Progressive Greetings Worldwide - August 2016

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Leader

On The Cards Heard about the 14 year-old girl who took on Britain’s supermarkets and won? Thought about how 5p has changed the way we shop?

Don't wait for a punchline to what sounds like the start of two connected jokes (I really am not known for my comedic delivery!). These are both facts, major changes that are being made as a result of what, at first glance, might be shrugged off as ‘what’s the point?’

But while many are now regretting not voting in the EU referendum, 14 year-old Lucy Gavaghan, on learning that millions of eggs sold in supermarkets come from hens kept in cages about the size of this edition of PG, decided to make a stand, took her story to the national media and inspired hundreds and thousands of people to support her.

As a result, Tesco, Morrisons and Asda have all now announced they will stop selling eggs from caged hens.

Good for her.

Think about the dramatic effect the introduction of a 5p charge for plastic bags has had on shopping habits in the UK. In England alone, in the space of six months, there has been an astonishing 85% drop in single-use plastic bags. A 5p coin is seen as small change, but asking consumers to use it to pay for something they used to accept without thinking about has made a big change.

So, what’s all this got to do with greeting cards?

Again, this is no preamble to a joke, but just a reminder, in the run up to the third Thinking of You Week, of the positive force a little gesture of sending someone an unexpected card to say you are thinking of them will have, not only on the recipient, but those around them, as well as the sender - you!

Above: Talk about someone that makes a difference, Lynn Tait (right) of the The Lynn Tait Gallery instigated a massive Design a 90th Birthday Card for the Queen competition with local schools and displayed all 1,500 entries in her Leigh on Sea shop. Seen here in her shop with PG's Jakki Brown. (See pages 67-69) Left: Flaming go! PG's Warren Lomax (left) wore a shirt at Harrogate Home & Gift that matched the Sara Miller giftwrap collection on Penny Kennedy's stand. Seen here with PK's Kathryn Fletcher.

Below left: Some of the sparking stars at The Retas awards, Cards R Us' Amanda Lockwood (left) with her Silver Ticket and Peter Whiteman of Dzodzo with his Golden Ticket. (See pages 32-45).

When I heard the news about Lucy’s triumph with her egg campaign, I felt chuffed that this plucky youngster had persevered with the courage of her convictions and pleased that I had played a tiny role in that I had signed the petition.

At a time when the political scene is all over the place, when scenes of cruel destruction are becoming increasingly common, we in this industry have something which, despite being smaller than the cages hens are forced into, or the 5p plastic bag, can be a real force for good.

The GCA-instigated Thinking of You Week (which this year falls on September 26 - October 2) is a great reminder of what power we all have in our hands.

Thinking of you all!

www.max-publishing.co.uk THE HOME OF MARKET LEADING TRADE MAGAZINES

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The B2B Publication For Preschool Products and Retailers

EXHIBITIONS

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Contents

What’s Inside 55

58

33 11-23 News 24-25 Over The Counter

The Pursuit Of WOW! Independent card and gift retailer, David Robertson, co-owner of JP Pozzi in Scotland, discuses the pursuit of the ‘wow factor’ in retail.

32-34

58-59

The Retas 2016

Retailer Face To Face

Star Gazing

Dragonfly Flutters Its Wings

Party pictures from The Retas Awards’ The Moon & The Stars themed event last month.

PG catches up with recent Retas winners, Rachael Barnes and Rita Knibbs, co-owners of Dragonfly Cards & Gifts in Knaresborough.

35-45

The Retas Awards Winners 2016

61-63

26-27

47-53

64-65

Cardsharp

Innovations

What’s Hot?

54-55

67-69

Design Spotlight

Lynn’s Lines

Diverse Direction

Long Live The Community

How Britain’s diversity is enhancing the richness of greeting card design.

70-83

Into The Void Cardsharp muses over topical events happening in the industry.

29-31 Viewpoints

Scoring High In Wales A number of this year’s Retas Awards’ Welsh finalists and winning retailers explain why Welsh card stores are triumphing in the retailing league.

Art Source

Classified

56-57 Jeremy’s Journal

By Association Blue Eyed-Sun’s Jeremy Corner discusses the value of trade associations.

Progressive Greetings is a monthly business magazine.

SUBSCRIPTIONS: UK subscription: One year £50 Two year £85 Three year £110 Overseas subscription: One year £75 Jakki Brown

Warren Lomax

Gale Astley

Editor

Advertisement Director

Deputy Editor

jw@max-publishing.co.uk

warren@max-publishing.co.uk

galea@max-publishing.co.uk

SUBSCRIPTIONS ENQUIRES: maxsubscriptions@marketingreinforcements.co.uk Tel: 020 8943 9541

PG is the official magazine for the Greeting Card Association GCA: Sharon Little 020 7619 0396 Email: gca@max-publishing.co.uk www.greetingcardassociation.org.uk Use your smartphone app to scan the QR code to visit our website.

Copyright© 2016. 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.

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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NEWS Giles Strikes A Chord

TOP STORY Below: All The Retas 2016 winners on stage at The Dorchester Hotel.

Star Catchers

The Retas Celebrate The Brightest In The Cosmos The UK’s stellar greeting card retailers were officially recognised at The Retas greeting card retail awards ceremony, which took place last month at The Dorchester Hotel, London.

The sell-out event, which this year took on a ‘The Moon and the Stars’ theme, was attended by over 425 greeting card retailers, publishers and suppliers.

Hosted by celebrity Tim FitzHigham, The Retas 2016 saw greeting card retail stockists, from right across the retail spectrum, be recognised, rewarded and celebrated.

Now in their 12th year, The Retas are organised by Max Publishing, owner of Progressive Greetings. Welcoming guests, PG’s editor and co-owner Jakki Brown said: “It’s very apt, given that last night was the premier of the Star Trek Beyond film, it was Captain Kirk of the fictional Starship Enterprise who said his mission was to 'Boldly go where no man has gone before'.

Well, The Retas 2016 finalists and winners have really gone where few greeting card retailers have gone before, whether through the service they offer, their product selection, their display acumen or through their marketing initiatives.”

In addition to a host of delighted indies, who won the regional awards, Bentalls of

Kingston won the Best Department Store Retailer of Greeting Cards award, Sainsbury’s was feted in the Best Supermarket Retailer of Greeting Cards category and Card Factory received the Best Specialist Multiple Of Greeting Cards award.

It was a very memorable afternoon for Waterstones, which not only won the Best Non-Specialist Multiple Retailer of Greeting Cards, but also received the ultimate Greeting Card Retailer of the Year trophy.

Appropriately, given the astrological theme of the event, Claire Fitzgerald, Waterstones’ card buyer, commented: “I’m absolutely over the moon about it, as is everyone else at Waterstones’ Head Office and in our shops!”

The Retas also raised £5,300 for The Light Fund charity through a stunning raffle.

(See pages 32-45 for all the winners and photographic evidence of The Retas event).

With an impressive list of greeting card and book successes to his name, Giles Andreae is well used to hitting the high notes with his way with words. However, his linguistic talents have struck a new chord recently as one of the songs (Son I Know the Angels) from his debut album (Songs from a Father) reached the finals on two counts in the American Songwriting Awards.

Sharing his inspirations and aspirations, Giles told PG:“For me, a good song is always about making a really personal and intimate connection with the listener - producing that “wow, that’s exactly how I feel too!” kind of response. In that way, I find it actually very similar to writing an effective piece of editorial for a greeting card,” Giles told PG.

As he pointed out, a lot of pop songs are about love won and lost “which doesn’t feature so much in the everyday life of a happily married 50 year-old! Nevertheless, I’ve written about the kind of stuff that is important to me now - family, children, friendship, support. I’d be delighted if it touches just one or two other people too just like my cards, I guess!”

Above: Giles Andreae in musical mode.

Never Daunted! GCA AGM Gallops Forth Hot on the heels of Waterstones being awarded two Retas trophies, the book retailer’s head honcho, James Daunt, has been confirmed as one of the keynote speakers of this year’s GCA AGM. Keen exponent of retailing greeting cards alongside books, James Daunt, md of Waterstones and founder of Daunt Books will join ‘greeting card laureate’ and author Giles Andreae (creator of Purple Ronnie, Edward Monkton and cocreator of Happy Jackson - see above right) in headlining at the GCA AGM on November 8, taking place at the Royal Horseguards Hotel, just off Whitehall.

"This year's AGM is already looking extra exciting!" enthuses Sharon Little, ceo of the GCA. "James Daunt and Giles Andreae are such heroes in the industry, and the spectacular venue will also play a starring role! There are great views of the River Thames and The London Eye, and the hotel's stunning interiors are great examples of high Victorian ceramic art. There is also a beautiful oval marble staircase reminiscent of the Vatican museum – and all in central London."

