Progressive Greetings April 2022

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From The Editor

ON THE CARDS Even the most positive of people have a moan now and again.

While on holiday - my first since March 2020 - I felt totally outraged by Caitlin Moran’s column in the Saturday edition of The Times in which she totally dissed the idea of sending a greeting card on someone’s birthday, instead urging the nation to buy a book instead. Now I am a fan of Caitlin, but I found this particular call to action rather ludicrously damaging for our sector, notwithstanding the inherent buying complexities for the public.

Buying a wholly appropriate greeting card for someone is tricky enough, but clinching the right book purchase for even those closest to you is not an easy gig!

Yet, however good it feels to get minor niggles such as these off our chest at the time, such experiences rarely bring long-term solace, especially if something then hits you between the eyes that put things into perspective, good and proper.

Sure, we are rightfully worried about the increased costs of putting petrol in our cars, heat for our homes and food in our fridge, but then the reality strikes of what if our shops or publishing businesses happened to be in Ukraine, rather than Rotherham, Aberdeen, The Mumbles, or indeed anywhere else in the UK for that matter? Yes, it would be a very different story. OK, so you can only deal with so many challenges and while fully accepting there are many close to home that need our help, I have been incredibly inspired by the actions of those within our greeting card community who have instigated fundraising efforts and initiatives in a massive show of solidarity for those suffering in this horrific war in Ukraine.

In the last day I have been in contact with indie retailer Nick O’Brien, owner of Cards 2 Confetti in Brixham, who, together with five of his fellow RNLI lifeboat volunteers is filling two Transit vans with requisites that they will then drive to the Ukrainian border,

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Above: (Right-left) Noel Tatt’s Chloe Tatt, Andreas Tatt, Pablo, Jarle Tatt and PG’s Jakki Brown (see pages 46-47).

Right: The wonderful Nick O’Brien of Cards 2 Confetti who is also a modern day hero for the RNLI – and now Ukraine.

Left: There was a real sense of solidarity at the recent GCA Dragons’ Speed-dating event.

(Left-right) Andrea Pinder, Presentation; Shelley Sheridon, Heirloom; Jakki Brown, PG; Claire Taylor, John Lewis and Miles Robinson, House of Cards.

handing over these much-needed items to a small charitable organisation that can get them to even the most war-torn areas of the country. Likewise Matt Boam, director of Print 4, a Nottingham-based printer for Emma Ball, Little Dog Laughed and The Art File, who has turned a sizeable area of his factory over to becoming a collection point for much-needed provisions that will be loaded into a 40ft transport container that is ready and waiting to the shipped to the needy.

Like in so many situations, it is the feeling of helplessness that causes us such upset; my heart goes out to everyone in our sector and beyond who has sought to counter at least some of the unforgivable atrocities with their philanthropic actions.

Thank goodness we are all involved in an industry whose main purpose is to send feelings of love and support in the good times as well as the very tricky ones.

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What’s Inside?

CONTENTS 30

41

49

9-21 News

39-45

All the latest happenings and developments in the trade.

Suits you, Sir

Focus on Male Cards The latest trends on the male card front.

22-23 Over The Counter

46-47

The Honesty Mirror

In conversation with…Noel Tatt

David Robertson, co-owner of JP Pozzi on how honesty really is the best policy.

Tatt That Trio The past and present of Greeting Cards

by Noel Tatt.

24-25 Cardsharp

48-51

Forever Friends

Focus on…Stationery

PG columnist pays tribute to Deborah Jones, the creator of Forever Friends.

Office Politics

Withi n this issu FOCU e: MALE S ON CARD S

How the working from home (WFH) trend is fuelling the stationery market.

27-29 Dragons in Training

53 Art Source Well Seasoned

Retailers’ reflections from the recent GCA Dragons Speeddating event.

Greeting card artist Charlotte Pepper shares her story and his creative inspirations.

30-31 Worldy Issues

54-55 What’s Hot?

Hands of Friendship

A quad of retailers share their best selling ranges.

Viewpoints

Some acts of solidarity from the greeting card sector to those in Ukraine.

33-37 Innovations

56-67 Sources of Supply

Publishers’ new ranges and designs.

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Jakki Brown

Warren Lomax

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Tracey Bearton

Editor/Joint Owner

Joint Owner

Sales Manager

Features Editor

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Copyright© 2022. 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.

Ian Hyder

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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70 Everyday Designs

OVER

S BAoG f GAGS

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NEWS WHS 20mins card delivery

TOP STORY

GCA urges Royal Mail to maintain deliveries High-level talks with postal operator underway At a time when the industry is still reeling from the recent rise in stamp prices, the GCA’s ceo Amanda Fergusson is fronting a campaign on behalf of the greeting card industry to safeguard the current six day a week delivery service from Royal Mail.

“The Royal Mail postal service we enjoy in the UK is unique, loved by consumers, and key to a buoyant greeting card market. We need to do all we can to protect it and have our industry’s views heard,” Amanda told PG. At a high-level meeting convened by Royal Mail, which took place at the end of last month, Amanda joined executives from the CBI and Forum Of Small Businesses to discover potential worrying changes to the UK’s postal delivery service, with a possible cut to five days a week or even just a three-day service being discussed.

This comes as a result of research by Royal Mail and Ofcom into how the service is being used and the possible effects of reducing the current six

days a week delivery service - but Amanda stressed the findings do not reflect the importance to the general public of knowing they can send cards to loved ones safe in the knowledge they will arrive in good time.

She added: “While I was pleased to be invited to the meeting, I am concerned that Royal Mail’s review feels very parcelfocused, and that this doesn’t come at the cost of losing the Royal Mail’s fantastic USP – the local postie delivering six days a week and daily collection from our red postboxes, both of which are

Left: The GCA is fighting to retain Royal Mail’s six day a week delivery service.

Below: The introduction of barcoded stamps will enable social mail to be tracked.

Below left: Shaun The Sheep has been helping launch the new barcoded stamps.

such important parts of people’s life in the UK.” Following the meeting, Amanda sent a hard-hitting letter to Royal Mail setting out the industry’s strengths as well as its main concerns.

“We understand the challenges Royal Mail is facing with the huge decline in business letters as invoicing and marketing is done online, however the sending of greeting cards in the UK is not declining, and one of the main reasons UK consumers continue to send and receive more greeting cards per capita than any other nation is due to the simple, reliable postal service offered by Royal Mail,” she wrote.

Leaving Royal Mail team in no doubt, Amanda stressed that a move to a five day a week Royal Mail delivery, with Saturday delivery under threat, does “not meet the needs of our industry”.

She explained: “We know from members selling b2c that Friday is the busiest day as consumers buy and post next-day greeting cards for the weekend.

As for any suggestion to move to just a three-day delivery, Amanda stated in her letter that “this would be a disaster for the greeting card industry – we know from other countries that reducing deliveries leads quickly to a downturn in greeting card sending”.

She also explained that complicating, or increasing the cost of stamps will also have a negative effect on volumes.

On the positive side, Amanda acknowledged that the introduction of the new barcoded stamps, which means Royal Mail will be able differentiate between consumer and business letters, is a step forward in the understanding of social mail-sending patterns.

Greeting cards are among the items WHSmith expects customers to order when they take advantage of the retailer’s new partnership with delivery service Deliveroo.

Having started out specialising in takeaway deliveries, Deliveroo has begun an exclusive trial across 10 WHS High Street stores, giving customers the choice of 600 products which can be delivered in as little as 20 minutes.

The trial is underway in Reading, Richmond, Muswell Hill, Chiswick, Brighton, Cambridge, Oxford, Leeds, St Albans and Guildford, giving on-demand access to items including greeting cards, stationery, gifting, home office essentials, books, revision guides, toys and games.

Sean Toal, managing director WHSmith High Street, said: “We're really excited to be partnering with Deliveroo for this trial which will complement our existing offer and enable our customers to receive the products that they want and need from us as fast as possible from their local store direct to their door – whether that's a greeting card, working from home essentials, a last-minute gift or a newlyreleased book!"

Above: Deliveroo riders have geared up for WHSmith trial.

Tiny Tatty Teddy smiles Tiny Tatty Teddy brought extra smiles on Mothering Sunday.

The cute nursery sub-brand of Me To You, owned by Carte Blanche Greetings, continued its partnership with neonatal charity Ickle Pickles to bring support to mums with premature babies, who were spending Mother’s Day in the neonatal units with their babies at The Royal Cornwall Hospital, Truro; The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, London; and The London Neonatal Transfer Service based at The Royal London Hospital.

The gift bundle including a Mother’s Day card, Me To You bear and an Ickle Pickles water bottle was given to every mum in each of the hospitals’ care.

Commenting Grace Elphinstone, CBG’s marketing manager said: “Our Tiny Tatty Teddy brand is all about celebrating baby milestones and treasuring tiny memories which fits perfectly with Ickle Pickles’ ethos of giving every newborn a chance.”

Above: Delightful delivery – the Tiny Tatty Teddy bundle will have cheered up mums.

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BRING A SMILE TO SOMEONE'S DAY WITH

aN EXCLUSIVE RANGE of upbeat cardS WITH A UNIQUE SENSE OF HUMOUR

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NEWS TOP STORY

Stand and deliver PG Live 2022 exhibitor meet-up exuded passion and excitement “This is a car key; great for starting your car, but not designed to open your boxes,” exclaimed Jim Bullough, operations director of Progressive Greetings Live, addressing the audience at the recent PG Live exhibitors meet-up instigated to ensure that they would be best prepared for what is set to be a very memorable show.

“Chuck away your spirit level as floors in exhibition venues are very rarely plumb. I urge you to use Velcro not sticky tape for affixing your designs to your stands as the latter will not cope with the vagaries of temperatures and moisture fluctuations in venues, including the lovely Business Design Centre,” Jim said in his outpourings of handy tips to the audience of publishers eager to make the most of

their stands at the imminent PG Live 2022 (taking place June 7-8 at London’s Business Design Centre).

With the exhibitor line up already reading like a who’s who of the leading greeting card names - from Five Dollar Shake to The Art File, Belly Button Designs to Museums & Galleries, as well as a smorgasbord of newbie delights up in the Springboard area on the Gallery level - it is all set for blossoming into a massive global greeting card celebration.

“Thousands and thousands of brand new designs from a vast array of publishers, the chance to meet loads of fellow retailers, plus complimentary refreshments, tasty lunch and opening night party, what’s not to like?!” exclaimed Warren Lomax, co-show director of PG Live. “But it is so much more than feeling you belong, it is all about feeling you are part of the ‘now’ of our wondrous industry,” he added.

To register, head to www.progressivegreetingslive.com Above: Jim Bullough (far right) with PG Live exhibitors working out how to make the most of their stand at the show.

Above: PG Live’s Warren Lomax explaining the ethos of the exhibition.

Second Nature takes on WishStrings’ distribution Enabling WishStrings’ founder Kelly Wragg to fulfil her own wish of spending more of her time designing the company’s products, Second Nature has become the UK distributor for the sentiment-based brand.

“This was such a massive decision for me to take, as WishStrings is my baby, but I really want to spend more time designing, while ensuring that my customers are well looked after,” Kelly told PG, who started the company 10 years ago and has enjoyed great success with her sentiment-based products. “I genuinely feel that the Second Nature team really understand me, my products and shares my excitement for further developing the brand for our customers, giving them the service and support they deserve.”

The distribution partnership with Second Nature is kicking off with the top 48 Wish Bracelets and top 48 Pocket Hugs products. Each WishStrings’ bracelet and Pocket Hug is presented on a beautifully designed card with an inspirational saying, quirky graphics and empowering words covering key events and sending captions.

As Chris Bryan, Second Nature’s general manager summed up: “We love what Kelly has created. Her WishStrings’ products are a great addition to the Second Nature portfolio, with the sentiments they exude and relationships they celebrate working in total harmony with the greeting cards we publish.”

As part of the distribution partnership a slimline 96 pocket spinner of WishStrings products is now available from Second Nature.

WishStrings will be showing at PG Live in June (7-8).

Above right: Two of the main WishStrings designs from its bracelet and Pocket Hug ranges.

Lucy Maggie welcomes Sunshine Llama Support for up-and-coming artists is the aim behind new sub-brand Sunshine Llama from publisher Lucy Maggie Designs.

The concept of Sunshine Llama has evolved from Lucy Maggie Designs’ founder and owner Lucy Nicholson working with young designers from across the world on small, curated collections of cards.

Throughout 2021, Lucy built up a portfolio of strong, colourful work celebrating a diverse range of talent and, as the relationships grew, Lucy decided to turn the collections into a separate brand, operating as a publisher.

“I’m thrilled at the positive reception that Sunshine Llama has already had,” Lucy told PG, “2021 was a fantastic year for me as I got to work with so many great artists with fresh ideas and it’s so satisfying to see the results of these collaborations birth something really exciting.

“I’m very much looking forward to seeing where Sunshine Llama takes the business over the next few years, as well as continuing to discover new talent that I might not otherwise have ever come across.”

Teasing followers with an Instagram account that started posting in February, Sunshine Llama has already gained substantial interest from potential new collaborators online, with significant traction also gained during the recent Top Drawer trade show.

Sunshine Llama aims to support up and coming artists looking to break into the greeting card, stationery and gifting sectors, by offering them a platform where they can get their designs in front of some of the market’s most prominent buyers. By improving new artist visibility, Sunshine Llama hopes to be the kick-start that young, aspiring designers need to launch their careers as successful contributors to the ever-growing industry.

Already promoting new artists including Beth Free and Ellie Purdy, throughout 2022, Sunshine Llama will be working with a brandnew illustrator each month as it continues to expand its greeting card and stationery offering. The publishing brand will also be accepting artists’ submissions through its website from undiscovered designers who want to gain more exposure in the industry.

Lucy Maggie Designs will be exhibiting at PG Live 2022, which takes place June 7-8 at London’s Business Design Centre.

Above: Ray of sunshine – Lucy Nicholson is behind the new brand.

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NEWS TOP STORY

Motherly love?

Local indies did well, but footfall affected centres With Mother’s Day being such a sizeable event in the greeting card calendar there was a lot riding on this year’s second Spring Season occasion, especially after the last 24 months having been so challenging for specialists.

While far from sparkling for all, with many stores in major conurbations still suffering from a significant drop in footfall, there was plenty of positive news especially from retailers who are still lapping up the shop local love.

“Fantastic,” was how Mark JansonSmith summed up Mother’s Day trade at his five Postmark stores in the London suburbs, “we had a great sell through and, in fact, we ran out of stock in three of our stores, but ended well up sales wise, around 10-15% on 2020 people love to show they appreciate their mums!”

He noted an increased demand for more specific captions: “Such as ‘from someone special on Mother’s Day’ to ‘Mother-in-law’, so we’ll be looking to broaden our selection next year. I’ll also be on the lookout for more humorous Mother’s Day designs as alternatives to the more tasteful floral cards!”

Jo Barber, owner of No.14 Ampthill, also had a great sell through: “We had a fabulous Mother’s Day. The lead-up was incredible and we pretty much sold out of cards. Customer spend was much higher than usual, the shop was buzzing and we had a record-breaking Saturday!”

Looking at her sales patterns, Jo experienced “a huge uplift in Mummy cards during the final week, we also sold the majority of our funny/sarcastic cards that week too, as that’s when the younger clientele and males tend to shop”.

In common with Postmark, No.14 also tracked an increased appetite for more specific captions. Jo added: “We saw a growth in Nan, Nanny, Nanna captions which are trickier to source than Grandma and Granny, but we’ll definitely be on the look-out for more of those next year.”

Further north Marion Flaherty, co-owner of Best Wishes in Garstang, said Mother’s Day “far exceeded expectations” ending at least 20% up on the previous year, with very little stock left over.

She added: “It was helped by the weather being so good in the final run up, our High Street was buzzing. We had to stay open an extra hour last Saturday as the shop was so full of customers.”

