “Our vision for The St. Ives Co. is to allow visitors to take a bit of Cornwall back home with them which is what the world leaders did.” Above: A typical Cornish gift hamper sold by The St. Ives Co. gift shop.
Eastbourne Beckons For Sussex Gift Store Among the independent gift store owners adding to their retail portfolio are Greg Rose and John Dale, co-owners of Maybugs in Hailsham, East Sussex (which is a finalist in The Greats 2021). Pressing ahead with ambitious expansion plans to open a second, much larger gift store in Eastbourne at the end of July, they will be taking over all three floors of the former Laura Ashley site which is located in the centre of town. "We've been working on this in secret for months,” states Greg. “Covid delayed our expansion plans, but not even that was going to stop us. We have so many wonderful customers that come from Eastbourne to shop with us in Hailsham, or order online via our website, that it was a natural move for us to open a second store here.” Adds John: “The ground floor is more than double the size of our Hailsham branch, which has enabled us to source lots of new, brands, and we have something special planned for the first and second floors which will be opening next Spring.” Below: Co-owners Greg Rose and John Dale outside Maybugs in Hailsham.
Left: Firebox.com has been acquired by MH direkt.
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