The AGM will take place in the morning and will be followed by lunch in the venue's Gladstone Library.

Above: The head honcho of Waterstones James Daunt will be speaking at the next GCA AGM..

Grand Prix Success It was recently pole position for Wendy Jones-Blackett's Classic Cars design when celebrity chef and acclaimed 'petrol head' James Martin (left) featured it as his birthday meme on Facebook and Twitter.

A revved up Wendy told PG: "It’s a card design that Glick has licensed and this is the flat wrap. James Martin obviously has friends or relatives with excellent taste!"

Right: Classic Cars designed by Wendy Jones-Blackett and published as giftwrap under licence by Glick.

Front Page News Fanfaring his success at The Retas last month, Paul Jarman, owner of Creased Cards in Brighton, whose shop won Best Independent Greeting Card Retailer - Home Counties category, made the headlines locally. The Brilliant Brighton website featured the plucky retailer’s Retas success: "The award we've received is a testament to the product we choose and our great team," Paul told the popular online publication. "Creased is entering an exciting phase of its young life, as we will be looking to expand in the next 12-18 months. If it all works out, over the next three years, we hope to open another four stores across the country."

Above: Retas winner Creased Cards made the headlines on the Brilliant Brighton web.

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NEWS TOP STORY

End Of Term Report Full Marks For Thank You Teacher Cards The greeting card industry has a lot to thank the education system for, with sales of Thank You Teacher cards and gifts, followed by exam and graduation congratulations, having become increasingly significant for card and gift retailers, filling the 'occasions' gap between Father's Day and the festive Christmas season.

Recent research carried out by UK Greetings signals that 7% of the entire UK population now buy a thank you teacher/teaching assistant card.

Nationals as well as indies have become more supportive of these card and gift sending opportunities and the greater availability and instore presence has encouraged sales.

Drilling down into specific retailers’ customer bases, Alex Kennedy, consumer

Views On The News

Below: Among the Thank You Teacher/Teaching Assistant designs from UKG.

Steadying The Ladders!

insight manager of UKG, said: “Those who buy the majority of their cards from ASDA or Tesco are more likely to buy into the occasion – in fact nearly one in ten of these consumers buy a thank you teacher card. Those who buy the majority of their cards from WHSmith are also more likely to buy into the occasion.”

The dates for this year’s Ladder Club seminars have been announced - Tuesday 15 November (for newbie or would-be card publishers) and Wednesday 16 November (for publishers who have done a Day One previously, have exhibited at their first trade show or are looking to get up the next rung of ‘the greeting card ladder’).

The Ladder Club seminars will take place in the Cliffs Pavilion, Westcliff on Sea, Essex.

Organised by Lynn Tait and PG, with support from the GCA and key trade suppliers, the ethos of The Ladder Club is to help publishers to avoid many of the common pitfalls and to encourage a spirit of camaraderie.

“I feel so proud at the huge number of fantastic card publishing businesses that have ‘graduated’ from The Ladder Club over the last 14 years since we started it,” commented Lynn.

“We are working on the agendas now and will ensure that the Day Two itinerary will be different from previous years so that last year’s attendees wanting to come again will learn something new.”

The cost of attending each day is £53.

Contact Clare Davies of Createvents to book a place on clare@createvents.co.uk or 01183 340085.

Independent retailers share their report card for the ‘end of term’ sales. l Angela Jones, owner of Lily Blue in Hagley, saw her sales of thank you teachers cards soar by 14% over last year, while she also saw an uplift in gifts (notably candles and chocolates). "We are in a village location and it can be quiet over the school summer holidays, so we made hay while the sun shone in early July! Individual teachers’ cards sold through better than packs.

Wendy Jones-Blackett cards have been a firm favourite with our customers.” Angela is also looking Above: A throng of Ladder Clubbies met up at Harrogate forward to the build for graduation cards, with Belly Button’s higher priced cards already proving a big Home & Gift last month. success, while Pigment Productions' Happy Jackson range “does well in this category too.” l Sales were up significantly on last year at Love Letters in Anlaby. "I sold quite a lot of teacher cards and gifts this year, although I think our Retas award had something to do with it!" says owner Janet Stow. "Our best selling teacher cards were a mix of IC&G, Words n Wishes, Dogs Paw, Wishing Well and, of course, Simon Elvin, for those who had a lot of cards to buy. It was mainly the parents who bought the cards and pressies, but I did have a couple of kids who came in to choose their own. Our best selling graduation cards were mainly from IC&G and Wishing Well."

On the teacher's gifts front, Janet confirmed that her best sellers included lots of small notebooks from IC&G, with sparkly pens from Joe Davies, trinket boxes and compacts from Widdop and Co, as well as small Above left: A Thank You Teacher card from Wendy teacher sentiment candles from Jacksons.

Jones-Blackett. l Another Retas’ winner, Celebrate in Chigwell’s owner Naomi Green said that, Above middle: Among Belly Button's Graduation cards.

Above: Cards from Paper Salad (left) and Pigment.

“Both single cards and packs of thank you teacher and teaching assistant cards Left: Character Shop's Keep Calm and Carry On performed well. Gifting was very strong too."

Teaching mug. l Home Countries group, House of Cards, reported a good increase in sales for the Below left: A Happy Jackson exam success card, also from Pigment. week the schools broke up. "Parents and children increasingly like to give a small gift and a thank you card for the teachers and their assistants," comments co-founder Nigel Williamson. "We do stock thank you teacher cards, but we have also noticed that general thank you cards and packs also sell very well. The same is true of the gifts we stock, which include pick up teacher gifts from History and Heraldry and Really Good's Bright Side. In addition, lots of gifts that retail for under £5 were also very popular, such as tea light holders and coloured jam jars with lights from Joe Davies." l At Feathering Your Nest in Rayleigh, Essex, co-owner Lesley Dunne confirmed that its teachers’ card sales had increased this year. "We sold more teachers’ cards this year probably because we extended the card section last autumn, so we've now become a destination store for cards as well as for gifts," says Lesley. "Our best selling teachers’ cards were from publishers Always Sparkle and Caroline Gardner, and our best selling graduation cards were from The Hand Crafted Card Company, Caroline Gardner and Wendy Jones-Blackett.” l Trudy Tebbutt and Tilley Rathie, who co-own Marmalade Meringue in Hinckley, confirmed that their thank you teacher and teaching assistant card sales this year we're on a par with last year. "We had a spinner full of general thank you cards combined with specialist teacher cards with captions such as 'best teacher' and 'thank you teacher'," explained Trudy. "We found a single card was purchased for the main teachers and then general thank you packs for teaching assistants. Packs were also really popular for teachers wanting to thank work colleagues. “

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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NEWS TOP STORY

New Name For IG US Acquisition And £5 Million Investment In the space of the last few weeks, International Greetings plc (a major own brand card and wrap supplier to multiple retailers), has changed its name, acquired a business in America and raised over £5 million to help fund future acquisitions and growth.

The plc company, which supplies Poundland and B&M, among many others with valuebased greeting cards, is now known as IG Design Group. This name change coincides with a $3.6 million acquisition of Lang Companies Inc, a USbased supplier of branded home décor and lifestyle products. The newly acquired company produces design-led giftware and calendars under three main brands Lang, Wells St and Turner Licensing.

Commenting on the whole Group’s re-brand, Paul Fineman, ceo of IG Design Group, said its new name, “is far more than just a simple change of brand. It is the culmination of our three year business plan that lays the foundation for the future growth of our business.

We have transformed from a gift packaging manufacturer and supplier, to a design focused multi-category business servicing the world’s biggest retailers.”

The attraction of the Lang business to IG Design Group is its distribution, not only with multiples and 3,000

Below: Paul Fineman, ceo of IG Design Group.

independents, but also direct to consumers through its own website and catalogues, which means it also has over 150,000 direct customers.

In the year to 31 May 2015, Lang had a turnover of $34.4m, but reported a loss before tax of $2m. However, IG Design Group has not taken on the historical debt structure.

Commenting on the acquisition, which was made via IG’s US subsidiary, Paul Fineman said: “Lang is highly complementary to what we already do, offering scale, synergies and additional channels to market for Design Group Americas, our fastest growing business’.”

Following the Lang acquisition, IG Design Group has raised £5.25 million through a placing of 3,000,000 new Ordinary shares (at £1.75 per share).

The proceeds will provide working capital requirements following the acquisition of Lang, support a capital investment project and enable it to pursue opportunities to drive further growth.

"We are delighted to raise these funds, with the support shown by shareholders being a testament to the significant progress made within the business," commented Paul. "The company continues to build on its growing momentum.”