Sharing his views on footfall Stuart Delahoy, owner of Set in Leicester city centre, told PG: “We’re still suffering from a lack of footfall in the city centre. With cards it’s all about bums on seats, if you sell a card to every third person in the shop you need people in the shop, but we’ve done OK. We went early with Mother’s Day this year and sales went well.”

Mum wasn’t the only word Some 14% of the UK adult population sent a Mother’s Day card to someone who is not their biological mother and almost 9% have sent or received a Mother’s Day card or gift from their pet.

These consumer insights, which have a bearing on greeting card captions required for the largest Spring Season event, have come to light as a result of recent research carried out

by YouGov on behalf of Royal Mail.

Almost a third (31%) of UK adults were thought to have posted a Mother’s Day card or gift to their mums this year while 59% of people intended to see their mothers in the flesh on the Day, according to the YouGov survey.

Above: An infographic Royal Mail shared to illustrate its research findings.

Above left: One of Postmark’s best seller, published

by Ohh Deer.

Left: A selection of Mother’s Day cards posted on Set’s social media channels.

Multiple maternal instincts On the multiples front, John Lewis’ Mother’s Day figures were up massively, even compared to pre-pandemic levels.

“We had a terrific Mother's Day, comparing back to 2019 on like for like phasing of dates, we finished +66% in like for like JL branches,” confirmed card buyer Claire Taylor.

“With John Lewis branches sadly closed during lockdown this time last year, Waitrose had a superb season in 2021 benefiting from the additional footfall driven into shops. We were therefore extremely pleased that the trade across the Partnership finished on a positive note vs LY with retailing open again and John Lewis trading for the full event this year.”

With so many of its stores in major centres, Paperchase’s card buyer Tori HeathSmith summed up its Mother’s Day sales as: “OK. We saw a great start with customers buying early, but it was disappointing to see the sales tail off, and the final week was slower than expected.”

John Procter, Scribbler’s co-founder, admits that knowing what to benchmark sales on these days is tricky as there have been so many different variables.

He said: “Our Mother’s Day sales ended 10% up on 2020, whatever that means, with our online sales up 40%. However, there was a scare just before Mother’s Day in 2020 so it really is difficult to make sensible comparisons, but we are not back up to 2019 levels yet. “Our central London stores are still hard work due to footfall while some of those out of the centre are doing well. I would like to think we are beginning to see some light at the end of the tunnel, but who knows!”

Paul Taylor, managing director of Cardzone, is with John on the sales comparison front. With so many of its stores in main town centres, Paul admits the specialist group found Mother’s Day “very challenging” largely because customer footfall was down over 30% on 2019 levels.

Left: An A board outside a Scribbler shop.

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NEWS IN TRIBUTE

Deborah Jones The creator of Forever Friends Andrew Brownsword, founder of The Andrew Brownsword Collection shares his personal tribute to Deborah Jones, the artist, creator and inspiration behind Forever Friends, one of the world’s most successful greeting cards concepts, who passed away recently, aged 62 from Pancreatic cancer, leaving a huge sense of loss in those, including Andrew, who knew her well.

“I have always known how very fortunate I was to have met both Deborah and her husband Toby over 41 years ago, and they have been an important part of our lives ever since.

Deborah’s genius for meaningful words and images through all the years we worked together touched the lives of millions - the joyful and loving phenomenon of Forever Friends played an enormous part in the social expression world of the times. And the Dino Gang of characters also brought to the world her totally original and perceptive take on the human condition, allowing everyone the unbiased ability to laugh at themselves properly, and without scrutiny.

For me, it all started when a package was dropped off by a friend of the yet unknown Deborah Jones at our Hythe premises during the summer of 1980, a chance occurrence which certainly changed the direction of my publishing, and ultimately the course of my life.

I realised straight away that I had in my hands the work of an artist absolutely in tune with the times - her artwork was raw, irreverent, perceptive and very, very funny - I was totally inspired and got in touch immediately!

When Dino, as she preferred to be called then, left art school, she worked as a library assistant in Palmer Park, on the rather more salubrious side of Reading than where I met her! When I came along she was working as a clerk in the Registry Office for the MOD and living above a Chinese-owned fish and chip shop on the London Road, in the renowned Cemetery Junction area, with her boyfriend Toby.

So, it was with some trepidation a few weeks later that I climbed the rear fire escape and knocked on a bright red door on the first floor above the takeaway. Toby answered and I was shown into a dimly lit, entirely red room and it just wasn’t the walls, curtains and lampshades - the kettle, teapot and other household items were all in various shades of red, including Dino’s hair!

It really was a case of man in suit and tie meets understandably nervous and cautious teenager, but the boundaries were soon lifted over a cup of reddish tea and a friendly chat. I expressed my enthusiasm for the two designs I wished to publish and encouraged her to work on others along the same themes.

Meanwhile my girlfriend of four weeks, Christina, was sitting in the car in the pouring rain, in an undesirable part of Reading nursing a bottle of vintage port (we were heading to see Simon and Janet Elvin in Cookham Dean for dinner that evening) and she was feeling extremely vulnerable!

My first meeting with Dino must have gone well, as during the next few weeks numerous packets of artwork arrived at our base in Kent. We would usually wait for a new artist to establish demand, but with Dino we threw caution to the wind.

I had thought my instincts and my brief on what I thought the greeting card market needed in modern British humour was pretty good, but Dino‘s interpretation of any ideas I had, yielded such stimulating humorous responses, cleverly executed words and images crashing together to create in my mind the most unwavering originality I had ever come across - I could not have been more excited!

Dino appeared to be quiet and unassuming, but she had a genuine sense of fun and mischief which resulted in an infectious enthusiasm and energy permeating between us, which heralded the creation of the Dino

Above: Deborah Jones (centre) with Andrew Brownsword (far left) at a Spring Fair years ago.

Above left: One of the many Forever Friends designs.

Below left: One of the Dino Gang designs.

Far left: Deborah with her husband Toby.

Below right: Another classic Dino design..

Gang and eventually of course the phenomenal Forever Friends story.

The most popular bears in the world started life as one of a group of discarded toys found in an old toy chest, including a ragdoll, a tin soldier and a clown, part of a small range of greeting cards called ‘Forgotten Friends’. My title didn’t work, mainly I guess because when a customer turned the card over, the logo on the reverse suggested they didn’t care too much for the intended recipient! However, we had noticed that even with this obvious oversight, several cards featuring just the bear were selling very well. So, it was decided that we should definitely develop this particular character further, and we did so under a new title, one suggested by Dino’s husband Toby, and proudly crediting the artist with her real name, Deborah Jones.

‘Forever Friends’ was born, and little did we know it at the time, but we were just about to revolutionise greeting cards branding with a marketing reach, which at its peak, became a £300 million global merchandising powerhouse!

Those who never met her, but clearly admired her work may have recognised her caring nature, kindness, generosity and humanity through her amazing sense of awareness, but a few of us who worked with her during those influential, fun years experienced her brilliance at first hand - we were very, very lucky!

In her final months, with her beloved and ever caring Toby at her side, we spoke on the telephone and exchanged emails, which always left me totally in awe of how she was coping with her illness. That wonderful sense of humour, her positivity and tenacity were still shining through - she was, and very much still is, an inspiration to all who knew her.

I shall miss her terribly.”

(See Cardsharp pages 24-25)

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NEWS TOP STORY

UKG’s sustainability commitment Publisher again offsets its entire annual paper consumption Timed perfectly to coincide with the recent International Day Of Forests, greeting card publisher UK Greetings announced that it has renewed its commitment to offset its entire annual paper consumption through World Land Trust’s Carbon Balanced Paper Programme.

Having placed sustainability very high on the company’s agenda for several years, UKG has already offset the emissions of over 16,500 tonnes of paper, ensuring the restoration of more than 1,000 acres - equivalent to 650 football pitches - of threatened forest habitat in Vietnam, Mexico, Ecuador and Guatemala.

Chris Shaw, UKG’s head of sustainability told PG: “This partnership ensures that the carbon emissions used to produce the paper for every single one of our greeting cards is balanced through the protection of the world’s most biologically significant and threatened habitats acre by acre.”

As Chris stressed, “Biodiversity is a precious gift, and allowing species to become extinct through the removal of

their habitats is not an act of natural selection, but a deplorable act by humans. This is why UK Greetings proudly continues to support World Land Trust.”

Putting it into perspective, forests produce 30% of the Earth’s oxygen and provide habitat for 80% of amphibian species, 75% of bird species and 68% of mammal species yet, since 1990, it is estimated that 420million hectares of forest have been lost - an area 17 times greater than the United Kingdom - largely through agricultural expansion.

Sharing her views, Emma Douglas, World Land Trust director of development thanked UKG for its “renewed commitment” to WLT. The environmental organisation works with a network of local partners around the world, currently in 20 countries, to save, protect and restore critically threatened habitat for wildlife and, in doing so, locks up carbon and address climate change.

Above: Conservation partners – UK Greetings is working with World Land Trust to save forests.

Mark Mostyn steps back at WPL Gifts After four decades of working in the industry, Mark Mostyn has stepped back from the running of WPL Gifts to move into a consultancy role. His business partner and company co-owner Chris Noble is continuing to run the company day to day as managing director.

Mostyn (as he is more commonly known) started in the greeting card and gift industry back in 1981 with Andrew Whiteway at Whiteway Publications Ltd, becoming its sales director for over 30 years. In 2018 when Andrew decided to leave the business to concentrate on his other business interests (notably as a shareholder in Hong Kong-based sourcing company), Mostyn together with gift industry stalwart, Chris Noble (a former director of Xpressions for 16 years and consultant to WPL for the previous five years) formed a new company, WPL Gifts, that they jointly owned.

Having hit the ground running with a successful launch and sales of a number of new product ranges which continue to prosper and grow, Mostyn says “the stability of the company allows me to realise my long-term plan from the outset to take on a reduced role in the day-to-day running of the business.”

While having relinquished his position as director and co-owner of WPL Gifts, Mostyn will still be involved the business for the foreseeable future, looking after key accounts and international business.

“My new role will still be a significant commitment but will allow time to pursue other professional and personal ambitions,” he explained.

Highlighting some of the changes he has experienced over the last four decades, Mostyn commented: “With one or two honourable exceptions, the supplier-buyer relationships are now more transactional and without the personal interactions that made it more enjoyable. Other changes are the obvious ones of supermarket and online players making their presence felt.”

Above: Mark Mostyn has stepped back as director of WPL Gifts.

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Sunshine for Scotland Suppliers and visitors celebrated being back in person at Scotland’s Trade Fair Spring in Glasgow’s SEC last month.

Having been postponed from its usual mid-January slot, the event was bathed in spring sunshine when the doors opened, helping to create an upbeat mood.

The Best Product Awards were judged on the show’s opening morning by retail experts Linda Birkbeck from House of Bruar, Catherine McGurk from Glasgow Museums and Sarah Ward, chief executive of awards sponsor the Giftware Association.

The winners of the Cards and stationery category were: Gold - Hole in My Pocket for its calendar; Silver Cascayde for its eco-friendly paper tape and Bronze - Wee Wishes for its fridge magnet cards.

Above: Ron Anstey Design and Pink Pig’s Mabel Forsyth at the SEC.

JJ’s urge to upcycle BBC presenter, passionate upcycler and Strictly Come Dancing star JJ Chalmers has joined the Recycle Now and Clear On Plastics efforts to encourage people to return bags and wrapping at supermarkets, including greeting card cellobags.

The nationwide Repeat The Cycle campaign launched at the end of last month, with 4,000 supermarkets across the UK now collecting clean, used household plastic bags and wrapping which are not currently collected for recycling at the kerbside so are sent to landfill.

It is estimated that around 290,000 tonnes of plastic wrapping go into UK bins each year - including greeting card cellowraps, bread bags, crisp packets, salad bags which make up one of the last plastics in Brits’ bins. In a bid to tackle the issue, more than 4,000 UK supermarkets have now introduced recycling collection points in store.

“I think it's fantastic that we can now gather up our plastic bags, wrapping, and films, and bring them back to the store each time we shop. It's a simple habit that will make a huge difference to our impact on the natural environment,” commented JJ. Above: Wrapping up recycling - JJ Chalmers is fronting Repeat The Cycle initiative

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NEWS TOP STORY

Moonpig forecasts £300m sales Online card operator’s pandemic uplift continues reflecting the temporary impact of Covid-19 on customer behaviour in late December and January”, and expectations for underlying revenue in FY22 remain unchanged at approximately £265m.

“Today’s update reflects continued strong trading performance post-lockdowns, including a very successful UK Mother’s Day, and we remain confident in the outlook for the year ahead,” said Moonpig’s ceo Nickyl Raithatha. “Moonpig Group has delivered a permanent step change in scale over the past two years, with a larger customer base displaying higher loyalty than pre-pandemic.

The long-term opportunity remains vast, and we have never been in a better position to deliver against Moonpig Group’s strategy to become the ultimate gifting companion,” he added.

Moonpig expects revenue for the year to be close to its pandemic-era figure, nearly doubling to £300million, after lockdowns have led to a “permanent uplift” for the business.

Having hit £368m in sales during the pandemic, the online card retailer has forecast its figures will finish around the £300m mark for the year to 30 April 2022, a significant increase on the £173m it pulled in during the 12 months pre-Covid to April 2020.

In its recent trading update the company announced: “Trading in February and March has provided further evidence that supports our previously-announced expectations of a permanent uplift in customer cohort frequency compared to before Covid-19. Accordingly, we remain confident in our existing expectations for the next financial year.”

It added that trading performance has remained strong “with the upgrade

Above: Moonpig’s online offer has earned its audience.

Cardies pop up in B&LLAs finals

Loxleys’ and Sherwood Group’s £1.2m investment Sister greeting card print companies Loxleys and Sherwood have made huge investments in machinery to further improve and expand their services to publishers.

Nottingham-based Sherwood Group, is investing a whopping £1.2million in state of the art machinery. An Elite foiling machine is being installed this month while impressive die-cutting and creasing equipment is on order to arrive in early August. The investment will double Sherwood’s capacity on foiling and embossing while the new automatic diecutting and creasing machine will run at three times the speed of Sherwood’s existing die-cutter.

Meanwhile, Sheffield-based specialist greeting card printer Loxleys has up-scaled its in-house digital printing capabilities, with the installation of a new Konica press for producing digital cards.

Commenting Alex Buck, Loxleys’ marketing manager said: “The consistent development of our offering to the digital sector is crucial for us, this is an area of our market that is continuously evolving and innovating, we have to be at the forefront of technologies, services and products to successfully serve our customers.”

This latest addition offers new possibilities to Loxley’s digital customers with an extended range of product capabilities alongside cards, notebooks and calendars.

Cardology’s Battersea Pop-Up Cards are among the finalists in the Brand & Lifestyle Licensing Awards 2022 (B&LLAs), with a number of other greeting card names also making the contenders’ list for 27 April’s ceremony at London’s Hilton Park Lane, hosted by Ed Gamble.

“We’re absolutely stoked by the further recognition for Above: Vibrant new branding for Loxleys’ this bestselling range,” says a delighted Cardology director Digital side.

David Falkner about the card collection being in the finals Left: Cardology’s Battersea licensed range has in the Best Brand Licensed Gifting Product or Range reached the finals of the B&LLAs. category. As David adds: “For us, it represents further Below left: Meg Hawkins’ licensed collaboration with validation that, even when economic headwinds loom, the market for premium card offerings remains Widdop & Co helped see the artist clinch a couple of contender places. strong, particularly when such products are aligned to brands consumers love.”

Those with affiliations to the greeting card scene took a further three spots in the same category with IG Designs’ National Gallery Delicious Art Range for Boots, Toasted Crumpet’s National Trust Explore & Treasure range and Portico Designs’ Sara Miller Orchard Gift Collection also making the grade.