Nice To Be Celebrating The Big 3-0 Celebrating its recent 30th anniversary, 2015 Retas finalist Nice Thoughts in Coleshill, marked its amazing milestone by treating its customers.

In addition to offering them delicious cupcakes, the retailer also organised a raffle with some wonderful prizes, including a huge Me To You Tatty Teddy that was kindly donated by Carte Blanche. The money raised from the raffle has been donated to St Giles Hospice in Litchfield, a charity providing medical and nursing care for local people living with cancer and other serious illnesses.

Owner Sarah Bowman took a trip down memory lane to when her granddad first established the store.

“Nice Thoughts first opened its doors in May 1986 when my grandfather, Laurie Butler, was embarking on his new venture and could Top: An old press cutting showing the past owners of Nice Thoughts. only dream of the success and longevity Nice Thoughts would have.”

Above: The Nice Thoughts raffle.

As Laurie approached retirement, his daughter Kath (Sarah’s mother) took over, expanding the business into the shop next door.

As Sarah adds, “Some 30 years later, and onto the third generation within our family, it is now in the hands of myself and the lovely Sharon McMahon to continue our dear Laurie and Kath’s legacy.

Sharon has been working with us for 29 years and we don’t know what we would do without her. A massive thank you to everyone for their continued business and support. We wouldn’t be where we are today without you. Here’s to the next 30 years!”

A Helping Hand Following a flash flood last Christmas that saw Hebden Bridges-based card and gift retailer, Innovation, lose £30,000 worth of stock, after a lengthy drying out period, the shop, owned by husband and wife Hilary Darby and David Fletcher, is once again open for business.

When card publisher Blue Eyed Sun learned that the shop's 'just received' order had been destroyed in the flooding, the company offered to replace the damaged stock free of charge as the shop's insurance didn't cover the flood damage. Jeremy Corner, md of Blue Eyed Sun, said: "Hilary and her husband are both very grateful for the support she has had from other suppliers too, who helped with extra stock or extra credit. The local community has also helped with the clean up, and customers, former staff and even strangers have stepped forward to assist."

Above: Hilary Darby, co-owner of Innovation in Hebden Bridge, with Jeremy Corner, md of Blue Eyed Sun.

Paperchase Opens In Soho There was plenty of fun, fizz and fanfare as Paperchase launched its latest high profile store at 34 Berwick Street in London's trendy Soho. All visitors received a 10% discount, with the first Above: Graffiti artists at 200 through door also work on Paperchase’s Soho being presented with a store window. generous goody bag. A DJ and live graffiti art on the shop’s windows added to the party atmosphere.

The opening of the Soho store was only days after Paperchase opened a store in Northcote Road in London’s Battersea.

Calling All Chocoholics During the month of August, leading envelope supplier to many card publishers, UK Envelope Centre will be offering the opportunity to win a Hotel Chocolat hamper worth £150. "The hamper is filled with nothing but life’s essential luxuries and there’s more than enough to share with colleagues," comments director Joanne Jefferson.

For every 50,000 envelopes that publishers take delivery of during August, their company name will go into the hat. "So the more envelopes they take the more chances they get!" highlights Joanne.

Above: Up for grabs this August is a Hotel Chocolat hamper from the UK Envelope Centre.

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NEWS TOP STORY

In The Loop Belly Button Is First To Adopt Windles’ Initiative Belly Button Designs is among the first greeting card publisher to commit to Loop-It, an environmental scheme instigated by greeting card printer, Windles.

Loop-It is the brainchild of Bruce Podmore, md of Windles, as part of his vision for raising environmental awareness within the company’s new factory. Ian KearBertie, design and creative director of MuchMore, Windles’ design arm, created the Loop-It branding as well as the visual information that is now installed around the company’s own new factory.

Each piece of machinery in the factory has a ‘panel’ which highlights, in terms of domestic kettles, how much energy will be wasted say if the machine is left on during a lunch break.

In addition to this visual information, other panels have also been developed in the Loop-It suite. These include ‘green’ knowledge panels, red action panels (detailing commands in order to conserve or reduce energy use) and yellow recycle panels (to enable bi-products to be recycled).

“It is our hope that Loop-It will be adopted by the whole industry, publishers, retailers and suppliers,” said Michelle.

Below: An example of a machine panel and a recycle panel that is part of Loop-It. Below left: Belly Button’s Rachel Hare (right) and Katie Phythian looking into the briquette masher at Windles with md Bruce Podmore.

Keen to learn all about it, the Belly Button team spent the day at Windles. “We totally loved the Loop-It idea and now plan to adopt as much as we can here at Belly Button,” pledges Rachel Hale, md of Belly Button.

In fact, Rachel has gone a step further and is now burning ‘Bruce’s Briquettes’, made from Windles’ waste palettes, in her wood burner at home too.

Rachel adds that The Loop-It idea has reinforced the company's belief and commitment to making small changes for an immediately cleaner environment.

“We have designed posters and put them up at work. We will present ideas at our weekly staff meeting and try to do as much as we can.

"We will be asking each department to really think about switching off computers, turning off lights and to recycle everything.

This has been a domestic exercise for 'home Belly Button'. We get an organic green juice box each week, and from next month, all the food waste will go into a wormery," she continues.

Windles has now registered Loop-It as a trade brand.

Chef’s Art Into The (Card)Mix Waitrose gave CardMix’s new card launch some extra seasoning by featuring it on page 3 of its Waitrose Weekend customer newspaper. Ann Edwards' engaging Chef and Sue cartoons have been appearing weekly since 2009. Now some of Ann's popular cartoons have been licensed by CardMix for a range of greeting cards.

Speaking to Waitrose Weekend, Ann revealed that she thinks the cards will work well because of their old fashioned humour. "I choose jokes that never stop being funny, but they're always kind and never malicious," she told the publication. "My aim is to make drawings that are a little bit silly but also cheerful, so that if you're having a grim day it'll give you a snigger."

In addition to Chef the dog and Sue the cat, other characters depicted by Ann include a dim-witted pink bird and a Greek tortoise called Stavros.

Above and left: Ann Edwards was interviewed about her new range of cards for CardMix by Waitrose Weekend magazine.

Hallmark Will Be Thinking Of Everyone Following on from its support of ToYW last year, Hallmark UK is upping its game even further in 2016 with a smorgasbord of plans taking shape.

"This year we wanted to go back to what the essence of Thinking of You Week is really about and help emphasise that ‘handwritten’ really does mean more, and that a card can really make a difference to someone’s day," emphasises Hallmark's marketing business partner - specialist channel, Leona Veitch.

"For consumers, Thinking of You Week provides an opportunity to take a step back and spare some time out of their busy schedules and hectic lives to put pen to paper and make a difference to someone, from a simple hello to a thank you, thinking of you, or sorry. A handwritten card can mean so much more. For the trade, it’s a great opportunity to come together as an industry and excite people around the notion of sending cards for non-essential reasons.

Above: Hallmark is raring to go with Thinking of You Week.

Among Hallmark's many initiatives will be an instore promotional Thinking of You Week branded countertop unit, available to retailers ordering a special selection of cards. This will be supported with instore and window PoS. The publisher will also be creating a promotional video to demonstrate that receiving a handwritten card means more than a social media or text message, which will be shared on social media before Thinking of You Week gets underway.

In addition, Hallmark will be approaching regional and local groups and bodies who voluntarily help others in need with a 'thank you', a surprise and a gift.

Plus, there will be a 4-for-3 promotion for retailers on selected Thinking of You Week cards during the week itself. This will be supported by a full briefing pack and a complimentary card, with paid for postage, for all retail trade accounts to encourage engagement.

Hallmark will also be encouraging its head office employees to get involved through providing cards free of charge for staff, and a giant post box internally.

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TOP STORY

Sharing Is Caring Bawdy Founder Turns His Thoughts To Care Homes While only in its third year, the plans and the trade’s engagement for this year’s Thinking of You Week (26 Sept – 2 Oct) look set to establish this special event to inspire people to create a wave of love, caring and happiness by sending a card to a different person each day.

Spencer Coleman, managing director, designer and founder of Bawdy Designs, for one, is really is going to town with an allsinging-all-dancing idea to mark Thinking of You Week 2016 involving the elderly residents of a Hampshire care home, the local community as well as the Mayor and Mayoress of Southampton.

The multi-faceted event, which will take place on October 1 (during Thinking of You Week) will centre around the Hamble Heights residential care home. The action packed programme of activities include live music, dancing, buffet, free Thinking Of You greeting cards and a personalised 'frame' for individual residents.

"The residents can have a little fun by joining in on a sing-along and a dance," explains Spencer. A finger buffet will be available for everyone throughout the event, as well as a later serving of afternoon tea to include sandwiches, scones and cakes.

Below: A loving granddaughter writes a Thinking of You card for her grandmother.

Bawdy Designs will be providing residents with a large selection of caring, affectionate, inspirational and fun greeting cards from the company's Bawdy-Good range so they can write a card to a loved one.

Using a 'frames' initiative, created by the activities organisers of Hamble Heights, Spencer and artist Marianne Thompson will be carrying out on-site drawings of residents, using their individual frames to show all their hobbies and interests.

Explains Spencer: "We will be creating a personalised card for them featuring a doodled portrait of themselves."

The Mayor and Mayoress of Southampton has also agreed to visit the home on the day, adding further to the event.

l Cardgains, the national independent greeting card and gift buying group, has welcomed Louisa Pope to its sales team, covering the South-West.

Louisa joins with a sales, customer service, greeting card and gift retailing background. She joins general sales manager Jim Girvan, who covers Scotland, Georgina De Terry in the South-East and Sophie Wilkes who covers the majority of the Northern territory. l Look set to see some more stunning new baby designs in the Alice Scott and Happy Jackson ranges, as the designer behind both of these brands, Heather Flynn, has just become a mummy to William (above). He was born around the same time as more good news, that Above: William Flynn the Happy Jackson range of and an Alice Scott card partyware from Wild & Wolf had from Pigment. made it into the finals of the Licensing Awards! l Hallmark has welcomed Richard Everitt (right) as its new head of independents, groups and wholesale. Richard comes from a ‘blue chip’ background having worked for Mars, Gilette and Proctor & Gamble, latterly as channel controller for P&G’s wholesale business.

Royal Mail Stamps Approval Of ToYW Royal Mail has pledged its support of Thinking of You Week this year by committing to printing a special postmark on every item of stamped post sent during the week, fanfaring the event.

"Thinking of You Week really is growing in leaps and bounds this year," enthuses Sharon Little, ceo of the GCA. "It is so great that the industry has created something to bring the whole nation together for a special week of card sending initiatives and events. We now have the support of Royal Mail, major retailers, department stores, independents, publishers and top consumer crafting titles, Crafts Beautiful and PaperCrafter magazines, as well as a page in The Teacher's Post in August, so we’re aiming for the stars this year!" A free Thinking of You Week Toolkit is available offering a colourful new banner, flyer and event poster, along with new retailer and consumer handouts, as well as social media cover images and email sign offs (www.gca.cards).

Prizes are up for grabs for the best Thinking of You Week initiatives, displays and events. "Of course it's completely up to individual companies and retailers as to what they do, but we also have lots of ideas to help to get the creative juices flowing," Sharon highlights. "We’re building on a great body of work from both publishers and retailers and the more that take part, the bigger the wave of happiness will be!"

Left: The GCA’s Sharon Little with a massive Thinking of You Week hoarding, that exhibition organisers Clarion instigated, near the Harrogate Home & Gift show’s Greetings marquee as part of its support of ToYW.

Emoticons Are Running High

Right: A Gemma emoji card.

The fact that 72% of 18-25 year-olds find it easier to express their feelings in emoji pictures rather than the written word should be worrying for the greeting card trade, but card publisher Gemma has turned this to its advantage in signing the emoji licence!

A co-ordinating range of greeting cards and gift packaging has now been launched at retail with a special FSDU also being developed.

Commenting on this communication craze, Tim Rudd-Clarke, licensing director of Gemma, said: “Every once in a while you get one of those licences that seem to set a new benchmark. emoji has become one of those ‘wow! where did that come from’ brands.”

Moonpig Gets Sociable Online operator Moonpig has also pledged its support again this year for ToYW. As Sally Egginton, Moonpig’s social media and PR exec, commented: “Thinking of You Week carries such a lovely sentiment and after taking part in 2015 we were keen to be involved this year.”

Its supportive activity will involve getting consumer journalists involved by sending them packs of cards especially designed for Thinking of You Week and encouraging them to send them to their friends and family over the week.

Moonpig’s in-house design team are already underway creating new cards which will then become part of our everyday/just because range.”

In addition, there are plans to run a competition via Moonpig’s strong social media channels to prompt the public to think of those they feel really deserves some love.

Above: Some of the new ‘no send’ cards from Moonpig that could work for Thinking of You Week.

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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NEWS NEWS IN BRIEF

TOP STORY

Beyond The Call The Henries Service Award Finalists Announced The scores on the doors are in enabling the finalists of the hugely coveted Henries’ Best Service to the Independent Retailer Awards 2016 to be announced.

“This is the big one! The result of the largest ever survey of independent greeting card retailers we have ever commissioned, involving approaching 2,000 outlets, who were invited to share their opinions (confidentially) on which publishers they consider have excelled in the last year when it comes to the key area of service,” commented PG’s co-owner Warren Lomax.

The line-up of the top 12 finalists (listed below in alphabetical order) include two new names for this year, Cherry Orchard and Abacus (although both have appeared in the finals at some point previously).

The dynamic dozen are all contenders for the Gold, Silver and Bronze service trophies. l Abacus Cards l Cherry Orchard l International Cards and Gifts (IC&G) l Jonny Javelin l Nigel Quiney l Noel Tatt l Paperlink l Pigment l Second Nature l UK Greetings l Woodmansterne l Words n Wishes In 2015 UK Greetings won the Gold award for the fifth successive year, with IC&G picking up the Silver trophy and Noel Tatt, the Bronze award.

Many other publishers polled strongly in the survey this year, but did not quite

make it into the finals. The positions shown below are in order of merit, according to the votes.

13th Paper Rose 14th Ling Design 15th Carte Blanche Greetings 16th Wendy Jones-Blackett 17th Grass Roots International 18th Hallmark Cards 19th Belly Button Designs 20th Cardigan Cards 21st Rachel Ellen 22nd Five Dollar Shake 23rd The Great British Card Company 24th Wrendale Designs 25th Janie Wilson 26th K2 Greetings 27th Is It Art? 28th The Art File 29th Simon Elvin 30th Tracks Publishing The Best Service To The Independent Retailer Awards is sponsored by Cardgains, but the survey, undertaken by PG, also includes non-Cardgains members. Cardgains is not involved in the results in any way. l The finalists of The Henries product awards will be revealed in all their glory in the September issue of PG and on The Henries website and via the PG Buzz email newsletter. The winners will be announced at The Henries Bollywood Ball on October 6. To book your tickets to The Henries Awards Ball contact Clare Davies on Clare@createvents.co.uk or phone 01183 340085.

Just The Ticket!

Camera, lights, action! In true bling-y Bollywood style, the greeting card industry has come together to produce its very own 'movie magic' for this year's Henries Awards tickets and menu in keeping with this year’s Bollywood theming!

"Putting their creative greeting card industry heads together, the 2016 Henries tickets are going to be brought to life with Bollywood music, as well as lights – and the menu will be all lit up too!" reveals PG's editor Jakki Brown. "It's a huge collaborative project involving Paper Rose/The Art Group (superb design) SoundTech (the clever technical stuff ), Windles (the high quality print), and GF Smith (the gorgeous paper)."

Above: A Windles/SoundTech get together to discuss the invitation and menu for The Henries.

Left: An early draft of The Henries invitation.

l Three major awards were presented at wholesale group Impact's recent AGM Members' Meetings and Gala Dinner, which was held for the second consecutive year at Hilton Templepatrick Golf & Country Club.

The 2015 Card & Party Supplier of the Year Award went to Simon Elvin for the second consecutive year. A new award was the 2015 Seasonal Supplier of the Year, which was presented to Eurowrap for its continuous excellence in this area.

The Supplier of the Year Award for 2015 went to Sinclair's in recognition of the company’s outstanding commitment to service and delivery.

Above: Eurowrap scooped the new Seasonal Supplier of the Year award.

l Quire recently launched a brand new trade website designed by Skylight Media who specialise in websites for the greeting card industry. The new site will allow Quire customers to browse the complete collection of greeting cards and coordinated stationery and giftwrap. Trade customers can create an account by visiting www.quire.co.uk Above: The new Quire trade website.

l Ann Worsnip of Oi Doris, famed for its typewriter art designs, has reached the finals in the Enterprise Vision Awards, a North West award supporting women in business. Her nomination is for the Creative Industry Award.

Right: One of the latest designs from Oi Doris.

l The UK Licensing Awards (organised by Max Publishing, owner HHAAPPPPY of PG) has some familiar PY Birthday names in the finalists YOU line-up. In the Best Birthday Licensed Paper Products YOU category is UKG (for its HA PPY Disney Originals cards); DEAR...

Museums & Galleries (for its Matthew Williamson collection); Danilo (for its PAW Patrol range), Pyramid (for its Star Wars range) and Portico (for its Wedgwood collection).