Sara Miller - known for her card and wrap collections for The Art File and Portfolio (as well as having started out as a designer for Woodmansterne) - also features in three other categories, while artist and illustrator Meg Hawkins (who publishes her own greeting cards) also appears, with both also appearing in the Best Licensed Fashion Or Talent Brand category. Meanwhile Carousel Calendars’ Marine Conservation Society Sea Change 2022 Calendar is among the Sustainability Brand Licensed Product Or Range finalists.

Sharing Carousel’s delight in its Sea Change calendar reaching the finals, the company’s product, licensing and export lead Martin Rees-Davies said: “It has been such a team effort to develop our Plastic Free Packaged (PFP) product. It has been three years in the making, involving design, sales, production and printers to arrive at something we are really happy with for all sectors of the market and quite a challenge. We are also delighted to have been able to share our work with other calendar publishers in order to reduce plastic on all calendars sold, and for the calendar industry to be as environmentally friendly as it can. This nomination really helps to endorse that work and our drive for a greener planet.”

Meg Hawkins added her joy: “Absolutely delighted to be finalist in TWO!! categories, we’ve had such an amazing start to the year with the launch of the new Widdop and Co licensed range, among others launches of our own and new partnerships it shows our love and determination for our brand, this recognition is everything and more as it showcases what we have achieved so far as an SME. Since we started this adventure the B&LLAs have been a really big goal for us to be even nominated is awesome. So, there was a definite happy dance that day with our little team. Keeping our fingers crossed to the April 27."

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Self acceptance doesn’t mean you can’t have a laugh See it and say it how it is!

See our new brochure to find out more www.mint-publishing.co.uk Tel: 0116 230 4197 Email: sales@mint-publishing.co.uk

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NEWS TOP STORY

Greeting cards come out tops for gift indies

Below: Independent gift shops are feeling pretty buoyant about the future.

Below left: &Quirky is just one gift retailer that has expanded its card selection and its sales.

Survey reveals indie gift shops are feeling positive about 2022 Greeting cards were cited as having been the biggest boon to independent gift retailers’ business over the last year, with their investment in a wider card selection having been more beneficial than new customers or even the Shop Local trend.

The results from the recently published annual Progressive Gifts & Home Retail Barometer (instigated by PG’s sister publication), which tracks trade in independent gift retailers in 2021 compared to 2020, revealed that, despite having being closed until mid-April last year, it was a surprisingly good one on the whole for them. Over 90% of indie gift retailer respondents said their 2021 business had fared better or had remained on a par with 2020), with the average customer spend having increased and Christmas turning out to be a cracker.

In answer to the question “which main factors had a positive effect on your business in 2021?”, greeting cards took the top spot, jumping up four places from the 2020 survey, with almost half of those surveyed admitting that expanding their card offer had been the biggest benefit to their shop’s trade.

Attracting new customers leapt up two places to number two slot in the league table of business benefits, with Shop Local campaigns in third place, while a newcomer to the chart this year was retailers’ participation with online platforms such as Ankorstore, Faire and Trouva.

Which main factors had a positive effect on your business in 2021?

Retirement for Fiona Buszard

(Previous year’s position in brackets) 1 Greeting card expansion (5) 2 Upsurge of new customers (4) 3 Shop Local campaigns (2) 4= Participating with online platforms (-) 4= Promotional activity (3) 5 Product diversification (8) 6 Online/website activity (1) 7 Increased social media activity (6) 8 Collaborating with local businesses/groups (-) 9 Winning an award/media coverage (1) 10 Local competition closing down (7) Unsurprisingly, the Omicron variant was cited as having had the biggest detrimental effect (86%) on gift indies’ trade, followed by reduced visits from reps and agents, with 30% also citing fewer trade shows due to the pandemic as having been a dampener on their trade.

Three quarters of respondents confirming that they had expanded their ranges of more sustainable products while Made in Britain was deemed important to a whopping 91% of indie respondents.

As for 2022, there are high expectations, with 96% of gift indies predicting that they will see growth this year.

Sadly missed Long-time East Midlands greeting card agent Paul Brewer (left) has sadly died at the age of 68 after a short battle with cancer.

Paul began his sales agent career in the mid-1980s covering the Midlands and latterly represented Black Olive, Soosichacha, Louise Tiler, Lisa Angel, and Quire. Previously he had represented publishers including Emotional Rescue, Avanti, Aries and Paper Rose.

Alan Hawkes, former owner of Paper Rose and MD between 1984 and 2007, paid tribute to his best friend of 53 years: “Paul was much liked, and his warm charm, wit and integrity will be missed by his many friends and colleagues in the industry.”

Fiona Buszard, the long-serving art director of Simon Elvin has retired after 40 years in the greeting card industry.

“I have had such great times but I’m looking forward to not having to think about Christmas in the middle of summer!” said Fiona.

Having started her career with card company Image Arts as a studio junior, Fiona met Simon as he was the company’s MD. When the business was bought by Fine Art Developments, Fiona then spent 17 years at Kingsley Cards, becoming art director, before rejoining Simon at his eponymous company back in 1999.

Commenting, Simon said: “Fiona has done a fantastic job for us. My thanks and very best wishes go out to her for a happy retirement.”

Coinciding with Fiona’s retirement, Sarah Vockins has taken over the role of art director. “Sarah, who started with us 30 years ago, has worked closely with Fiona over the past few years to ensure a smooth handover,” said Simon.

Above: Sarah Vockins (right) is stepping up as Fiona retires.

Bex is larging it in Ulster Larger than life and twice as much fun that’s publisher Bexy Boo’s fabulous colourful characters who are now brightening up the streets of Coleraine in Northern Ireland thanks to the largest store in the province.

The greeting card department of Moores has bright windows facing the shopping area, but the flat brown veneer ends of the card racks were decidedly dull until Michael Gray, md of Irish distributor M.E.G Cards & Gifts, had a brainwave to pep up the fixtures with some of Bexy’s artwork.

“I was thrilled to have been asked to design some artwork for such a prestigious store,” Bex told PG. Michael and his team have full control of the greeting card supply to Moores, (one of four outlets in its Ulster Stores group), which is second only to Dublin’s Brown Thomas in Ireland.

Above: Bexy Boo’s artwork in situ at Moores.

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OVER THE

COUNTER

BY DAVID ROBERTSON OF JP POZZI, ELGIN AND BUCKIE.

The

Honesty

Mirror

Most of us, including me, believe that in all aspects of life, honesty is the best policy, so why do we not always adhere to this and what are the ramifications of straying into white lies?

Asking a staff member to tell someone on the phone that you are not in, promising to have that chat and then not following through may seem like minor things, but they set a precedent and it sets a tone. It leaves staff wondering if that is the way you deal with everything and that is not a good thing.

If we think about more serious aspects of business, such as cash flow, how honest can you be? This is always my biggest challenge, but I now pride myself on telling people when I can and cannot pay. I believe that most companies want that level of detail and if you give them a date that you will pay them, they will usually be fine with that. You just need to make sure that you stick to it. Basically, we can’t bury our heads in the sand.

I am not denying that following through on actions and being honest, like these simple examples, can be hard. It can expose you and show your weaknesses, but you will ultimately gain more respect and support.

I am struggling with how I feel about lots of aspects of my life at the moment and being honest with myself about sleep, diet, time management are things that are a constant struggle. The easy option is to blame work pressures, but in reality I just need to prioritise better. This is the reason that this week I stopped posting on my personal Facebook and Instagram pages though I am still active on social media for the business as these are necessary tools.

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Every month I sit down to write this column looking at a blank page and ask myself: “What it is I want to say?

What is it that I feel retailers like me are experiencing?

What are the issues that need to be addressed?” I always do this with one word burning at the back of my mind and that word is honesty.

Being honest is perhaps a given, but it is all too easy to slip into habits that may not be as clear cut as you think.

Above: Don’t be a monkey, just look into the honesty mirror urges David Robertson.

Right: Realising that there are others in the same boat as you, provides some comfort and helps you to face up to your challenges.

Below: It is now over two years since Boris Johnson told us all to stay at home.

This may be small steps but at least it is a start.

As I write this (on 23 March) we are exactly two years on since Boris gave that Churchillian address to the nation that closed our shops and plunged us all into a lockdown… “We need you to stay home…”

I am not going to go into politics, but the UK people on the whole followed what he said and did what they could to protect themselves and others.

In the early days in business terms, it seemed that the support was there. It seemed that they understood the difficulties that we all faced. Businesses large and

small were affected and many were offered help to survive. Yet here we are now all still suffering in retail from the long Covid tail with very little help available and many of us will have more staff off now due to the pandemic than before.

Our costs have not only returned to normal, but have escalated beyond what we could have predicted.

The lack of footfall being experienced across the country is partly a change in habits and partly due to everyone hurting in terms of their costs of living. Yet, knowing that doesn’t help.

The April date of increased NIC (where they asked us to remind staff what it was for in their wage packets) and increase in living wage will come as more blows, following on from the rising costs and the eventual re-introduction of business rates.

The mental stress of all this on so many good retailers who have found things constantly changing is enormous and many are finding that the joy is being sucked from them.

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OVER THE COUNTER We have seen six small businesses fail in the streets around us in the last six weeks and sadly I think there will be more to come.

The recent Budget simply had nothing for us.

Of course, we have nothing to complain about when compared to the plight of the people of Ukraine, whose lives are being destroyed and the country’s infrastructure damaged perhaps beyond repair, but like the brave Ukrainians, we cannot give up our fight.

While many are still benefitting from the Shop Local trend, shopping right now seems to have lost some of its gloss.

People are making do, they will celebrate more moderately. And this puts pressure on us and every other retailer out there.

A few weeks ago, on a Whats App retailer group of which I am a member, one person posted in the chat ‘Hey we have been really quiet’ and this then opened the floodgates for us all to say what we were all thinking and feeling with the resultant sharing of stories, concerns and problems certainly helped us to know we were all in the same boat.

As a child we normally have no issue in being clear in how we feel. We have little filter and have not been jaded by our surroundings. We don’t hold ourselves back because there is no reason to be consumed by what people think of us, giving life to the expression ‘out of the mouths of babes’.

As an adult however we don’t want to offend so we often find it easier to go along with a suggestion rather than challenge it as, let’s be honest, most of us want an easy life. Yet as business people our job is to challenge and ask ourselves questions every day as this is how we improve, stay on track, learn and grow.

I see so many businesses getting stuck. Stuck in a place that they no longer enjoy but where they can’t leave. So, what do you do to avoid this happening?

You should be honest with your staff, yet you don’t want to worry them. You need to be honest with your family so they can understand the pressure. You need to be honest about your success to maintain your own integrity. Think about it - you are asked every day “How are you? How is business?”

Above: David Robertson full of smiles at last year’s PG Live with Megan Purdie of Megan Claire.

Below: An inspiring book by the celebrated entrepreneur who champions honesty.

Below right: Don’t put your head in the sand, or even your nose, urges David R.

How do you answer those questions?

Responding to a member of the public with a glossed over response of “I’m fine/It’s hard going/it’s challenging/it’s fantastic” is perfectly acceptable.

However, if it is asked by a staff member whose hours are being cut, and explaining why can be more complicated.

If it is a trusted group with whom you discuss your business/numbers, I really believe you should use them as a sounding board.

Being in a business which is not working as you expect is a lonely place to be and in truth that is when you really find out what you are made of.

In his book Winners Never Cheat, Even in Difficult Times, Jon M Huntsman, who built a $12 billion business from the ground up, speaks about refusing to compromise on his core principles. He believes that you do the right thing, not because you have to, but because it is the only thing that leads to true success. He speaks about promises and says never give them out unless you will follow them through. As he sees it, that old word ‘candour’ will result in you being an effective leader.

Integrity means telling the truth, even if it is ugly and good leaders must be courageous and open to get the best results. They must also keep questioning

themselves. You can quickly find in this rapidly changing world that you may be right and wrong in the same day. Things can really change that quickly and each day is a challenge.

I know that there will be retailers and publishers out there right now who will be feeling isolated. I know that there will be some who feel the journey is up, while others are changing how they behave to try and survive.

It is not for me to tell you what to do.

You have to assess your own situation and make decisions that work for you and your business, but just be reassured that you are not alone and everyone has doubts, insecurities and issues.

My voice and your voice are valid. We are actually living the reality of working for ourselves and perhaps you feel like me that politicians and others are no longer listening to the small business community.

My interactions with local officials recently have been disappointing and I think what we bring to the diverse business landscape is now being overlooked, but blaming them will not bring solace or solutions, that is down to us.

Taking the time to plan the key points for the coming months for my business will be invaluable. I have written a long list that I must not lose!

Also being realistic in what I can do quickly and what will take time is crucial. I also can’t do all this on my own and will need help from a few different people to get me where I need to go.

I believe I will always find a way to make it work. I have identified my largest challenges and will continue to try to get the best out of my team, with honesty very much front of mind.

One final truth that has struck me in the last few weeks is the fact that my 50th birthday is looming soon - now that is something I can’t change and honestly have to face up to!

To contact David email: jppozzi@btconnect.com PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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cardsharp

Forever

Friends Cardsharp was saddened to learn of the death of Deborah Jones, the artist and creator behind Dino and Forever Friends. She died at the tragically young age of 62 after fighting pancreatic cancer for two years.

Cardsharp pays tribute to her life and legacy.

Cardsharp was shocked by the terrible news that Deborah Jones was only 62 years old when she passed away, but it made him reflect on what an impact this young woman has had on the greeting card industry. Cardsharp can’t quite believe that Dino, the range that changed the face of humorous greeting cards for ever, is over 40 years old and those Forever Friends’ bears are over 35 years old. The modern, iconoclastic and quirky Dino, the name Deborah originally designed under, was the top seller in WHSmith, at the time the leading greeting card retailer, when she was barely out of college.

Deborah created Forever Friends, that at its peak was a £300 million global brand phenomenon, when astonishingly she was still in her twenties.

Deborah first met the then young publisher and former wholesaler Andrew Brownsword in 1980 above a fish and chip shop in Reading where she was living at the time. Andrew could see the young student had an incredible and unique talent and even before seeing the results at retail invested heavily in Dino humour. But it was a few years later in 1987 that Deborah hit the stellar heights and came up with the two lovable bears that would

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PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

Above: Forever Friends, created by Deborah Jones has to rank as one of the best selling card brands of all time.

Left: Deborah Jones’ shy persona belied her exuberant creative drive.

Far left: When Forever Friends was celebrating its 10th anniversary it had won the hearts of millions.

Below: Cardsharp ‘bearing up’!

become Forever Friends. They were inspired by Alloysius, the teddy bear carried around by Sebastian Flyte, the debauched character in Evelyn Waugh’s novel, Brideshead Revisited.

In no time at all Forever Friends became the fastest selling greeting card range of all time, capturing the public’s imagination to such a degree that the cards would sell out as soon as they hit the racks.

It was hard to define the brand’s success. The bears had no names.

They were strangely sexless, almost androgynous, only differentiated by the odd ribbon. They were neither young nor old. They did not seem to have a huge personality. Yes,

they were cute, but so were many other greeting card animal characters, that had become before. But boy how they appealed to young and old alike.

Perhaps Cardsharp wonders, if it was their very absence of identity and personality that made the Forever Friends bears so appealing. The giver and receiver could almost inject their own thoughts and feelings into those round ursine characters. Without wishing to sound too pretentious (moi!!) the bears could be compared to De Vinci’s Mona Lisa. Their smiles were so enigmatic that you could put your own interpretation into what they were thinking.

Deborah by nature was a very shy and private person, in contrast to her partner in the success, Andrew

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Brownsword. Andrew was a truly gifted marketeer and could see that the bears could sell more than on just greeting cards. A hugely successful range of plush and stationery followed. Licensing deals meant that the bears appeared on everything from cookie jars to wallpaper and bed linen.