Carte Blanche’s Me to You brand also features in the Best Classic Licensed Property category. The winners will be announced at an awards event attended by over 1,400 people on September 13 at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London.

Above: Me to You is in the finals of the Best Classic Licensed Property in the Licensing Awards.

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Over The Counter

The Pursuit Of

WOW!

Independent card and gift retailer, David Robertson, co-owner of JP Pozzi in Scotland, talks about pursuing the WOW factor in business.

I love the word ‘pursuit’. To me it conjures up images of people being chased down and has memories of the late 70s and 80s with films such Smokey and the Bandit and the Cannonball Run, which I adored. In truth, we are all pursuing things in our day to day life.

Some pursue fame. Some pursue wealth.

Some may have a goal, such as happiness that may be difficult to measure.

In the greeting card world it may be a pursuit of the next deal. It may be the pursuit of the perfect design or flawless image/picture. It may also be the perfect phrase, sentiment or caption.

Pursuits of course can be many and varied. They can be business related or personal, and of course you hear of people dedicating their whole life to one single aim.

The word ‘pursue’ makes you think about an elongated effort. It makes you think about working hard to achieve something meaningful and in creating or being something different. My problem is that I pursue too many things at the same time. The end result then often falls short of what I had hoped or expected. My current diary includes designing a new coffee take-away store, a new menu layout for my existing restaurants, a new card department (which I want to be totally different to what else is out there) and continuing to get my cashflow even better managed.

These tasks are all in addition to the normal day to day tasks of running a business, buying stock, and oh, having a life as well. Now that has and always will be the way I operate. The old adage of if you want something done ask a busy person rings true.

While doing research on my take-away coffee project I stumbled upon a review of a book called The Pursuit of WOW! 24

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

Right: In hot pursuit – a scene from Smokey and the Bandit.

Below: Tom Peters’ book, The Pursuit of WOW!

I must admit to having never heard of the author Tom Peters.

My degree is in primary school teaching. I didn’t study business in high school so basically I have been doing on the job training for my whole career.

With a little research I discovered Mr Peters had co-written one of the most successful business books of all time - In Search of Excellence. This book was first published back in 1992 and was a dive into 43 of America’s top companies. The key concepts were ideas such as be close to the customer, treat employees like adults, small is beautiful, try new things, don’t be afraid to experiment... good reminders for us all whether we have been in business a long time or good basic precepts for newbies.

Mr Peters’ more recent other book, The Pursuit of WOW!, is a follow up and details further beliefs held.

It should be noted that Mr Peters has never run or actually owned a business. In fact, many believe that he now falls into the trap in common with many other business gurus they love cool businesses and basically find examples to prove their theories rather than the other way about. He has also never done what many of you or indeed I have. He’s never signed for a lease on a store

and never put his life savings into something.

Anyway, that aside, this second book is largely credited with a movement where business owners set out to exceed customer expectations rather than meet them. It is all about delighting and dazzling them with surroundings, products, service and indeed it is all about WOWing them.

Nothing wrong with that. In fact, this is what people want isn’t it? Everyone is much better travelled and used to the glamour of designer stores and American malls, not to mention the ‘have a nice day’ service. Well yes, this is what they want but not at the expense of the basics.

Hands up, I am guilty of this. I want my shop to look the best, but does the customer know, realise or even care that I have looked at over 20 different spotlight options for my ceiling? Also in truth, I have often over speced or over engineered spending too much money on the things that don’t really matter.

This thought has and does niggle me - when I redesigned the Elgin store I picked lights that were expensive to buy, fit and run. So I find myself now working on the re-design and a complete overhaul of my original main store.

The store is due to be completely gutted in January and I have already fallen into the trap of setting the bar way too high. We are adding in new product categories and designing it

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Over The Counter

based on what we really need in order to compete for the next 10-20 years, but at the back of my head I have a gnawing voice saying ‘watch this and that’.

Our anewed focus will be on cards, food and jewellery, with the gift section changing as the buying public moves towards a different type of gift. The card/gift element of this business has been driven by my mum for over 28 years and, apart from the original big investment when we extended 26 years ago, she has made do with the occasional refresh, new lick of paint or refresh of the odd unit.

Throughout all this time her shop has always looked fresh, different and, most importantly, maintained and grown its sales/profit figures.

I have been looking at lots of different consumer research partly for this project and partly as I am interested to see what is being said about the current situation. I want this refit to see me through the next 20 years in the same way as my parents’ changes have.

A core question all us retailers ask ourselves is ‘who will be our customer - who will create our footfall?’ The key word in the answer is the ‘Millennials’, basically anyone who was born between 1980 and the year 2000. According to research this is the first truly digital generation, and they are likely to shop on the go and wherever the experience is best and cheapest.

They will use stores to look at products then often buy online, but the myth is that they don’t use bricks and mortar retail. They do and will but they like the whole multi-channel retail experience where they may buy in store at the time or later at home.

One of the key elements that was clearly proven in the research though was that customers really want you to satisfy their basic requirements - the non-negotiable as they are termed.

So what are these in the card and gift shop of 2016? Well, by looking at the various research and from my own experience I have compiled the following list: l Your store needs to be clean, well maintained and well lit.

Above: The Millennials, the next generation of consumer.

Below: Well lit and inspirational – a display from Bijou, one of David’s stores.

Right: A fantastic design from publisher Rosie Made a Thing.

l There needs to be enough assistants on hand to offer help and advice - clue is in the name! l Customers like to see clear pricing. l The store assistants needs good practical product knowledge and to be able to suggest and demonstrate products. l Customers like to be offered good/better or ideally good/better/best various pricing options for a similar type of gift or even card. l Free Wi-Fi. l A good un-congested checkout area. l Clear signage and clear layout to make navigation in store easy. l Needs to be something unexpected - in a good way - whether this is product or display.

If I break this down further, specifically to cards, you really need to know your customer and what it is that they want. One of the most frustrating things for me just now is that there are many card publishers that I love, but our core customer does not seem to buy what they produce.

Interestingly though, I am finding that part of this may be due to my shop assistants and the way that they help and inform people about the cards. So I have now made a conscious effort to get my team more

involved in the buying and also in learning about the brands. I also need to explain to them why I ordered from each specific publisher and who the cards are clearly targeted.

Putting this in practice, last week, I discussed with my staff Rosie Made a Thing and showed them the publisher’s cards, that I have bought for two of my stores. I love these cards and really get them. My staff seemed to understand them better once I had shown them the company’s Instagram page which gives a flavour of what Rosie the owner/designer is all about and the fun and friendly essence that is evident in her designs.

It is my staff’s responsibility to talk up the new product to our customers so that people can see, and hopefully buy the cards.

The great thing of course is that you can change your card offering without a huge investment, but as more and more stores sell cards independent card retailers have to be specialists - we have to offer something different.

This is where a retailer like Scribbler has got it so right. This multiple retailer’s mix of cards, gifting and stationery speaks adroitly to its customers while its branding and signage really chime. My huge admiration for Scribbler as a business is further enhanced by the fact that it supports young publishers.

There are of course lots of other questions surrounding retailing. Will selling purely cards and paper products be enough to survive? What will the gift offering of the card shop come to look like with collectables and plush struggling in today’s minimalistlook stores?

Is ‘personalised’ products a fad and can we possibly compete with the big boys in this marketplace? What are the gifts that will work in the near future?

I don’t know the true answers to any of these questions, but it is my job to try and work it out every day. In fact, it is all our jobs, whether publisher or retailer, to try and get it right. To pursue excellence. We need to make sure that you’re not in pursuit of the retailing basics as they should be a given.

What is the most important point is to never give up the pursuit of the unusual, the pursuit of the £pound, and the ultimate pursuit of the WOW! To contact David email: jppozzi@btconnect.com PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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CARDSHARP

Into The

Void The dust is now starting to settle on the EU referendum result and the democratic decision made to leave the EU. The mutual recriminations have thankfully started to abate. The political ructions that rocked the nation, and resulted in a new PM and Chancellor, have hopefully finished, or have at least stalled over the summer. And, as we enter the holiday season, the ‘Silly Season stories’ are filling the newspapers. So for now it is back to business as usual, or is it? mused Cardsharp.

The latest set of GDP figures for the UK (which covered the period up to the end of June) saw the UK economy growing at a very healthy rate of 2.2%, despite the uncertainty created by the referendum build up. This figure is much healthier than nearly all of our international competitors.

Unfortunately, since the result there has been a sharp fall in confidence. A CBI business survey reported that the last month has seen the biggest fall in business confidence since the dark days of the recession in 2009.

Meanwhile, a GFK market research report recorded the biggest fall in consumer confidence month to month in 26 years. Retail sales figures reflect this, with sales falling at the fastest rate for more than four months. This could be just a kneejerk reaction to the shock result of the referendum or it could be a symptom of something more serious.

26

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

But as Cardsharp mused, before we (in whatever part of the greeting card industry we are in) start slitting our wrists, these figures need to be put into perspective. Yes, consumer confidence has fallen, but this was from very high levels. At present real wages are still growing and we are experiencing strong employment growth.

In reality, none of us really knows how this is all going to pan out for retail and for the greeting card industry generally. In truth, none of us knows whether the UK will experience a period of reduced growth, stagnation or downright recession. We really are entering the unknown.

Whatever happens though, it must be remembered that greeting card sales proved remarkably resilient in the last

“In reality, none of us really knows how this is all going to pan out for retail and for the greeting card industry generally.”

recession (in the 2009 -2012 period), although admittedly it did contribute to a polarisation between the top end of the market (as epitomised by the likes of Paperchase) and the lower end (Card Factory being the champ) with Clintons being the major casualty of the squeeze in the middle ground.

Fashion retailers have already been feeling the squeeze. When the perennially strong retail performer Next, reports a fall in sales you know that this is a category with problems that can’t just be blamed perennially on inappropriate weather. And the greeting card sector does benefit from footfall to the retail centres that sell fashion attire (as well as of course greeting cards).

And, as Cardsharp noted a couple of months ago, in its last reported financials Card Factory actually admitted for the first time in its glorious financial history that it was not immune to decreased retail footfall.

So whether your view about whether the greeting card industry is ‘glass half full’ or ‘half empty’, Cardsharp thinks we probably all need to accept that there are no boom times ahead for any of us in the near future.

Yet, as Cardsharp reflected, the last eight years since the financial crisis of 2008 have been far less disruptive and revolutionary to the greeting card industry than many other sectors of the UK economy.

For instance, bricks and mortar card retailers have yet to feel any real haemorrhage of sales to the internet.

Cardsharp was intrigued to see John Lewis

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CARDSHARP admit that although 17% of its sales were online, only 3% of its card/stationery sales came thorough this route. WHSmith-owned Funky Pigeon, despite having spent a fortune on TV advertising, Cardsharp suspects is no nearer making a profit, while Moonpig, since its take over by Photobox, seem more interested in gifts and flowers than greeting cards.

In fact, as a sector, the greeting card industry has probably been less affected by online sales than nearly any other retail sector, and Cardsharp thinks that despite any downturn in the economy the proportion spent by the public online on greeting cards will not change significantly. However, there is one major area that will really have to be addressed if retail sales stagnate in the next couple of years, and that is retail rent.

When the economy really was feeling the pinch back in 2009-2012, Cardsharp sensed that after years of ever-spiralling rents, landlords were at last becoming more flexible and started, all be it reluctantly, to adjust to the new economic realities.

However, the last few years have seen landlords gradually tighten the screws again, pushing rents up far faster than any sales inflation. In London, for instance, rents have rise by a massive 39% over the last five years and in general across the UK retail rents have risen to around £25 per square foot, and that’s before you even get on to business rates on top.

An independent card shop acquaintance of Cardsharp’s, in a relatively depressed area of the UK, has after three years of struggling to break even recently approached their landlord with a realistic approach for a ‘make or break’ rent reduction so that the shop could continue trading. The Above: The local council for Brighton is supporting and encouraging independent retailers.

Below: Sadly, some 50,000 retail units lie empty on the British high street.

“The result is that Brighton is outperforming most major population centres in the UK when it comes to retail.” landlord turned them down flat. He told them that he would rather leave the store empty than accept a reduction.

The results of attitudes like this have been predictable. Sadly, some 50,000 retail units now lie empty, a third have been for three years or more. The British Independent Retail Association (bira) has recorded only 116 new retail outlets opening in the last year as opposed to 3,500 in 2010, which incredibly was at the height of the recession.

Not surprisingly, the better sites that have become available have been swallowed up by the larger multiple chains, who tend to have bigger budgets and more bargaining power. Yet landlords seem to be oblivious to the fact that without quality independents, consumer footfall suffers, while local authorities in the main have done little to intervene to help the indies.

In Cardsharp’s view many local authorities would do well to follow the example of Brighton, down on the Sussex South Coast. There, independent outlets have been encouraged and supported with

training and mentoring assistance from the council. Smaller units are actively discouraged from being converted to larger units and 90% of businesses employ less than ten staff. The result is that Brighton is outperforming most major population centres in the UK when it comes to retail. So many other local authorities and landlords across the country could benefit from studying Brighton’s enlightened approach and follow suit in the next few years.

Going a stage further, as greeting card retailers actively bring people into the high streets and shopping centres, in Cardsharp’s view, they should be seen as a special sector that need and deserve extra support, from landlords and local authorities. Being something that is not generally purchased on the internet, greeting card shops bring customers in to shopping areas that may not have visited bricks and mortar stores otherwise, and then spend money on clothes, gifts, homewares, books etc that may have been purchased online.

Whatever happens, concludes Cardsharp, we are entering a period of uncertainty where maximum flexibility will be needed by all parties concerned to ensure the continued health of the greeting card industry. As an industry in the last decade we survived and came out prospering after experiencing the worst recession in living memory. The growth of internet retailing, that has devastated many other sectors, and the rise of Facebook, Twitter, texting and all manner of social media, has not destroyed greeting card sending.

And Cardsharp is sure that the little matter of Brexit will not stop us in our tracks!

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

27

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VIEWPOINTS

Scoring High In Wales Wales’ football team’s amazing achievement reaching the semi-finals of the recent Euro 2016 created a patriotic stir and won the support and admiration of the Home Nations.

But it wasn't just football superstar Gareth Bale, captain Ashley Williams and his team that was scoring in the tournament, there were a high total of top Welsh greeting card retailing 'teams' within The Retas awards 'line up' this year, and not just in the Best Independent Greeting Card Retailer Wales and the Midlands category.

PG asks several of this year’s Welsh finalists and the winner of this Retas ‘group’ why Welsh card retailers are ‘hitting the back of the net’ in the country’s retailing league.

Winner of this year’s Retas’ Best Independent Greeting Card Retailer Wales and the Midlands category, Ros Jones, owner of the Celtic Company, Welshpool: “The success of the Welsh football team and the 'hwyl' (goodwill or craic) really spilled over onto the streets of our small market town.

Trade was booming in all things Welsh, particularly flags and red tops, and our online Facebook pictures during the semi-finals week received loads of ‘likes’, as well as traffic to our website. Some of the local football team were over in France and their supporters’ flag even had its own Facebook page! Lovely to see football making the headlines for all the right reasons and the way the Wales team brought in their families.

Falch iawn! (very proud).

Welsh card and gift retailers seem to be upping their game lately and coming into their own. You can't be complacent when you are on a high street, paying high rates and competing with out-of-town shopping centres, the supermarkets and the internet. You have to go the extra mile for your customers - good old-fashioned Welsh hospitality, friendliness, attention to detail, sourcing indigenous products where possible and being rooted in your community - all

Above: A jubilant Wales team after reaching the Euro 2016 semi-finals.

Below: Ros’ homage to the Wales’ football team in the Celtic Company shop in Welshpool.

Bottom: Serving good old-fashioned Welsh hospitality and friendliness in the Celtic Company store, staff member Sheryl Weaver.

these contribute to your success right now as well as to your future viability. Cherish your local customers and they will respond with loyalty. Quietly educate them about the positive impact they can have by just spending small amounts locally in their independent shops on a regular basis.

We try and create a shopping experience that is missing elsewhere and people will travel distances to shop with us and return again and again. We are generous with the benefits we offer regular shoppers.

We were very proud to win a Retas award recently and have had a running buffet of sweets and biscuits on the till counter right by the trophy so that everyone can have a little treat and see what we have won. It costs pennies, but is so appreciated (although some did feel we should be providing free champagne!). The positive feedback about our win has been tremendous - everyone seems as chuffed as we are - you can't buy that sort of feeling and pay for it out of your marketing budget. You have to be genuine - and I think that is the crux of why Welsh retailers have that edge - just like the Welsh football team that came across as the friendly, dedicated, passionate and decent team that they are."

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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01924 950500 The perfect solution for all of your Greeting Card Software requirements Enquiry Hotline

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VIEWPOINTS Pete Hall, owner of Halls of Llandaff, Llandaff: “Retailing and sport can be linked in some ways, take for example the recent Welsh Football team’s improved performance in the 2016 Euros. Now the team have generally under achieved in the past, but due to the influx of young and exciting new players (and manager) the team have improved.

The same could be said for us Welsh card and gift retailers.