By the early 1990s it was estimated that 90% of teenage girls had at least one item of Forever Friends merchandise in their home. Forever Friends mania meant that at one stage, a retail shop opened in Leicester selling only Forever Friends merchandise.

Of course, given the Forever Friends’ success, there were bound to be imitators. And Cardsharp recalls that the retail chain Birthdays was just one of the many companies that Andrew Brownsword won legal cases against for plagiarism.

For a few years cute became the most popular greeting card genre, although none came anywhere near Forever Friends in terms of popularity.

But Deborah’s collaboration with Andrew Brownsword, was long and lucrative, establishing Andrew’s eponymous company as one of the most profitable companies in the UK. So profitable in fact that Andrew was one of the first greeting card industry members to be listed in the Sunday Times Rich List’s top 50 in the early 1990s. He even took the company’s financial status unlimited so he did not have to reveal the profits that the company was making.

Forever Friends’ success had not gone unnoticed across the water, and soon the world’s largest greeting card publisher, the mighty Hallmark was courting Andrew Brownsword.

Eventually in 1994, Hallmark acquired his company hook line and sinker for a figure thought to be in the region of £200 million. And, as part of the

Above: Andrew Brownsword with Deborah Jones.

Below right: Tears have been shed for the untimely passing of Deborah Jones, whose legacy includes Forever Friends.

Bottom: The Forever Friends design that features in the GCA’s Centenary exhibition.

Forever Friends movie but that never happened. In the UK subsequent Hallmark design and marketing teams have played around with the concept, inventing a bewildering array of sub brands and style guides for Forever Friends over the years.

While Forever Friends enjoyed a peak that lasted for longer than most, its ‘must have’ status ran its course. Ironically the cute mantle was then carried on by a former Andrew Brownsword employee, Stephen Haines, who went on to achieve great success with the ‘grey bear’ Tatty Teddy, the star of the Me to You brand.

Deborah, after a long break from greeting card design, did return to the industry with Ling Design, with a rabbit character, that some said looked very like the Forever Friends bear with long ears, but it was not a success. Like so much in greeting card history, timing is everything.

Yet to this day, the Forever Friends’ bears can still be seen on a variety of Hallmark caption cards especially at

deal Andrew secured a place on the Hallmark US board, the first Brit to ever achieve this position, giving him freedom to run the whole of the newly enlarged Hallmark UK operation. Andrew had played an incredible hand but without Deborah’s creations, such an amazing deal would never have been on the table.

In many ways, Andrew sold his eponymous company to Hallmark just at the right time. Forever Friends had probably just about peaked. Hallmark, one suspected, thought it could replicate the success of Forever Friends in its US homeland, but it never really took off there.

American consumers generally had a tendency to consider it as a children’s range and the cute genre never really materialised across the water. There was talk of a

Christmas. Not bad after nearly 40 years!

If it were not for Deborah Jones, the UK greeting card industry would not be what it is today concluded Cardsharp. Her designs caught the imagination of the public like no previous greeting card brand had ever done. She inspired a new generation of artists to recognise and embrace greeting cards as an art form in their own right. And her creations conveyed sentiment in a way no other social expression product ever did. Forever Friends touched so many of the public in so many ways and Cardsharp suspects virtually every female over 30 years old has their own personal story regarding how those bears affected their life in some way.

That is Deborah’s most amazing lasting legacy and a fitting epitaph.

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(e) sales@realandexcitingdesigns.co.uk (t) 01223 207 080

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VIEWPOINTS

Above: A thumbs up from the dragons at the recent GCA event. Left-right: Sean Austin, Austin and Co; Anita Thorpe, Diverse; Andrea Pinder, Presentation; Tim Reynolds, Medici Gallery; Shelley Sheridan, Heirloom; Shar Grothier, Sainsbury’s; Emma Hawkins, Fortnum & Mason; Holly Whait, Sainsbury’s; Claire Taylor, John Lewis; Abi Wilson, Sainsbury’s; Paul Taylor, Cardzone; Miles Robinson, House of Cards; Dale Boreham, Moonpig; Carlo Marinelli, Paperchase; Tori Heath-Smith, Paperchase; Priya Aurora-Crowe, Lark; Becky Collins, Funky Pigeon; Sandra O’Connell, Mooch; Sam East, Card Factory; Katie Salt, Card Factory and Mark JansonSmith, Postmark.

The recent GCA Dragons Speed-dating event was a major triumph for all in the Den - the 20 retail buyers who were the dragons as well as the 72 publishers who had them all fired up as a result of showing off their ranges via a series of fast paced pitches.

PG chased up some of the dragons to find out more about their experiences in the Den and what delights have caught their beady eyes.

Paul Taylor managing director of Cardzone, 180+ stores The Dragon experience: “I really enjoyed being a dragon. It was so great to see over 70 publishers large, small and the recently set up all having the chance to present their products to a wide choice of buyers. As well as being able to see so much great product, it was also so interesting to hear all about their respective businesses.”

Den delights: “We will most definitely trialling some of the ranges I saw at the Dragons event in our stores post Easter.”

Below: Paul Taylor (bottom left) enjoying the pitch from Paper Salad’s Karen Wilson.

Andrea Pinder owner of Presentation in Barrowford

Below: Andrea Pinder sharing a pitch with Medici’s Tim Reynolds from Deadpan’s Nick Padmore.

The Dragon experience: “Well it was certainly speedy!

With great guidance and energy everyone sped through it like a Ferrari at a Grand Prix. I was so impressed with the level of talented designers there from new and existing publishers.

I felt proud to share my 30 years’ of knowledge, experience and passion as a retailer and buyer with new and existing publishers.

It gave me great pleasure to give something back to support the industry I love. Long may we reign in bringing smiles, laughter and comfort through the sending of cards.”

Den delights: “Goodness, I saw so many lovely things, with very different styles! There were many that I would certainly buy from and I’m sure there was something there for every Dragon. The ones that I saw who personally stood out for me were Klara Hawkins Designs, Oliver Stockley, Sophie Pollard, Cardology’s Harry Potter range, CoolSource Cards’ juvenile humour Origamo’s 3D Florever cards and Jane Buurman’s beautifully stitched cards. Added to these there are plenty more talented designers whose sample cards were in my goody bag.”

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VIEWPOINTS Priya Aurora-Crowe co-owner of Lark, nine shops in London

Sean Austin owner of Austin & Co, Malvern The Dragon experience: “The event was a refreshing format to meet card publishers. As much as I love a trade show, it was great to hear all about their backgrounds in a concise format, and the opportunity to maybe ask some questions you'd dare not ask because they would be expecting that from a 'dragon'. Everything was constructive (it was too nice an atmosphere to be negative about anything!) and I feel both sides went away with a few industry nuggets they may not have been aware of previously. I'd recommend being a dragon to anyone in retail. Normally, my 11 years of card buying experience is bottled up or only shared with a few other retailers. It felt so good to pass on my experience of what works and doesn't in card retail, and it's great that the event taps into that knowledge base.”

Den delights: “Publishers that caught my eye at the event were Laura Niles, Cake & Crayons, Jen Winnett, Natalie Alex Designs and Purpose & Worth. I am still making my way through the 'goody bag' of samples from all the participating publishers and have made a note of a fair few that would not have been on my card radar previously.”

Above: (left-right) Sean Austin with Anita Thorpe of Diverse and Tim Reynolds of Medici Gallery.

Below: A design from Natalie Alex’s new Fairytales card range.

The Dragon experience: “I really enjoyed being a Dragon, sitting alongside some of the national retailers that I have always looked up to. It was so valuable to meet lots of new publishers and see the quality of the products they are creating. Looking on the internet just isn’t the same as you cannot appreciate the board, the finishes or get a feel of the people behind the brands.

The fast-paced nature of the event allowed us to see numerous new brands in a concise amount of time.”

Den delights: “We will be placing many orders as a result of the event with both new and existing suppliers. As well some of those I met, from the sample in my bag, Gentangle Designs’ cards really caught my eye as it has created localised card designs of areas in which we have shops. As a result, I will be stocking the cards in all our stores.”

Above: Priya (left) listening intently.

Left: Two London-based design from Gentangle Designs.

Sandra O’Connell co-owner of Mooch, four shops in Ealing and Fulham The Dragon experience: “Before the event, I felt I had imposter syndrome, wondering why I was asked to be a Dragon alongside much bigger retailers and so took it as a compliment to be involved. However, when I was there, I realised that I could contribute by encouraging and being supportive of new publishers, sharing my knowledge as a buyer.

I really like that the event brings together buyers from larger retailers as well as small independent shops. The choice of card suppliers is great and also gave me the chance to look at products I would maybe not normally think of stocking, and in doing so it took me out of my comfort zone.

I really like to be able to support small independent publishers and so it was a real bonus to meet them in person and start to build a good relationship. It was good to see some of my current suppliers, including I Drew This who we have stocked for years and whose cards are a firm favourite. Also, Penguin Ink, whom I met at last year’s event and has been supplying us since, as well as Paper Salad, who I love and order heaps from.”

Den delights: “I placed orders with three new suppliers a couple of days after the event while two other publishers had caught my eye in the past, so being able to meet and engage with them and see their products was a real help.

As a result of the event, I have placed orders with Stormy Knight. Meeting Sarah (Jackson) and seeing her goodies in the flesh really prompted me to start stocking them. I have also placed orders with Natalie Alex and Deadpan and I plan to order from a few more, some of whom I met, others that I discovered from my goody bag.”

Above: Mooch’s Sandra O’Connell (left) in a pitching session with Lucilla Lavender.

Right: A Deadpan design.

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VIEWPOINTS Shelley Sheridan owner of Heirloom, Teddington The Dragon experience: “I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but being a Dragon was so much fun and a really good way to meet publishers that I’ve not seen before. I’ve never talked so much at a trade event!

When Amanda said: “bring a suitcase”, I wish I’d listened. Carrying home a bag and rucksack carrying over 200 sample cards plus brochures on the Underground, was quite a feat in itself, but my daughters (aged 10 and 15) and I had the best time sorting through the card samples and making a list of the companies to contact and place orders.”

Den delights: “I’ve already been in touch with Say it with Songs to place a cards and gifts order. I went all out and spent £814.08 on the order across 28 cards designs, a pink spinner, tote bags and two sizes of cosmetic pouches.

Other companies I have short listed are Klara Hawkins for her All Things Nice and Pattern Delight ranges; Alphablots for its birthday cards; Marina B for its Jack Spratt male focus birthday range; Chadbrook Cards for its art cards; Helen Richmond for its female adult age cards and Penguin Ink for Above: Heirloom’s Shelley Sheridan (left) its Mini Hearts range. with Say it with Song’s founder Ellie Fitzgerald.

It was also good to see Paper Salad participating, from whom I regularly order; Hype, as I am just stocktaking my kids’ ranges with a view to ordering new designs after Easter and Meraki as the event reminded me to look over any new designs, resulting in a new order arriving instore today!”

Mark Janson-Smith managing director of Postmark, five shops in London:

Miles Robinson co-owner of House of Cards, seven shops in the Home Counties The Dragon experience: “I have been a Dragon before, but felt that this year’s participants were much better prepared and their ranges were of a higher standard, which bodes well for the industry.

I think it’s such a great event to network, spot potentially emerging talent and see progress on others.”

Den delights: “Of those I saw Aardvark impressed again as well as Sea Glass by Archie, Huxley Jones and Hype Cards, and I’m sure there will be some more gems in my sample bag!”

Above: House of Cards’ Miles Robinson with John Lewis’ Claire Taylor at the event.

Below: (right) Archie Archer of Sea Glass by Archie with Jen Winnett of Jen Winnett Art preparing to pitch.

The Dragon experience: “It was a really good afternoon. It was very well organised, packing so much into such a short space of time. It was great to catch up with many existing suppliers, meet new ones and also chat to fellow retailers. I enjoyed speaking to new publishers, hearing their ideas and backgrounds and hopefully the feedback I gave was useful to their continued development, taking them further on the road to becoming industry stalwarts. We really do work in a great industry and events like this remind you of that.”

Den delights: “I found a couple of very interesting new publishers and also reconnected with some more established publishers. I am still working my way through my huge bag of samples, but I am already in contact with Citrus Bunn and Lucilla Lavender, two of my six 'dates', to give a few new ranges a trial instore in the next month or so.”

Above: (right-left) Mark Janson-Smith with The Imaging Centre’s Simon Davis and Gentangle Designs’ Genny Rowson.

Right: Puns and art combine in Citrus Bunn’s designs.

Tim Reynolds manager of Medici Gallery, South Kensington The Dragon experience: “I loved it and felt honoured to play a part. As well as meeting the publishers it was also lovely to talk to my fellow indie dragons and even shared a ‘date’ with the lovely Andrea [Pinder].

Den delights: “I will definitely be placing orders with three or four publishers I saw. I was very impressed by Archie Archer of Sea Glass by Archie, the extraordinary artistic talents of JC Bradwell as well as the stunning 3D Florever cards from Origamo.”

Right: Origamo’s Furio Ceciliato and Chiara Sciotto promoting their Florever cards at the event.

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Worldwide Issue

As we all continue to witness the awful events in Ukraine wishing upon wish for this horrific war to stop, the urge to help, but not knowing what to do for the best grows ever strong.

PG shares just some of the acts of solidarity from those within the greeting card sector.

“I think most of us will have been watching the news with much sadness. As a business we can feel somewhat helpless, life here is carrying on, but what can we do to help?” said Emma Ball, founder of the eponymous greeting card and gift company, echoing the feelings of many others in the industry who are deeply affected by the huge loss of lives and devastation of livelihoods in Ukraine and wanting to do something to contribute to the war effort.

In a show of support for Ukraine, last month saw Emma Ball’s company donating 20% of any retail orders placed on its website 4-7 March to the DEC Red Cross Ukraine appeal, resulting in £600 being sent this worthy cause.

Emma’s main printer has also stepped up big time with Matt Boam, director of Print 4, having organised a 40ft container that has been delivered to its Nottingham factory which it is filling with necessary items needed by refugees.

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PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

Right: Many in the greeting card industry have donated to DEC, the Government backed Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal.

Below left: Emma Ball donated 20% of a long weekend’s online orders to the Ukraine Appeal.

Bottom: Determined to help - Print 4’s Matt Boam in his LinkedIn video.

Above: The Vladimir Putin dog toys that added bite to Austin & Co’s fight back.

Launching the campaign on LinkedIn, Matt declared, via a video his deepfelt feelings of being “lost”, and being driven by a need to “do something, that we all need to do something” to help the devasting situation.

The call out from Matt is for items including tinned food, toiletries, nappies, new thermal gloves (for adults and children), pet food, dry food, wet food and raincoats.

Matt is also calling for products for children, hoping that those in the industry can help with this. “Notebooks, pencils, colouring books, jigsaws, anything that can help keep children’s minds active and try and distract

them from the horrors of the war, would be so well received.”

Matt, whose other greeting card clients include The Art File and Little Dog Laughed, told PG: “Within a day of putting out the video on LinkedIn, we started to receive donations.

And, although we said we didn’t want to receive cash, some people have donated money which we have used to buy items from the local cash and carry and have showed the donators what they are paying for.”

With donated goods still arriving by the day, Matt is planning to get the container load out to the Polish-Ukraine border this month by partnering with some of the transport firms the company works with to make the journey the most sustainable.

On top of card publishers’ and trade suppliers’ efforts, independent retailers too have not been backwards in coming forwards in showing solidarity.

“Sat here in Malvern, in a shop that sells nice cards and stationery, it’s difficult to comprehend that less than

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Worldwide Issues

2,000 miles away, a major European country is going through hell,” admitted Sean Austin, owner of Austin & Co, the award-winning card shop. “I was thinking how a quirky independent shop in the English shires could help the cause and the only way I could think of was to do what we do best - a mix of our dry humour, quirk, and dogs,” said Sean.

With his famous love of pooches to the fore, Sean launched an innovative fundraiser, using Vladimir Putin dog toys to help Ukrainian rescue centres.