You see we have always been here, but due to a lack of good Welsh products we too have under achieved and offered very little to our consumers. However things have changed in the distribution and design of Welsh products and now we are able to source a much better quality of cards and gifts, so like the Welsh football team we have made a much improved performance recently.

I know we work hard on our displays but a lot of the credit should go to manufacturers and distributors like Richard Lang, East of India, Hammond Gower, Holy Mackerel, Two Little Monkeys, Tracks and Shoeless Joe for seeing that gap in the market.

There was a huge buzz in Cardiff during the Euros football tournament and sales of bunting, flags, cards and gifts increased enormously. Now it's all over and we have come back down to earth it's exciting to know that we retailers can now get our hands on an ever increasing range of good quality design-led cards and gifts that just weren't available to us in the past. I always used to look at the Welsh gift offerings at trade shows and think they looked so ‘nana-ish’, but not anymore. I now see the choice as more dynamic and classy, like footballers Bale, Ramsey and co.”

Above: Pete Hall really got into the Euro football spirit this year.

Left: A beautiful Welsh design from Two Little Monkeys.

Made In Wales Matthew Howard, publishing director for Graffeg, a rising card publisher based in Wales, explains why he feels Wales is triumphing in the card retailing and publishing ‘game’.

“Greeting card retailers and publishers based in Wales find that their main competition invariably comes from over the Severn Bridge from a market that is far bigger than anything that Wales, with its three million population, could hope to muster. It is therefore only through a constant drive for excellence that Wales is able to compete, standing out from the crowd in terms of quality rather than volume.

Graffeg is new to the card market, so establishing what works is still a 'work in progress' for us. Currently, our humorous My Sad Cat range is popular, as are our Jackie Morris art cards - especially her dragons! However, our regional cards are also attracting attention, with Yorkshire Shepherdess, Andrew Fusek Peter's images of Shropshire and our homegrown Dylan Thomas range all selling well.

Regarding the Euro 2016, the rest of the UK might have been focusing on political infighting and Brexit, but for the past month or so Wales has been smiling broadly. Sport matters here, be it rugby, football, darts or bowls, and when Wales performs on the field, Wales also performs on the high street.

People are happy, sales are good ... and bring on the World Cup!” Above: A stunning dragon by artist and writer Jackie Morris (who lives in Wales), published on cards by Graffeg.

Ben Potter, owner of Doodlebug, Cwmbran: “Recently a lot of major card publishing players have recognised there is a good market for quality Welsh cards.

Tracks’ Welsh range is doing really well for us, as is Tracey Russell’s and Wendy-Jones-Blackett’s Welsh designs. And Star Editions are scoring well with its fantastic Welsh language designs.

I’m not sure why it’s taken so long! When I used to work in a greeting card retail multiple in Cardiff customers used to come into the store every day and asked for them, but unfortunately the store didn't offer much in the way of Welsh card designs.

There has always been a big demand for them. The Welsh are very patriotic. Not only do local people buy them for each other, but they may buy Welsh cards to send to their family and friends who now live abroad to remind them of home. And, say you are going to a wedding where one or both of the couple is Welsh, well, it just makes the wedding card send so much more special.

During the Euro 2016 we saw an uplift in sales in the shop. Euro mugs from Mumph, featuring a cartoon of the Welsh team sold really well.

Patrick, one of our members of staff, actually went out to France to watch a couple of the matches in which the Wales team were playing, and the team’s homecoming to Cardiff after the semi-finals looked amazing!”

Above: Contemporary, stylish and fresh, Doodlebug in Cwmbran.

Left: ‘Together Stronger’ was the Wales’ football team’s motto during the Euro, as seen on a Mugby mug from Mumph that were scoring sales in Doodlebug.

Claire Church, owner of Daisy Daisy, Llanishen, near Cardiff: “There’s definitely been a great improvement in the quality of Welsh cards, and it’s made such a difference. Six years ago when I first took on the shop it was really hard to source cards with the Welsh language on, now there’s some really nice ones from publishers like Berni Parker, YTR, 28 Celsius and Dawn’s Emporium.

I believe that the Welsh people are naturally warm and family and community orientated, so sending cards is an important part of keeping those bonds strong.

From our point of view, we are part of a village community. People in the area are loyal to local shops and like the personal touch that we, as a retailer, can provide, and often we have joked that we provide a local counseling service!

I’m not normally a footie fan, but I did watch Wales play in the Euros. Everyone was so buoyed up by it. It was so exciting and it gave everyone a lift, especially after Brexit.”

Left: A contemporary Welsh card from YTR Design.

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The Retas 2016

Star Gazing With a theme of ‘The Moon & The Stars’, The Retas greeting card retail awards event, that took place at The Dorchester Hotel last month, orbited in a greeting card galaxy of top retailers and publishers.

PG directed its telescope and brought into focus some of the shooting stars in the Retas’ cosmos.

Left: (Left-right) WHSmith’s Shirley Beadle and Claire Castle with Paperlink’s Ronnie Porte and Pauline Reap.

Below: Claire Leyton and Helen Colley (both of Hallmark Widnes) get ‘in the swing’ with band Midnight Blue that played both at the champagne reception as well as after lunch.

Above: The Dorchester was a perfect venue to celebrate the winners of The Retas, even the trophies were greeted by the doormen.

Below: The bright polestar Retas 2016 winners took to the stage with their trophies, joined by host Tim FitzHigham (centre front) and (with him) PG’s Warren Lomax, Gale Astley and Jakki Brown.

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The Retas 2016

Left: The beautiful Swarovski-festooned menus, created by Five Dollar Shake added extra sparkle to the tables in The Dorchester Ballroom where the lunch and awards ceremony took place.

Below: Some Tesco shooting stars with Hallmark’s Angela Anderson (second left). (Left-right) Cameron Doherty, Simon Hutchinson , Katy Strachan, and Neil Robinson.

Above: All smiles! (Right-left) Esther and Steve James (Darwin’s), Frost’s Garden Centre’s Pat Barker with Noel Tatt’s Jacqui Wright.

Below: PG’s Warren Lomax and Jakki Brown took to the stage to welcome the guests and explain that every winner of The Retas 2016 would receive a Golden Ticket worth £150 and all finalists would receive a Silver one worth £75 to be redeemed against an order placed at PG Live next June.

Right: A retailer/Woodmansterne cosmos! (Left-right) Rajesh Shah (Cards Galore), Mark Timmins (Woodmansterne), Chris Rushby (Jarrold), Caroline McNulty (Waterstones), Paul Woodmansterne (Woodmansterne), Claire Fitzgerald (Waterstones) and Anne Jenkins (Webbs of Wychbold).

Below: Paperlink’s Bill Greeno looking ‘blooming great’ with Karen Ross (centre) and Kerri Sorbie, both from Klondyke.

Above: Presenter, actor and comedian Tim FitzHigham, whose many claims to fame include sailing down the Thames in a paper boat, hosted The Retas this year.

Above: Guests showed their astrological knowledge by taking part in a ‘Higher or Lower’ fun elimination competition at the start of the meal.

Right: Agent Maria McKenna (right) with Design@Six’s Kate and Andrew Hodgson.

Right: Sophie Loren of Belly Button (left), sponsor of the Higher or Lower competition presented winner Gill Wood (of Hallmark) with her prize of a magnum of champagne and £100 of Selfridges vouchers.

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The Retas 2016

Left: A Hallmark Gold Crown ‘constellation’. (Left-right) Hallmark’s Richard Everitt, Lesley MitchellRobertson, Graeme Francis with; Bentleys’ Steve and Julie McHale; Reflections’ Phillip and Maxine Nield with Naomi and Pat Green of Celebrate, Chigwell.

Right: Fortnum & Mason’s Joe Guest (left) and Chelsey Ellis with their big Silver Ticket. Second Nature’s Tim West and Brainbox’s Ben Hickman looks suitably impressed.

Right: Postmarks Emma Cole’s smile (left) was even broader a few hours later when she collected the Best Retail Employee trophy. Seen here with Postmark’s owner Mark JansonSmith, colleague Lavinia Probyn (2nd left) and PG’s Gale Astley.

Below: Beings from ‘planet Scribbler’! (Left-right) Ryan Partridge, Emily Ridgwell, LiseMarie Loud, Galena Ivanova and Iva Markovik.

Above: Oliver Bonas’ Hannah Tait (left) and Tierney Stockford (right) with Bentalls’ Louise Clausen.

Left: Less ‘Between the Lines’ and more ‘surrounding Carte Blanche’!

(Left-right) Florian Kleinlercher and Luci May (both of Between the Lines), Carte Blanchers Julia Andrews, Grace Elphinstone and Charles Spencer with Between the Lines’ Helen Philippe.