Although the item is no longer being produced, Sean set about securing as many versions depicting the Russian president as he could and took to social media channels to start publicising that he would donate all the monies from selling each £20 toy to the cause.

Within three days, the initial batch of 20 Putin dog toys had raised £430 with subsequent supplies seeing this figure increase to almost £1,000.

Sean has opted to send some of the money to the International Fund For Animal Welfare (IFAW), which supports two shelters in Ukraine and has been supplying resources like food and veterinary supplies with the remainder going to Transform A Street Dog, which rescues and rehabilitates street dogs in

Above: Some of the items that have arrived with Print 4 that will be making their way to help Ukrainian refugees.

Left: Jo Barber after a crazy weekend of fundraising in her Bedfordshire shop.

Ukraine and is also helping dogs that have had to be abandoned by their owners as they flee the mayhem.

“It was difficult to decide where to donate and which organisation was best placed to help out as quick as possible. It was also important that the funds raised actually went somewhere where there would be help on the ground,” explained Sean.

Fellow Retas’ winner, Number 14 Ampthill, owner Jo Barber has donated 20% of her instore and online takings over a recent weekend plus her charity carrier bag charge pot to the DEC appeal so that’s made a very impressive total of £2,377.49 so far, plus she will be adding the value of all loyalty points customers have surrendered.

“Like so many, I’ve felt completely helpless and incredibly sad watching the news unfold in Ukraine,” Jo said launching her Ukraine campaign on social media.

“There’s so little any of us can do, apart from pray for the safety of innocent civilians and help with the tremendous fundraising efforts.

To give you an idea how much even the smallest purchase will help, here’s an example - buy a single card for £2.95 and we will donate 20% = 58p. The Government will then match that amount, meaning that one card will raise £1.16!”

Encouraging customers to support the fundraising effort, Jo said: “When we watch the news this evening, nothing will have changed in Ukraine, we will still shed a tear, but hopefully we will have raised a lovely donation to help provide food, water, warmth and aid.”

She was not wrong, as the support from No.14’s customers blew Jo away.

“What a weekend - it’s been crazy, absolutely crazy but fabulously emotionally rewarding at the same time. We truly haven’t stopped, I can’t wait to go home and put my feet up because I really, really am knackered.

We’ve got the online sales, we’ve got the instore sales, and we’ve also got so many loyalty points that have been surrendered.

Thank you so! So! So! So! much, we have the best customers in the whole wide world, ever!” exclaimed Jo. PG is well aware that these are just a few examples of the fundraising initiatives and supportive actions from those in the industry with lots more activity still underway.

Nothing can bring back the lives lost, but the collective actions of those in our industry will play a part in helping those on their long road to recovery.

Crisis retailing Another indie compelled to do something to help the Ukrainian people, is Sarah Laker, owner of Stationery Supplies in Marple and Wilmslow, who joined forces with Dominic Phillips Art, to produce a beautiful and poignant charity notebook - featuring a sunflower image, with hearts and doves and the message Peace - Love - Unity - with all profits going to Ukraine Bright Kids Charity, who support children with disabilities and their families who are often unable to get to safety due to complex medical needs.

Sarah placed an initial order of 100 of the A5 notebooks, and within days had sold more than half at £4.50 each through her two stores and online shop. Once this initial batch has sold, she’ll take pre-orders for more.

Meanwhile Cardies in Stevenage is famous for ‘The Ponks’, its team of shop dogs, so owner Jo Sorrell has made the store a collection point for supplies of dog and cat food, coats, collars, leads, and towels that are being transported out to the AMA Dog Rescue charity that’s based in Romania but has stepped in to help the people and animals of Ukraine.

Left: The bespoke charity notebook from Stationery Supplies in conjunction with Dominic Phillips Art. Right: Dogged work - Orberry the Ponk checking out the first batch of donations at Cardies.

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LONDON STATIONERY SHOW 17-18 May 2022 Business Design Centre

Register today The UK’s only trade event dedicated to stationery, showcasing the biggest selection of writing and paper products from around the world.

Scan the QR code or head to stationeryshow.co.uk to register and enter code PROGGIFTS for the chance to have your passes upgraded to VIP. GH_Mar-Apr 2022.indd 1

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PG showcases a selection of new product launches

Daily Male Christine Gardner Design has just launched a new male card collection, Dot & Dash. As the range name suggests, the 12 designs are graphical in nature featuring lots of stripes, dashes and dots.

The cards are printed on 300gsm FSC board, are supplied with a card clasp, accompanied by a gold envelope. In addition, two complementary wrap sheet designs are also available.

Christine Gardner Design www.christinegardner.co.uk

Celestial Wishes Nature’s Feast

With strong themes of positivity and friendship, Tache’s Wild Moon range adds something to the party of life. The 28 designs, which feature 3D elements, are inspired by nature and combine symmetrical patterns with fresh pastel colours and typography.

The collection covers everyday sends as well as occasions, such as new baby and sympathy. The cards are printed on FSC-certified high-quality board and come with a patterned envelope.

Tache 01202 691 435 tache.co.uk

The new Songbirds & Seedheads range from Yorkshire greeting card brand Umbellifer celebrates some of our favourite birds in a distinctively modern and colourful style.

All the cards are blank inside and printed on FSC accredited paper that has been carbon offset using the Woodland Trust’s Woodland Carbon scheme. The cards are 100% recyclable and compostable and packed in plastic-free ‘cello’ bags.

Umbellifer 07510 874363 www.umbellifer.co.uk

On The Menu

Coasting Along

Poet and Painter’s Recipe collection serves up a whole new way to look at the recipes of life. No kitchen counter box file is needed for these cards, with all the ‘ingredients’ being of the non-food variety.

The 150mm square cards are blank inside, printed on matt FSC board and come supplied with a FSC white envelope, either naked, with a branded Eco-Clasp or in a labelled, fully compostable corn starch cello wrap.

Poet & Painter 07779 064894 www.poetandpainter.co.uk

Joanne Wishart has launched 20 new colourful everyday card designs into her Coast range. The bright contemporary designs are all based on Joanne’s beautiful coastal-related paintings, from scenes to fauna. The cards, which are all blank inside are printed on FSC certified board and come with a recycled white envelope.

Joanne Wishart 0191 252 2686 www.joannewishart.co.uk

Hello Petal The new Blooms collection from 1790 Cards is a reflection of the company’s founder/creative maestro Belinda Morris’ love of plants. Inspired by the flowers she grows in her own Yorkshire garden, the inaugural designs in this new range depict winter and spring favourites. The cards are 150mm square, printed on a FSC matt 300gsm stock and come supplied with a grey FSC envelope, either nested or wrapped in a compostable cello.

1790 Cards 01904 448130 1790cards.co.uk

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE 33

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Innovations February 2022_muk.qxp_38-39/40-41 06/04/2022 08:39 Page 35

PG showcases a selection of new product launches

What a Hoot Art Matters has augmented its popular Woodland & Field series based on the stunning artwork of company founder Lizzie Perkins. Tawny Tryst (featured) joins new designs of red kites, giant pandas and king penguins in the range based on Lizzie’s meticulously created multi-faceted artwork.

The cards are blank inside and 150mm square in format.

Art Matters 01491 671758 www.lizzieprints.com

Feast Your Eyes Bearing Up Carte Blanche Greetings has launched a large array of brand new designs across its Me to You Specialist portfolio covering Me to You Essentials, Signature and PhotoFinish looks.

Featuring cute new illustrations and an ontrend gilt-edged colour palette, these new designs are all about celebrating open birthdays and togetherness.

Carte Blanche Greetings 01243 792600 cbgtrader.co.uk

With a bright and bold colour palette, Ricicle Cards’ latest range, The Inking Rose, features hand-drawn typography and illustration. A tasty food theme features strongly within the 14 designs, dishing up depictions from pizza to pancakes, soup to cake. The range spans everyday birthdays as well as popular occasions.

Ricicle Cards 07850757676 www.riciclecards.com

Springing Into Life Fresh and joyously bright Lucilla Lavender’s new Zingy range chimes with Spring perfectly. This bright collection of birthday designs fizz and zing with the palette of fresh pinks, oranges, limes and blues.

Lucilla Lavender worked with Sweet Dimple to create this inaugural collection of nine 130 x 180 mm cards, each of which come with a white envelope.

Lucilla Lavender 0203 405 1410 www.lucillalavender.com

Collage Life Paper Rose’s new Artisan range is a collection of contemporary designs crafted from beautiful handmade papers and collaged patterns with fine black line work, gold stars and sparkly gems. The designs are finished with a detailed multilevel embossing and fine gold foil details to bring them to life.

Paper Rose 0115 986 0115 www.paperrose.co.uk

Artistic Influence In something of a departure from Coulson Macleod’s celebrated wordbased products comes its ‘William Morris’ range. As well as appearing on cards, the striking monochromatic designs have also been translated across the company’s gift products too, such as coasters and prints. The 15.5 x 10.9cm cards are accompanied by a soft blue envelope.

Coulson Macleod 01536 419944 www.coulsonmacleod.com

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE 35

Gary Leadston

Taking design cues from our NEW Specialist range, our beautiful NEW female designs are in store from July and available to pre- order from April It’s easy to order: Via your Business Development Representative, our Customer Services team on 01243 792600 or online at cbgtrader.co.uk www.cbgtrader.co.uk MTY_Cardgains_AD_A4_April_22.indd 29/03/2022 14:00 - 1 00_PG_April 2022.indd 1

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29/03/2022 16:43

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PG showcases a selection of new product launches

Orchidding Me Lettuce celebrate The Good, the Bad and the Slugly, the new range from Rusty Pencil. The illustrated plant pun designs are as puntastic as they come, with cheeky creepy crawlies giving an opinion. There are currently 10 designs in the collection, with more understood to be germinating soon! The 150mm cards come in a biodegradable cellobag.

Rusty Pencil 07970 950541 rustypencil.com

Driving Minis Smilies is Kali Stileman Publishing’s latest range for children and the young at heart. There are 40 designs in this new tiddly widdly card collection features a series of kitsch and kooky food items and objects with adorably friendly faces created in a palette of gorgeous bright and muted tones. The cards are printed on 350gsm FSCaccredited linen textured board.

Kali Stileman Publishing 01305 848899 www.kalistileman.co.uk

Pop-ular Culture Santoro has recently added a brace of brand new 3D pop up cards into its Pirouette, Pendulum and Swing cards ranges.

Fluttering into the Pirouette portfolio is a delightful new Hummingbirds creation (featured), which portrays an exquisite array of flowers and hummingbirds while an animal marching band design creates some noise in the Pendulum collection and a birthday cake design gets a slice of the action in the Swing Cards range.

Santoro +44 (0)20 8781 1100 www.santoro-london.com

Out Of This World The Space Cadets is the latest card collection from The Grey Earl designed especially for children, featuring specific age numbers for easy picking. The bold colours and designs featuring interplanetary adventures are bound to chime with a young audience. The cards are printed in the UK on FSC card while the envelopes are made from 100% recycled paper. They are available naked or in biodegradeable sleeves.

The Grey Earl 07973850321 www.thegreyearl.com

Extra Dimension Lucilla Lavender has just launched Scatterly, a colourful range printed on a beautiful board with detailed finishes. Many of the elements are embossed, including the text, thereby giving the cards a tactile quality, enhanced by gold foiling.

The collection comprises 20 designs covering birthdays and occasions, with imagery that includes plants, flowers, candles, balloons, birds, cocktails and hearts.

Lucilla Lavender 0203 405 1410 www.lucillalavender.com

Springing Into Action Growth is most definitely on the cards for Cherie Did This, as among the publisher’s latest additions are its Bloomin Lovely Plantable Cards that are printed on seed infused board. Former fashion illustrator and avid people sketcher, Cherie Jerrard’s skills extend into contemporary floral for this capsule collection. The wording on the rear of the card encourages the recipient to plant the card (preferably in the Spring) and then watch Mother Nature work her magic.

Cherie Did This cheriedidthis@gmail.com www.cheriedidthis.com PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE 37

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Focus on...male cards

Suits you, sir Informality is becoming the default position for men’s dress with the collapse in demand for suits, shirts and formal wear while athleisure garb has sashayed into wardrobes alongside other new behaviour trends and tastes from our menfolk.

PG ups its testosterone take to consider the zeitgeist male greeting card sends.

Modern or traditional? Gendered or not? There’s a real dilemma in the greeting card world over how to deal with cards for the male send as publishers understand the need to appeal to the widest market while also not alienating the diehard blue for a boy brigade. With next month’s PG’s covering the more humorous approach to catering for the males of the species, this article gets serious about boy talk.

The changes still rippling out from the pandemic are being felt quite deeply in the design ethos for male cards - shirt maker TM Lewin’s descent into administration for the second time in two years is a direct result of the collapse in demand for formal workwear.

Working from home was forced on most of the country in March 2020, at a time when the 120-year-old TM Lewin was operating more than 150 shops worldwide selling its collection of smart shirts.

Within weeks all stores were closed and it had moved to an online-only model but, with trading negatively impacted by ongoing work-from-home guidance as well as restrictions on large events and social gatherings, in mid-March one of the UK’s most famous tailoring and menswear brands was forced to call in Interpath Advisory which appointed Will Wright and Chris Pole as joint administrators.

Above: Shirts seem to be stuffed as tailor TM Lewin goes into administration.

Left: M&S is dressing down its suits to match modern styles.

Below left: The Art File’s Vertigo hits the heights.

Below right: Blue is a colour at WJB. Bottom: A design from Wishing Well’s Adventure Awaits range.

“Over the course of the pandemic, men’s apparel - and formalwear in particular has been one of the hardest hit parts of the retail sector, as work-from-home measures and restrictions on events meant demand for suits and formal tailoring waned,” Will said.

“Unfortunately, and despite the company undergoing a significant restructuring at the start of the pandemic which saw it move to an online model, the impact on this famous British brand has been severe. Our immediate priority is to explore options for the business, including a sale of the business and its assets.”

Even High Street staple Marks & Spencer has altered its offer, pulling men’s suits from more than half of its 254 bigger stores last year to only sell the products in just over 100 of its destination stores and online.

Rather than move completely away from workwear, M&S has adapted with a new Smart Redefined collection focusing on separates, which includes the broken suit - a blazer worn with jeans or chinos and a shirt - and refreshed the styling to show models sporting suit jacket and trousers with a sweater and trainers.

With men changing not only the way they dress, but also the way they see themselves and their roles as being at home more allows many to play a bigger part in everything from childcare and dog-walking to household chores and family activities, so card publishers are having to rethink what customers want - and expect - from greeting cards aimed at males.

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The GreATesT COLLeCTiOn OF GreeTinG CArDs in The WOrLD

Lots of happy, shiny people are looking forward to PG Live 2022…

“We can hardly wait to visit PG Live this June – great way to celebrate N&Q’s belated 40th anniversary with our UK friends and partners!”

“The PG Live show has such a happy vibe and energy. It is my favourite show of the year. I love that it focuses on just greeting cards and offers a mix of large publishers, established independents and new starters.”

Alan and Vanessa Harnik directors of Notes & Queries USA

SAVE THE DATE Don’t miss PG Live 2022

Tuesday 7 - Wednesday 8 June Business Design Centre, London +44 (0) 7734 111633 www.progressivegreetingslive.com @PGLiveLondon #pglive2022

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Georgina Black owner Pretty Shiny Shop London

“I really love Progressive Greetings Live – if you are a retailer reading this and have never visited, I implore you to put it on your list to go. We always come back with new and exciting ranges.”

Maggie Wynn owner Just Cards Honiton

The FuTure OF GreeTinGs Book your frEE TickETS now www.progressivegreetingslive.com

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Focus on...male cards

Shop talk

Manning up

There are over 27 million of them in the UK alone and every single one is different. We are talking about our menfolk here. PG put a trio of well-respected greeting card retailers on the spot to find out what non-humorous card ranges are chiming with their respective customers for a male send…

Alison Russell, owner, Conway Cards, Garstang “Nigel Quiney Publications’ male Pizazz range is a firm favourite, covering sport, drink, computer games and constant sellers Many Happy Returns and Have A Happy Birthday which are generic enough for even the most difficult bloke to buy for.

The new Recreation range from Words ’n’ Wishes covers the typical blokey topics like golf, cycling, and football, on a clean white board with simple, yet striking, illustrations.

Another new addition to our male range is Metropolis from Paper Rose, these are masculine navy board with stunning copper foiling.”

It’s clear that more than ever, there’s a demand for design-inspired cards for men. The Art File has had success in the Best Male Range category of The Henries awards in previous years, with collections such as Geronimo and Ink Press.

Now it offers Vertigo, a smart collection that combines eye-teasing designs with a clever use of hot foils, throw in a dash of humour, and the result is a range designed to stop you in your tracks.

This year, The Art File launched its brand-new male range You The Man following the requests from customers to create a male version of its award-winning Fierce & Fabulous collection.

You The Man celebrates diversity and empowerment at its core. Fashion-forward yet relatable, this range is inspired by men’s fashion magazines and editorial typography. The collection is tied together in a sophisticated colour palette with subtle patterns, deboss and gold foil for that extra something.

Above: You The Man from The Art File.

Gaining ground

Above and right: NQP and Words ’n’ Wishes sell well for Alison.

Michelle Kingscott, owner, Card Shack, Bristol “We absolutely love the ranges of cards by Bold & Bright and Studio Boketto.

Other cards we like for men are actually our newest, including Full Colour Black’s designs.”

Left: Full Colour Black is new at Card Shack.

Clanna Cards and Visoni.com have one of the largest selections of over 250 motoring, sport and travel cards available that are ideal for men of all ages.

The fantastic licensed ranges from The Brooklands Museum and British Airways, together with numerous sports, vintage travel, motoring, flying, and, of course, romancing, dancing and some drinking too, are all quite unique. The 7x5" cards are supplied cellowrapped with coloured envelopes and are printed in the UK. Some of the designs are also available as 50x70cm posters which are supplied around the world.

Right: Race ahead with Clanna Cards’ offer.

Hitting between the eyes

Marianne Livesey, owner, Risedale Road Post Office, Barrow-InFurness “Jonny Javelin provides my strongest seller for male cards. The publisher produces so many different ranges, catering for those who like golfing to horse racing, to gardening - and the open modern ranges are great too.”

Right: Jonny Javelin is strong for Card Shack.

“Men like colour too right?! Well, the titles Legend, Awesome Person, Beer-illiant and Super Fab all tick that box. With 24 designs to choose from in the range, not only do stand out but they are also on 350gsm, embossed and spot UV finished super fab indeed,” relayed Dominic Early, co-owner of Earlybird Designs of its new Super Fab range. This new eye-catching neon range is printed on FSC-accredited and carbon-balanced board.

Left: Earlybird’s bright colour is spot on.

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

41

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Focus on...male cards

A royal welcome

Bringing it into focus

King For The Day is a brand-new collection of 32 standard cards and 30 large cards from Five Dollar Shake. Fresh, contemporary, masculine inspirations are brought to life with beautiful engraved embossing and subtle metallic foils - forget one for the boys, think marvellous men!

Right: They’re all kings at Five Dollar Shake.

In the groove Long-time cartoonist and graphic artist-illustrator Marty Juchnevic is hoping retailers will fall in love with his supergroovy series of famous faces immortalised on to cards and posters in an original and eye-catching style. Good for the male send, Londonbased Marty’s relatively new Groovy Art brand offers a wonderful collection of distinctive, funny and fashionably groovy greeting cards and digital poster pop art prints.

A major national collection like the Natural History Museum contains such a huge variety of artefacts in its archives that there is almost endless scope for design inspiration.

This spring, Museums & Galleries launched the Wildlife Photographer Of The Year card collection under licence from the NHM, and the publisher thought there was also the potential to celebrate the zoological illustrations in the museum’s archives too, in a re-conceptualised fine art NHM card range.

Ben Dorney, creative director of M&G, explains: “The aim was to develop a bolder, simpler style which really showcased the amazing archive illustrations in more detail while also adding a palette of on-trend, retail-friendly colours.”

The vibrant results were on display at Spring Fair and have had a strong positive reaction from retailers appreciating the range’s on-trend appeal. There are 12 designs in the launch, featuring popular animals like tigers, peacocks, hedgehogs and butterflies - plus the NHM’s star diplodocus gets a moment to shine!

Above: M&G’s Natural History Museum range is a roaring success.

Above: Fashionably groovy famous faces.

On the road Sky’s the limit The Twilight range from Louise Tiler Designs is a modern and vibrant style with birthday imagery that appeals to a wide range of male recipients. With 11 designs currently on offer, there are more in the works to boost a collection that has interesting textures and finishes with engraved foil patterns within the illustrations, and a striking patterned envelope completes the look.

Above: Go out of this world with Louise Tiler.

The team at Wishing Well Studios, part of Carte Blanche, is thrilled to introduce two brandnew male ranges for 2022.

From coast to countryside, adventure awaits with vibrant colours enhanced by the spot UV coating in the Adventure Awaits collection. The matt gold foil and kraft envelope complete this new male range.

Displaying bold colours, the Wheels male range incorporates gold foiling to lift the designs off the page coupled with the modern transport.

Above: A ‘wheely good’ design from Wishing Well Studios.

In the be-ginning Gin enthusiast and Poet And Painter designer Bryn Dineen: “We make cards that aren’t specifically gendered, but we often find certain designs particularly appeal to men, and they can be billed as cards for the boys. We find themes like sci fi, beer and film, get a very good reception.”

Left: Beer gets a good reception at Poet and Painter.

Cheers me dears!

The Tipsy Tipple collection from Marina B Designs is a great male focus range. The 155x155mm Tipsy Tipple designs are on 350 gsm board.

Left: Get tipsy with Marina B.

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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Focus on...male cards

When the clock strikes Using a wonderfully-curated colour palette of olive greens, rusts and deep tones, the Midnight collection is Raspberry Blossom’s first purpose designed male-focused range.

Launched at the recent Top Drawer, the design inspiration across all eight products is drawn from graphic packaging of male products and colour blocking, using three different print finishes to produce a brilliant final design. Midnight uses a clever combination of blind embossing, spot-UV and more traditional embossing to create and highlight stunning textures and shapes. With this level of detail, the recipient of this luxury card can enjoy a wonderful level of craftmanship and really engage with the design also.

The range name was influenced by the time of day Raspberry Blossom founder Rebecca Green had to design when having a baby and toddler to look after!

Right: Deep tones feature in Raspberry Blossom’s Midnight range.

Less cheese please “I get my inspiration from things I love, maybe throw in a pun and opt for a deeper colour palette. I dislike labels and stereotypes so I try my best not to add to that by sending a message through my cards that a certain colour belongs to one gender, but I hope I'm striking the right balance,” reveals Ricicle Cards’ owner David Nichols-Rice about his approach to designing. “When it comes to birthday cards that are more aimed at men, I have in the past found them cheesy and unrepresentative. I don't necessarily want pints of beer, golf or football scenes personally so, when it comes to creating my own and particularly with this range, I opted for bright, bold colour palettes. I find foods are easier to work with - cake, pancakes, pizza, even noodle soup!”

Design-asaurus from WJB While Wendy Jones-Blackett of the eponymous company admits that her fave colour of blue is still her go to for male designs, the publisher’s mint green Gelato dinosaur design is currently one of her favourites. “We have two boys who were dinosaurmad when they were younger, it was quite the learning experience and I can probably still name most of them,” reveals Wendy. “Dinosaurs have an innocence to them with children, you can keep it light but there’s a wealth of information to be had and I think you’d quite likely send this to an older chap too as it’s fun. Dinosaurs are quite on-trend in the design world this season too!

The publisher’s Quicksilver, Gelato and Hey Fresco ranges all include male designs, with foiling both cold and hot, and all done in the UK. Above: Foiling sparks off WJB’s designs.

Left: Fab food from Ricicle Cards.

Broad male perspective At UK Greetings, the team understand that everyone is unique, every taste is different, and every relationship is special.

Which is why the publisher always ensures its card lines have a strong mix of designs and sentiment to choose from. The publisher understands that, to offer the best cards, they need to be both meaningful and relevant to customers.

From traditional scenic illustrations to editorial-led humour, from grandsons to husbands, they have a diverse line with something for everyone, and have also included best-selling favourites, such as Boofle to add even more breadth and choice, Left: Boofle is one laid back male from UKG.

Daily male

Left and above: ICG mix modern and traditional.

International Cards & Gifts recently launched the new Brighstone range of male-orientated cards in a lovely, watercolour-style design.

The Brighstone designs arrived instore ready for January and initial sales indicate this traditional art style has been well received

by ICG customers.

The publisher has tried to create a traditional card with a heartfelt verse but featuring more modern content such as skateboarding, music, and gaming, to name a few.

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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In Conversation With... Noel Tatt

Tatt That Trio The UK greeting card industry is well blessed with plucky entrepreneurial businesses, but you’d be hard pressed to find a story that would match that of Greeting Cards by Noel Tatt, the unlikely origins of which all started at RAF Stafford, when teenager Noel, then editor of the airbase’s newspaper boldly decided to print 8,000 Christmas cards to make some extra money, selling them at tuppence a piece.

PG ventured to Canterbury to discover more about the past and present of this respected third generation greeting card publishing business.

There is no denying that publisher Noel Tatt is a mainstay in the UK greeting card industry.

The wall of Henries trophies that take pride of place in the publishing company’s main office stand as testament to the incredible level of service it gives to its 2,000+ independent retail customers. The £110,000 it is has just sent to the Help group of charities takes the company’s donations to well over £2 million as a result of the sale of its range of Christmas cards, while its Impress Publishing side provides a publishing and fulfilment service to over another 30 charities.

Continual investment in its publishing programme (of over 1,000 new designs annually), from its stalwart Cube photographic range to its latest stream of contemporary Murano and Zari collections as well as ongoing development of its planning services puts Greeting Cards by Noel Tatt firmly in the heart of the mainstream UK greeting ard industry.

“With the exception of the Covid year, we are very fortunate to have grown year on year for the last two decades, thanks to the support from our customers,” states Jarle Tatt, managing director of the family business that was started by his father Noel. Sitting next to him is the company’s operations manager, Andreas Tatt, Jarle’s 46

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

Above: Noel Tatt’s first ever Christmas card, printed in 1948.

Right: (right-leftt) Noel, Jarle and Andreas Tatt, outside the company’s Canterbury premises.

Below left: The latest metal stand for Noel Tatt’s Christmas boxes.

Below right: Murano is one of the latest ranges from Noel Tatt.

son who joined the business in 2018, following a period of working in Western Australia as a project engineer for an iron ore mine.

While Jarle has no intention of retiring anytime in the near future, thinking ahead he gave Andreas five years to think about whether he would be interested in joining the company, thereby providing something of a third generation succession plan.

“It was never a boyhood dream of mine to run the business, but having spent some time working in America, for Burgoyne, a respected publishing business, I wanted to put into practice the things I had learned with our business,” says Jarle thinking back to his own experience.

Likewise, Andreas says he is so glad that he is able to bring the lessons he has learned from his

work elsewhere into the business. “I thought seriously about Dad’s proposal for me to join the company for a few years and then on Christmas Day 2017 gave him my answer and I certainly don’t regret it. Weirdly there are a lot of shared skills needed in iron ore mining and running a greeting card company

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In Conversation With... Noel Tatt

Left: Noel Tatt’s planning service has seen the company offer integrated displays for many retailers.

Right: The distribution arrangement with US-based 3D company Up with Paper, now includes artwork created from Noel Tatt’s UK studio.

Below: One of the many Cube designs.

Below right: Over the years, Noel Tatt has donated over £2 million to the Help charities.

- both are centred around people and processes though with greeting cards you do have creativity as an added bonus,” says Andreas. Another added ‘bonus’ is that Andreas’ wife Chloe has also joined the company, as customer services manager while their adorable rescued boxer dog, Pablo is also now a firm fixture in the Noel Tatt office team.

Although no longer involved in the day to day running of the business, the company’s 92 year-old namesake, who lives locally, retains a keen interest in its development.

“We owe so much to my Dad’s boldness and early entrepreneurial spirit. I am amazed by some of the pioneering ideas he had and the risks he took. It is now up to us to continue to protect and progress the legacy,” says Jarle. Having recently given a series of talks about the company’s colourful history to

various organisations, he has spent some time reflecting on its triumphs and tribulations as well as the changing shape of the industry.

“There are always challenges in business, it is how you adapt to these that matters and for that we have a lot to thank the members of our team, many of whom have been with us for years,” says Jarle, highlighting Michael Griffiths, the company’s popular sales manager who has worked for the company for over 30 years as one of the stars. “The issues Dad faced when he was running the business are different to those of today, with the wave of current escalating costs and shipping complications certainly proving testing to many of us in the industry,” adds Jarle.

As to the one thing both Jarle and Andreas have learned from Noel, with a shared smile, Andreas quipped: “To be patient with your son!”

The early chapters From its unexpected origins over seven decades ago through the twists and turns of the ensuing years, Greeting Cards from Noel Tatt has an interesting tale to tell…with many chapters still to be written.

During his National Service, based at RAF Stafford, the 18-year old Noel became editor of the base’s newspaper, called The Raven, which was the emblem of the station. As well as writing the articles and sourcing the adverts, it also ignited Noel’s interest in printing and sparked the moneymaking idea to produce some Christmas cards featuring The Raven emblem. He didn’t hold back, going for an initial print run of 3,000 cards, each selling at tuppence a piece, that he followed up with a batch of another 5,000 cards.

“He certainly had some gumption as back in 1948 the sending of Christmas cards was not as popular as it is now and tuppence each did not make them cheap either. Good for Dad!” said Jarle.

Following demob, Noel placed a job advert in The Times offering his services, which saw him landing a job as a junior journalist at Burke’s Peerage in London’s Fleet Street. While his heart was not in journalism it was in printing. Having started with a small letterpress printer, Noel then purchased a larger one and started producing cards of the local Folkestone Parish Church, based Above: One of the designs from the Champion Productions range. on the designs of talented artist Bernard Driscoll.

Noel took it upon himself to rent a shop in the run up to Christmas to sell various local view sketch cards as well as Christmas cards from Valentines of Dundee. He then took to the road on his secondhand Lambretta selling his growing portfolio of local view sketches, of Margate, Folkestone, Canterbury and Hastings before moving into everyday cards as well as personalised Christmas cards for customers of Harrods, Liberty’s and Fortnum & Mason.

Admittedly not everything Noel tried was a complete success. As a result of Noel’s Australian actor friend Vincent Ball’s contacts, Champion Productions, a venture into publishing greeting cards based on photographs of famous football players, from George Best to Bobby Moore, did not score any goals, despite the photographs having been donated by the players and no royalties expected!

However, 74 years on, Greeting Cards by Noel Tatt is most definitely still in the game.

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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Focus On... Stationery

There have been lots of pros and cons to the working from home (WFH) trend, but some of the positives have to be the elevation and appreciation of stationery products, that has brought benefits to retailers and suppliers alike.

Added to this the state of digital fatigue looks to be expanding with younger generations grasping the delights of non-tech paper products, and delving into the joys of journal-keeping, list-making, and simply writing things down.

Elphicks department store is one retailer that is taking on board the growing love of luxury stationery as it’s about to launch a Campo Marzio shop-in-shop, showcasing the timeless designs of the exclusive Italian brand.

Meanwhile, the support for British business Papier, which has built its reputation on providing everything needed to support the consumer’s writing through its online-only offer, has recognised our ever-escalating stationery appetite as ideal timing to raise over £47million from investors to continue its mission worldwide.

Papier’s product portfolio includes greeting cards, notebooks, invitations, diaries and planners, and it’s encouraging for the whole sector that millennials are its biggest

The traditional ‘office’ has changed forever thanks to Covid19, and the proof can be seen on the desks of today.

With many people forced to work from home during the pandemic, consumers have continued to stock up on their own work essentials with more attractive notebooks and pens combined with sustainability being very much the name of the game.

It’s all a far cry from the satire portrayed in TV’s classic comedy The Office by David Brent and his team at the Slough branch of Wernham-Hogg paper merchants.

In the run up to the imminent Stationery Show, PG found out about how our ‘staple’ diet is much more interesting these days.

Top: WFH has allowed workers a break from the boredom satirised in The Office.

Left: Campo Marzio’s products spell Italian style.

Above: Papier’s product portfolio targets millennials and GenZ.

demographic, accounting for 53% of its sales, with GenZ users its fastest-growing segment.

In its founder and ceo Taymoor Atighetchi’s opinion, these products address a certain aesthetic that is emerging among younger consumers, swimming in a sea of apps, where they are actively looking for alternatives to the screens that define so much of the rest of their lives.

Amplifying Taymoor’s views, from a retailing standpoint that straddles both the physical and the digital, retailer Sarah Laker, who owns Stationery Supplies Marple as well 48

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

as the online Giraffe Gifts platform, opened her second bricks and mortar shop in Wilmslow during the pandemic.

Tracking the buying patterns Sarah explained: “The first lockdown was a frenzy of sales as we entered into a true unknown.

Everyone needed stationery - people working from home and those homeschooling their children and, alongside that, people wanted things to do like crafts, jigsaws and art products.

But, as the pandemic wears on, buying patterns have shifted. We’re now selling less traditional core office stationery, but more gift stationery. I think people have got digital fatigue and are turning back to more tangible things like notebooks and journaling.”

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Focus On... Stationery

Sarah has also clocked how not having ready access to the office stationery cupboard has seen new customers shopping locally which has resulted an increase in the sales of “more stylish, rather than functional, notebooks. Customers are also loving the cheeky humour of Knock Knock list pads, sticky notes and Dean Morris pens,” she says.

On other trends, Sarah adds: “A sustainable offering of stationery is now a must. Leading the way here with stylish, practical products is Vent For Change, whose strong message of sustainable stationery that both protects the planet and supports children’s education projects worldwide is respected by customers. And, oh my word, no pencil case is complete these days without an erasable pen! Market leaders Pilot Frixion are being chased by Legami’s range of cute animal-themed pens with short motivational sayings on them, both brands are refillable which is definitely a plus point for customers wanting to cut down on singleuse plastic.”

Independent retail advisor Henri Davis, who has specialised in stationery for three decades, working with big names such as National Trust, WHS and Scribbler, is now

also seeing the industry from the other side of the counter as she now has her own store in the gorgeous Cornwall fishing port of Coverack.

Having taken over Coverack Village Stores during the early pandemic, Henri ensures that she stocks essential stationery and packaging. “As you might expect there are clear trends in who buys what, local residents buy the essential envelopes and tapes etc, and our older shoppers like captioned cards for events. Visitors and younger shoppers prefer the local cards by local artists and, I can confirm, postcards are still incredibly popular!” says Henri.

As Henri told PG: “There seems to be a hangover from or development of the trends we were seeing before the pandemic in 2020,” - and stationery is very much part of this movement.

Above left: Fitting her resident stationer tag, Sarah Laker loves all things stationery.

Below: Henri Davis is now seeing the industry as an indie retailer.

Shop talk Alison Russell, owner, Conway Cards, Garstang: “We’ve sold Ginger Betty cards for three years so we were delighted when we saw the new notebooks with the delightful owls, hedgehogs and rabbit designs from the Owl’s Nest range.

The RSPB range from Otter House is brand new in and, with everything from address books, to do lists and password books to notecards, pens and jotters, we’re sure these will be great sellers. They have environmentally-responsible packaging and support the charity.

Wrendale Designs is also one of our customers’ favourite brands and has a beautiful range of hardback, wirebound notebooks, illustrated writing paper and envelopes, shopping pads and meal planners.”

Pen poised for London Stationery Show London Stationery Show is all set to be a celebration of stationery. As well as bringing buyers and stationery brands together, the exhibition, which takes place 17-18 May at London’s Business Design Centre, will also provide an opportunity for retailers to improve their skills through an education programme, which includes Retail Matters live talks, Creative Matters Workshops and 1-2-1 Business Advice Clinics. To register, go to www.stationeryshowlondon.co.uk

Café culture “We were inspired to start Coffeenotes because we’re passionate about stationery, and sustainability,” Chess Brasington, marketing manager of Coffeenotes told PG. “We want to offer eco-conscious stationery lovers something new - exciting collections which celebrate recycled and repurposed papers.

Our name is an ode to our signature text paper, which is made from upcycled coffee cup waste - and the feelings of joy, relaxation and purpose you get when you sit down with a cup of coffee, and open a notebook.”

Having launched last year, the company is already be working with many independent stockists across the UK and is exhibiting at the London Stationery Show in May. The range includes notebooks, notepads, cards, gift wrap and more. The eight collections showcase cover papers made in part from industrial and consumer waste, for example, the Tailor’s Collection is made from repurposed textile waste, and the Beer Collection is made from spent brewer’s grain.

Below: Waste not want not - Coffeenotes’ collection uses waste products

Left: Cuteness abounds with Alison’s stationery offer from Ginger Betty, Otter House and Wrendale

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Focus On... Stationery

Elphicks x Campo Marzio Italian style is about to become more attainable with a link-up between Rome-based stationery and accessories brand Campo Marzio, Manuscript and Elphicks department store.

Manuscript has recently been appointed the UK stationery distributor for Campo Marzio and, as part of the brand’s growing prominence in the UK, it is being launched as a shop within a shop at Elphicks department store in Farnham, Surrey this month.

“We selected the brand as it gives us an understated contemporary range in a warm colour palette which will appeal to our discerning customers. We will be stocking a range of notebooks, pens, vegan leather handbags, and man bags,” Elphicks’ group buyer Alison Brookes told PG, “Campo will be supplying fixtures and signage to create a shop in shop in our gifts/accessories area. A display stand of pens will be positioned at our till point between accessories and cards/gift wrap and there will also be a table-top display in our men’s dept.”

Founded in 1933 in the exclusive Campo Marzio artisanal area of Rome, the company has been creating stationery, bags and accessories ever since, now operating in over 30 countries.

Javier Sáinz de los Terreros Elizalde is ceo of the company’s London operation and says: “In a nutshell we sell everyday products with timeless designs of simple lines with bright and vibrant colours that breathe Italian DNA all over it - with colour, Italian style, and versatility.

The spirit or essence of the brand always lies in the joy of using the product. It has a gift or self-gift character that is present throughout our assortment. Our customers' new ways of living and existing also influence us when it comes to designing versatile and contemporary products.”

Above: Campo Marzio offers timeless designs with Italian DNA for discerning customers.

Big thoughts in small packages The Dinky Thinkie packs from Dandelion Stationery contain 40 multi-use mini notecards. Perfect for gift tags, reminders, place cards, mini memos, and lots more.

Printed in the UK on sustainable 300gsm board, there are eight different designs available to order in multiples of three.

All good days start with a good old list. Compile your weekly food shop or the days to-do list with Dandelion’s magnetic list pads. There are six designs, and each pad contains 50 easy-tear, individually-printed pages and is supplied in a biodegradable cellophane bag. Printed in the UK on luxury FSC paper, the magnetic strip on the back will stick to any metal surface so will always be within reach when stuff needs to be added to the shopping/to-do list, then you can tick everything off and enjoy the feeling of easy tearaway pages! Available to order in multiples of six.

Dandelion’s A6 notebooks are printed in the UK on luxury FSC paper with soft covers, each notebook containing 96 lined pages, supplied 100% naked. Available to order in multiples of three.

As well as a special CSD, Dandelion can also supply wrapping labels. Each pack contains 24 glossy wrapping labels on an A4 sheet, supplied in a cello bag with an integrated euro hook.

Left: Notebooks and magnetic list pads are among Dandelion’s offer.

50

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

The birds and the bees Recently launched by Emma Ball are some beautiful hardback address books and softbound notebooks. The A5 address books come in two designs - Bees and Diving Puffins - and they have 12 pages for notable dates and tabbed pages for all your addresses. The notebooks, available in 12 designs, are softbound with 80 lined pages and a matching marker ribbon.

Below: Emma Ball offers address books and notebooks.

Cover stories Flame Tree Publishing has recently launched its Artisan Art notebooks series, featuring a range of hues to suit the moment and magnificent, debossed art on the vegan leather cover.

Designs include William Morris’ Acanthus, Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, Hokusai’s Great Wave and more - and the handcrafted notebooks have with decorated edges overflowing with petals, teasing vines and patterns.

A unique blend of the practical and beautiful, with two ribbons and lined pages, the Artisan Art notebooks are perfect for notes, creative writing, poetry, doodles and lists. With many more designs to come in 2022, this new range proved a huge success at Spring Fair.

Below: Flame Tree’s Artisan Art includes Hokusai’s Great Wave.

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Focus On... Stationery

On the sustainable button

A positive mix up

Rachel Hare, Belly Button Designs’ founder and creative director, is very proud of the company’s pretty new notebook range: “We're really pleased that our fullyrecyclable notebooks are out there in the wild!

We believe it's important that we do all we can to make our business and products as sustainable as possible and we're so proud of these beautiful notebooks.

Some of the key features of the new range include: Above: Pretty examples from Belly l They are fully sustainable.

Button’s new range. l Ribbon is made from wood file. l Glue is water-based. l The notebooks open out fully flat which is easier than a normal notebook. l The notebook can be disposed in your recycling bin - yes, you really can put them straight in there!”

Jumble & Co is a brand-new range of stationery products from Collins-Debden. Jumble celebrates all those emotions with a colourful range of stationery products for everyday life, from dated and undated diaries and notebooks to be organised, through bottles to stay hydrated, to scented candles to help you relax.

As marketing manager Richard Sloan summed up: “We know that life is anything but linear, with a blur of highs and lows, wins and losses, cheers and cries. And, while some days can be remarkable, others can be pretty forgettable, and we think that is OK. Each product in the collection is available in a range of vibrant colours, with each colour representing an emotion.

Life is a Jumble and we are so here for that!”

Below: Brightness from Collins-Debden’s new Jumble & Co brand.

The art of the matter Eddie Clarke, licensing manager of Museums & Galleries says: “One only has to notice the increasing number of M&G stationery spinners appearing around the country to realise the company has come a very long way in developing an exciting and retail friendly journals and notebooks offer. There is a significant amount of consumer choice, and multiple formats, with the company innovating constantly.”

New for 2022, by customer and agent request, are two beautiful password books with storage pockets, bookmark ribbons, and tabbed alphabet password sections.

M&G hero designs feature on the hard covers - Hokusai’s iconic wave from the British Museum on one, and Liberty Prize-winning young designer Catherine Rowe’s stunning Bee pattern on the other.

M&G’s beautiful A5 soft cover journals are, for many, a magical combination of usability and beauty of design and production. Artwork really shines on the soft-touch covers, many of them embellished with foil. Foiled or coloured edging on the paperblocks adds distinction and sets off the cover design.

All M&G’s many licences feature in this collection, notably the V&A and Matthew Williamson, and there are also great pieces from the British Museum, Natural History Museum, and Tate Gallery.

Expanded this year are mini ranges from three of M&G’s new designers, Sarah Campbell, Catherine Rowe and Helen Ahpornsiri for Wild Press.

Taking note New to Wrendale’s best-selling stationery range is its set of three notebooks available in three different themes. Each set includes a lined, dotted and blank notebook, perfect as a gift, and comes packaged inside a plastic-free paper wallet. All of the board is sustainably sourced and has a textured feel and features best-selling watercolour illustrations from artist and company founder Hannah Dale.

Below: All set with Wrendale’s trio of notebooks.

Above: M&G’s hero designs feature on its password books and A5 journals.

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

51

ART SOURCE

FINDING QUALITY TEAM MEMBERS Looking for Artists, Sales Agents, Sales Representatives, Marketing Managers, Designers or Product managers?

Talk to us about our Integrated Recruitment Package.

An advert in PG magazine’s Appointment Section and a month’s worth of adverts on our digital news feed, BUZZ PG BUZZ.

TO APPEAR REGULARLY IN THE

ARTSOURCE SECTION OF PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS CONTACT TRACEY ARNAUD ON 01234 740 051

52_PG_April 2022.indd 1

For more details contact Warren Lomax on warren@max-publishing.co.uk or Tracey Arnaud on Traceya@max-publishing.co.uk

31/03/2022 11:13

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Art Source

Well Seasoned

Far left: Charlotte Pepper was always destined to have a creative career.

Below: Charlotte provided the illustrations for this book from Little Tiger.

In terms of style, I have a few techniques in which I like to work. I love to collage and create layering so that the pieces look hand rendered. I often start off the good old-fashioned way by painting textures and creating markmaking, and scanning these into the computer. I find this gives me the fluidity of something hand-painted, and that I don’t have to over-think the final outcome or be too precious with my marks. Then the real fun begins when I can manipulate these digitally, and that’s when my artwork I grew up in Staffordshire, and from a very really begins to take shape. young age I just loved to draw and make things.

I love the looseness that results from layering and At school I was advised my options for a working with opacities. I also really enjoy playing around with career choice were either graphic design or interesting composition, scale and cropping. I love to create interior design, but I knew that just wasn’t the landscapes and nature studies in this way with animals and sort of creativity I wanted to explore. birds also often featuring in my work.

My first real inkling that there were more In quite the opposite way, I also like to work quite avenues out there was when I did a two week bold and graphic, especially when creating characters, work experience in the design department of a whether for children’s books or stationery. I like them to ceramics company and I was in my element! come to life with a personality in I then went to Staffordshire University, the little world they live. graduating with a degree in Surface Pattern Design. Above: Nature features When thinking of new ranges in many of Charlotte’s I so loved the diversity of the course, which explored designs. for greeting cards, I think Right: Interspersing soft furnishing design, ceramics, rugs and greeting lettering-based designs are artwork with lettering is one of Charlotte’s skills. card design. always popular and so versatile. I Left: A bold approach Almost immediately like to create bold alphabets with from Charlotte for this children’s card design. after graduating I applied for Bottom: Gibsons’ which to work and tend to make two weeks work experience Rainbow Heroes jigsaw pattern a key component. puzzle that Charlotte at a greeting card publishing was proud to work on, I recently worked on the celebrating the company. Those two weeks pandemic heroes and Rainbow Heroes jigsaw for raising money for the turned into 19 years Gibsons Puzzles which was to Samaritans. employed as an in-house honour keyworkers as we struggled through the designer! But then I decided it was time Covid pandemic. For me this was monumental to be contributing to to take the plunge and become a something which felt so important and meaningful. People often freelance artist. ask: “Do you get excited to see your work in print?” While it is I wanted a different work/life balance and something that always really pleasing when you see what a publisher has done gave me more freedom in lifestyle and in creativity, and with your artwork, and to know that that one that’s when I was lucky enough to be taken on by artists’ greeting card or one book will hopefully make agency Advocate Art. someone smile, to see that jigsaw in print was a This means I now have the opportunity to work on really proud moment. so many fabulous projects with many different clients.

Everywhere I go, my mind is constantly While my passion is still very much with greeting cards gathering ideas for new work from the simple and stationery, being with Advocate has allowed me to things I see around me. It never seems to switch branch out into other areas such as children’s books, wall off! It can be exhausting being a designer(!) but I art and puzzles, and to work for clients all over the world. wouldn’t have it any other way!

Growing up in sunny Staffordshire, Charlotte Pepper spent much of her childhood drawing and painting, collaging and doodling (ruining a few good carpets in the process!) and there was never any question she wanted a career in design...or "colouring in" as her family like to call it!

Here she shares more about her creative life and loves…

WANT TO BE FEATURED?

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

53

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PG ASKED A SELECTION OF RETAILERS FOR THEIR BEST SELLERS. Serge Sumerling, co-owner of Nor, Norwood.

A bijou card and gift shop in a south London suburb.

Category

Name of Publisher

Product/Name Range

Comments

Everyday

Pigment

“Great for female birthdays.”

Caroline Gardner

Alice Scott; Fleet Street Generally

The Art File

Vertigo

“Design-led with a contemporary feel which appeals to 20-50 year old London gentlemen.”

Humour

Sally Scaffardi Design

Only Bloking

“Really good puns, often with a fun sporty twist.”

Photographic

U Studio

Generally

“Great…I do feel though that there should be more choice for photographic cards.”

Children’s

The Pop Out Card Co

Generally

Right: The Pop Out Card Company adds another dimension to cards!

Caroline Gardner

Ages

“They allow the child to make the character on the card.”

“Lovely cards.”

Giftwrap

Glick

Generally

Male Right: One of many pun-ny designs from Sally Scaffardi’s Only Bloking range.

“This brand has a following from our customers.”

“Selling well as its products appeal across the board.”

Julianne Moore, director of MiMi, Hartley Wintney and Wokingham.

A duo of boutiques selling cards, gifts and clothing in a Hampshire village and Berkshire market town.

Category

Name of Publisher

Product/Name Range

Comments

Everyday

Five Dollar Shake

Generally

Right: A male orientated design from Laura Darrington’s Glow Collection.

Janie Wilson

Super Duper Ooh La La

Laura Darrington

The Glow Collection

Two Little Monkeys Dandelion Stationery

Generally Generally

Peartree Heybridge The Eco-friendly Card Co Woodmansterne Ginger Betty

Camilla & Rose Billy Showell

Kali Stileman

Little Letters

Adult ages

Wendy Jones-Blackett

Stars

Right: One of Billy Showell’s delectable floral creations from The Eco-friendly Card

Hearts Designs

Mad Dots

Giftwrap

Artebene

Rollwrap

“Hand-embellished with diamanté etc make them special for birthdays.”

“A colourful, vibrant and fabulous illustrated card range.”

“Including embossed abstract designs which are popular with male customers.”

“Perfect for all relations.”

“Funny cards for most occasions.

The new parent and ‘off to Uni’ cards are always so popular.”

“Old fashioned humour that most people can relate to.”

“Perfect for gardeners and lovers of the RHS. Often bought in multiples and framed.”

“Dog scenes that are super cute.”

“Gorgeous illustrations. Can’t wait for a children's book to be released.”

“Miniature cards that are great as present tags too.”

“The number is in the middle. So simple, but best sellers.”

“The 18 and 21 male designs with their diamanté black ties are particularly popular.”

“All colours, plain and patterned. Perfect for most occasions.”

Relations and Occasions

Humour

Art Photographic Children’s

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PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

Loose Leashes Owl’s Nest

54-55.qxp_Grid 31/03/2022 17:28 Page 55

Katrina Raill, senior manager of Etcetera, Hitchin.

A popular medium sized card and gift shop in a Hertfordshire town.

Category

Name of Publisher

Product/Name Range

Comments

Everyday

Caroline Gardner Louise Mulgrew

Cut & Paste Generally

“Strong sellers.”

“The new animal cards are absolutely fab.”

Hammond Gower Belly Button

Generally Bleu

Five Dollar Shake Rosie Made a Thing Crumble & Core Life Charms Glick

Midnight Garden Gin & Frolics Earring cards Sentiment bracelets Generally

Gisela Graham Parlane Silk-ka Deluxe Homeart

Generally Generally Generally Battery operated candles

Adult ages

Humour Little extras Giftwrap

Gifts

“Age 70 designs seem to be particularly popular right now, for some reason.”

“You can’t beat it.”

“Very popular.”

“Easy to post inside a card.”

“Huge selection, great prices and a lovely company to deal with.”

“We are doing well with faux flowers and plants from these three companies.”

“Our newest find.”

Above: A Cut & Paste design from Caroline Gardner.

Right: A new look Midnight Garden design from Five Dollar.

Savita Marsh, co-owner of Northwood Cards & Gifts, Northwood.

A busy medium sized card and gift shop in Northwood, Hillingdon.

Category

Name of Publisher

Product/Name Range

Comments

Everyday

Janie Wilson

Ooh La La; Super Duper Ooh La La

Five Dollar Shake

Midnight Garden

Rachel Ellen

Pink Fizz

Paperlink

Mimosa; Made with Love Cuckoo; Etched Gin & Frolics

“Beautiful, colourful foil cards, including smaller sized versions.”

“Loving the new take on these.

They are selling extremely well.”

“Bright neon… we love the colour and shimmer!!”

“Great for our customers who like less glitz.”

“Proving to be good sellers.”

“Still a very strong favourite with all ages.”

“The publisher is a winner for its art ranges.”

“Hot sellers which our customers and stock up on.”

“Crosses over between humour and art - beautiful and stylish.”

“Lovely cute and uplifting designs.”

“Good addition to our ages ranges with stand out gold colouring.”

“Fabulous. It has been such a success with our customers.”

Right: A Super Duper Ooh La La design from Janie Wilson.

Below right: One of the metal bookmarks from Oli Olsen’s Metalmorphose collection.

Humour

Pigment Rosie Made a Thing

Art

Woodmansterne Green Pebble

Sanderson; Clive Nicholls Generally

Pigment

Life in Pencil

Thinking of You

Rachel Ellen

TLC; Shine

Ages

IC&G

Make Your Wish

Relations and Occasions Giftwrap Gifts

Cherry Orchard

Grace

Glick Oli Olsen

Generally Metalmorphose bookmarks Cosatto baby bibs

Ziggle

“Tops for gift wrapping, including beautiful new bags.”

“Lots of these metal bookmarks are passing through the till.”

“A constant pick-up for all the mummies.”

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

55

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PRODUCT DIRECTORY

l PRODUCT DIRECTORY

l PRODUCT DIRECTORY

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

Publishers of quality blank greeting cards Tel: 0115 929 4776 enquiries@bugart.co.uk Order Online

www.bugart.co.uk

To appear in the Product Directories contact Warren Lomax T: 020 7700 6740 warren@max-publishing.co.uk or contact Tracey Arnaud T: 07957 212 062 traceya@max-publishing.co.uk

www.bexyboo.co.uk 01565 830 546

Te l: 01638 5 6 9 0 5 0 w w w . a b a cu s c a rd s . c o . u k E ma i l : i nf o@a ba c us card s . co . uk

To appear in the Product Directories contact: Enquiries: warren@max-publishing.co.uk or Tracey Arnaud traceya@max-publishing.co.uk

56

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

@BexyBooLtd

BexyBooLtd

@BexyBooLtd

warren@max-publishing.co.uk or Tracey Arnaud traceya@max-publishing.co.uk

Classified Complete 2021.qxp 04/04/2022 13:10 Page 57

l PRODUCT DIRECTORY

PRODUCT DIRECTORY

To appear in the Product Directories contact Warren Lomax T: 020 7700 6740 email: warren@max-publishing.co.uk

Greetings Cards Plush & Giftware Gi G ft Dressings & Wrrap Gift

l PRODUCT DIRECTORY

To appear in the Product Directories contact Warren Lomax T: 020 7700 6740 email: warren@max-publishing.co.uk

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or contact Tracey Arnaud T: 07957 212 062 email: traceya@max-publishing.co.uk

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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

PRETTY ELEGANT DESIGNS | LONDON

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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

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SALES AGENTS WANTED

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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PRODUCT DIRECTORY

l PRODUCT DIRECTORY

l PRODUCT DIRECTORY

Faulkner’s Gallery

60

Crocko Poo • Designer Puppy • Low Maintenance • Eats Anything • Can Be A Bit Snappy

years

Your Number One Supplier of Numerals, Name, Relation & Age Labels for Greetings Cards.

John Faulkner’s artwork probably represents some the mo distinc humor image availa today To view: www.johnfaulkner.co.uk which also includes trade information To contact: sales@johnfaulkner.co.uk

Huge selection with immediate delivery. Buy direct or from your wholesaler.

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from the

Including firm favourites and brand new designs Brands include: Keepsakes, Words of Love, Jelly Beans, Bella Rose, Champagne and many more

To appear in the Product Directories contact Warren Lomax T: 020 7700 6740 email: warren@max-publishing.co.uk

High Quality Greeting Cards, Gift Bags, Gift Wrap & Ta Tags for every occasion.

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or contact Tracey Arnaud T: 07957 212 062 email: traceya@max-publishing.co.uk

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)

CHARITY GREETING CARDS 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.

Innovative high quality gift wrap, gift bags, tissue paper and accesssories galore for all seasons and occasions.

01274 655980 sales@glick.co.uk glick.co.uk trade.glick.co.uk Glick Gift Packaging Ltd Unit 1 Allenby House European Ind. Park, Knowles Lane Bradford BD4 9AB

Hallmark Cards PLC Dawson Lane, Bradford, BD4 6HN UK&NI: 0800 90 20 900 ROI: 012 480 104 customerqueriesUK@hallmark.com

@glickgiftwrap

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PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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

Classified Complete 2021.qxp 04/04/2022 13:15 Page 59

PRODUCT DIRECTORY

l PRODUCT DIRECTORY

l PRODUCT DIRECTORY

p p paperlink... the home of fabulous cards!

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

+

originalposter.com

All our cards are supplied on consignment, so you only pay for what you sell.

We also supply card fixtures and spinners free-on-loan.

We replace slow sellers and damaged stock free of charge.

356 Kennington Rd London SE11 4LD T 020 7582 8244 info@paperlink.co.uk k www.paperlink.co.uk Paperlinkcards

@ @paperlinkcards

We merchandise regularly, so you don’t have to.

THAT’S WHY WE’RE ORIGINAL!

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Exquisite Designs Beautiful Cards Key br ands include: Wr ite from the Hear t Ar tisan, Marzipan, Capisco Designer s Guild, Clare Tupperr Lucy Ledger plus man y more

Great brands, Great service Bespoke planning We can help with all your planning l i requir i ements.

From smaller displays to redeveloping complete card departments

t: 0208 6138 085

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Quality Greeting Cards Greetting i g Card C ds An exciting and innovative range of quality Birthday, Relations, Special Occasions, Handmade, Art and Humorous greeting cards. Full range of Christmas and Spring Seasons merchandise.

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To appear in the 24/02/2022 15:51 Product Directories contact Warren Lomax T: 020 7700 6740 email: warren@max-publishing.co.uk

B rand N ames a Pizazz, Pizazz Gallery, G Pizazz Limited Edition, E Pizazz for Men, Doodle, D A of Nature, Whatt a Picture, Art Designers Corner Cloudesley House, Shire Hill, Saffron Walden,, CB11 3FB

T: 01799 520200 F: F: 01799 520100 www.nigelquiney.c w ww.nigelquiney.com ww om

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or contact Tracey Arnaud T: 07957 212 062 email: traceya@max-publishing.co.uk PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

59

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PRODUCT DIRECTORY

l PRODUCT DIRECTORY

l PRODUCT DIRECTORY

7RPFDW &DUGV 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.

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

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

www.tomcat.cards info@tomcat.cards

Products: Greetings Cards, Gift Wrap, Gift Bags, Social Stationery, Partyware

Brands: Blossom & Bows Card Essentials Greetings Impressions In Touch Isabel·s Garden Planet Happy Sentiments With You In Mind Word Play

Method of sale: Wholesale Distributors

Simon Elvin Limited Wooburn Industrial Park, Wooburn Green, Bucks HP10 0PE Tel: 01628 526711 Fax: 01628 531483 www.simonelvin.com mail@simonelvin.com

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PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

The UK’s leading publisher of highest quality handmade Greetings Cards.

Products: Greetings cards for all occasions, Christmas and Spring Seasons. Spinners and other retail displays available.

Talking Pictures Cards Ltd 14-20 Eldon Way, Paddock Wood, Kent, TN12 6BE

Tel: 01892 838574 enquiries@talkingpics.co.uk www.talking-pictures.co.uk

Classified Complete 2021.qxp 04/04/2022 13:20 Page 61

PRODUCT DIRECTORY

DIRECTORY OF WHOLESALE

Market Leaders in

Verse

& entimen

an extensive range of superior quality,

design-led Greeting Cards for all occasions, Spring Seasons & Christmas.

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

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

To appear in the Product Directories contact Warren Lomax T: 020 7700 6740

We offffer a COMPREHEN

range of high Greeting Cards f ALL

Occasions,

CHRISTMAS an Season f Sale:

To appear in the Product Directories contact: warren@max-publishing.co.uk or Tracey Arnaud

mail: inffoo@words-nWeb: www We w..words-n-wishes.co.uk

Tel: 01942 233201

warren@max-publishing.co.uk or contact Tracey Arnaud T: 07957 212 062 traceya@max-publishing.co.uk

traceya@max-publishing.co.uk

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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DIRECTORY OF WHOLESALE

CLASSIFIED

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BAGS We’ve been producing p bags of high clarity and high quality q for over 30 years.

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Classified Complete 2021.qxp 04/04/2022 13:20 Page 63

CLASSIFIED

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l CLASSIFIED

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PRINTERS

ENVELOPES

FOR ALL YOUR ENVELOPE NEEDS! Largest range of in-stock colours Over 400 Bespoke Envelope Sizes 8 Sizes Permanently in Stock RECYCLED

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ORDER ON LINE AT:

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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 TARY RY YOUR COMPLIMENTA ENVELOPE OR NOTEBOOK WATCH PA PACK SWA

SPECIALISTS IN SHORT RUN MULTI IMAGE PRINT s Foiling Services without the need for dies s Wiro bound notebooks, no minimum quantity s In House Fulfilmment Services

T 01274 305832 E info@hellocards.co.uk www.hellocards.co.uk

The simplest way to order your greetings cards

FLITTERING FOR ALL YOUR FLITTER REQUIREMENTS

ABL Foil Ltd Unit 1, Industrial Estate East Hanningfield Chelmsford Essex, CM3 8AB

Contact DAVID JIGGINS Tel: 01245 400104 Email: david@abl-ltd.co.uk

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Unit 8, Archers Park, Branbridges Road, East Peckham, Kent TN12 5HP www.theimagingcentre.co.uk Email: info@theimagingcentre.co.uk Tel: 01622 871449

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Social Sta tationerry Printer of the Year

Award winning U UK & Global specialist manufacturer ffor the greeting card industry fo or over 40 years To discuss how we can worrk together, contact Richard Bacon: Tel 0115 928 7766 Email ric chard.bacon@sherwoodgroupuk.com

www.sherrwoodgroupuk.com Hadden Court, Glaisdale e Parkway, Glaisdale Drive West, Nottin ngham NG8 4GP

WAREHOUSING & DISTRIBUTION

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DO YOUR DISPLA AY YS GENERA AT TE SALES?

Are you a Greetings s Cards Consignme signment Operator?

Are you looking for an exclusive range of Everyday & seasonal products to distribute?

We’re expanding and looking to develop our network with the right calibre of people who share our passion for greetings s cards and are industry professionals.

Interested? Then we’d love to hear from you.

Contact Jonathan Waterson on 07854 776 307 www.plan-it.cards

JOB OF THE WEEK ADVERT

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Please contact Deb or Sally on 01234 381214 3 or email info@pineapplepark.co.uk www.pineapplepark.co.uk

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67

Contact our Customer Service team hello@secondnature .co.uk | +44 (0) 1983 209 590 Or call your local Sales Consultant

REGISTER AT SECONDNATURE.CO.UK TO ORDER ONLINE OBC_PG_April 2022.indd 1

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