Below: Cherry Cards’ Debbie Davis (left) and Lynn Taylor (far right) with The Card Company’s Mark and Jaicey Jackson.

Left: Some of the great goodies inside The Retas’ goody bags.

Below left: All those who attended The Retas went home with a gorgeous goody bag (from Unique), crammed full of a galaxy of products from different companies.

Below: Ensuring everything went to plan was MC Robert Persell (left) with GCA president Ged Mace (The Art File) who drew the charity raffle that raised over £5,300 for The Light Fund.

Right: Agent Rosie Trow (left) with Lorelei’s Lolly Blackman (right) and Jane Hall.

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Greeting Card Retail

Employee of The Year 2016 Winner: Emma Cole, manager of Postmark, Balham, London Initial Reaction: "Totally gleeful to have won both personally and on behalf of Postmark - thank you!"

Emma Cole, manager of Postmark, Balham

Sponsored by

Above: Postmark Balham's shop manager, Emma Cole, receives the Greeting Card Retail Employee of the Year Award from Andy Watts, marketing director of category sponsor Hallmark Cards. Also pictured is the awards' host Tim Fitzhigham.

Right: Emma with a lovely shiny trophy.

www.hallmark.co.uk

Best Independent Greeting Card Retailer

London (Inside the M25) 2016 Winner: Supersales, Belvedere

Right: Katy Shipley, co-owner of Supersales, receives her trophy from Stuart Illingworth, managing director of category sponsor Widdop & Co. Below: Katy holds on tight to her Retas trophy.

Initial Reaction: “Wow! I can't believe it! So glad I managed not to drop Reta!"

Katy Shipley, c0-owner of Supersales, Belvedere

Sponsored by

www.widdop.co.uk

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Best Independent Greeting Card Retailer

Home Counties 2016 Winner: Creased Cards, Brighton Left: On behalf of Creased Cards, Brighton, Terry Wallace accepts The Retas trophy from Christine Harrison, director of sales for Xpressions 4U and Only 4U, sponsor of the category.

Right: Creased Cards' owner Paul Jarman, celebrates his Retas win with a glass of bubbly.

Initial Reaction: “We’re delighted to have been recognised by our industry peers and the award we’ve received is a testament to the products we choose and our great team.

Creased is entering an exciting phase of its young life, as we look to expand in the next 12-18 months. If all works out well, in the next three years we’ll have another four stores across the country.”

Sponsored by

Paul Jarman, owner of Creased Cards, Brighton

www.only4ultd.co.uk

Best Independent Greeting Card Retailer

East Anglia 2016 Winner: Dzodzo, Woodbridge

Sponsored by

www.nigelquiney.com / www.glick.co.uk

Above: Happy Peter Whiteman, partner of Dzodzo, Woodbridge, is delighted to receive his Retas award from Fiona Douglas, sales director for category sponsor Nigel Quiney and Glick.

Right: Peter proudly clasps his Retas trophy and a Golden PG Live ticket worth £150.

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PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

Initial Reaction: “Shock, surprise, pride for all the team. The journey to the stage happened so fast I could not even begin to tell you what music was being played. Then I just wanted to hold The Retas trophy. I was also thinking that it would have been an even sweeter success if my wife, and co-owner, could have been there as well to collect the award, and not in a hospital having radiotherapy.”

Peter Whiteman, partner of Dzodzo, Woodbridge

RETAS Winners pages Grid 2016_Layout 1 28/07/2016 14:39 Page 3

Best Independent Greeting Card Retailer

South West Bristol 2016 Winner: Romantica, 3 stores in Sponsored by

www.thorntons.co.uk

Right: Nik Gornall, owner of Romantica, Bristol, accepts The Retas' Best Independent Greeting Card Retailer – South-West award from Han Van Reen, 'Thorntons in your store' development manager for Thorntons, the category sponsor.

Bottom right: Nik and his wife and partner Teresa proudly hold their Retas trophy.

Initial Reaction: “My wife Teresa's initial reaction and mine were quite different. I had always been hopeful and it was almost relief mixed with excitement as I jumped out of my seat to go and collect the trophy. Teresa's initial reaction was to jump up and scream, and to continue screaming as she chased me across the room to get a photo of me collecting the award. And that is why I love her!”

Nik Gornall, owner of Romantica, Bristol

Best Independent Greeting Card Retailer

Wales and the Midlands 2016 Winner: Celtic Company, Welshpool Right: Ros Jones, owner of Celtic Company, Welshpool, accepts her Retas trophy from Chris Bryan, general manager for category sponsor, Second Nature.

Below: A suprised smile from Ros.

Initial Reaction: "It's all a bit of a blur: Very happy, excited, nervous about looking an idiot on stage (I'm known for my clumsiness!), pleased for all my staff as well as myself, shocked at how heavy The Retas trophy was, and then basking in all the praise and congratulations that came our way."

Ros Jones, owner of Celtic Company, Welshpool

Sponsored by

www.secondnature.co.uk

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Best Independent Greeting Card Retailer

North and Northern Ireland 2016 Winner: Love Letters, Hull Right: Janet and Dudley Stow, owners of Love Letters, Hull, are delighted to accept their Retas award from Ken Roberts, regional sales manager – Midlands Region for category sponsor, UK Greetings.

Below: We couldn’t be happier! Shocked smiles from Janet and Dudley.

Sponsored by Initial Reaction: “We went with high hopes but never expected to win, not when the competition was so fierce with so many great shops up for the award. When our name was read out we both looked at each other and went up to the stage in a blur. It was a lovely day, and winning, well that was the cherry on top of the cake!”

Janet and Dudley Stow, owners of Love Letters, Hull

Best Independent Greeting Card Retailer

Scotland 2016 Winner: Present, Edinburgh Initial Reaction: “When our name was announced we literally just looked at each other in amazement, we were so happy! Yes, our walk to the stage is a blur - we were enjoying listening to each song played for the winners, but the music we walked up to has also been lost in the blur!!”

Sue Butcher and Ellie Butcher, owners of Present, Edinburgh

Sponsored by

www.icgcards.com

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Above: Present in Edinburgh' owners Sue Butcher (left) and Ellie Butcher are thrilled to receive their Retas trophy from Simon Wagstaff, joint managing director of IC&G, sponsor of this category.

Right: Mother and daughter team, Sue (left) and Ellie, with their coveted Retas trophy.

www.ukgreetings.co.uk

RETAS Winners pages Grid 2016_Layout 1 28/07/2016 14:42 Page 5

Best Greeting Card Retailer

Newcomer Or New Branch - South 2016 Winner: Hallmark Celebrate, Chigwell Initial Reaction: “My team and I are truly humbled that our hardwork and commitment to innovate within the industry has been recognised. I was absolutely shocked and shaking heading to the stage. This award motivates us as a team to continue to develop, adapt and innovate.

We want to thank all our suppliers for helping us with promotions and develop product offering ideas and importantly our customers for telling us what they want and giving us their custom.”

Naomi Green, owner of Hallmark Celebrate, Chigwell

Above: Naomi Green, owner of Hallmark Celebrate, Chigwell, and her mum Pat Green, are thrilled to receive their award from Nick Davison, portfolio director of i2i Events, organisers of Spring and Autumn Fair International, sponsor of the category.

Left: Naomi and her mum Pat proudly clasps their Retas trophy.

Sponsored by

www.springfair.com

www.autumnfair.com

Best Greeting Card Retailer

Newcomer Or New Branch - North 2016 Winner: Little Paperie, Ashbourne Initial Reaction: “Well all I can remember is that our legs went to jelly and we were totally stunned!”

Lucy Sticka and Heidi Richardson, joint owners of Little Paperie, Ashbourne

Right: Lucy Sticka (second right) and Heidi Richardson, joint owners of Little Paperie, Ashbourne, accept their Retas trophy from Jackie Collins, managing director of Cherry Orchard Publishing, sponsor of this category.

Left: Heidi and Lucy (right) are incredibly excited to win their award.

Sponsored by

www.cherryorchardpublishing.co.uk PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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Best Independent

Bookstore Retailer Of Greeting Cards 2016 Winner: Holman's Bookshop, Whitby Right: Holman's Bookshop's director Angela O'Connor, receives her Retas trophy from Paul Woodmansterne, managing director of category sponsor Woodmansterne Publications.

Left: Angela proudly holds her Retas trophy.

Initial Reaction: “Totally shocked!… but very happy for all of our team."

Angela O'Connor, director for Holman's Bookshop, Whitby

Sponsored by

www.woodmansterne.co.uk

Best Non-Specialist

Independent Retailer of Greeting Cards - North 2016 Winner: Gallery 339, Halifax

Sponsored by Initial Reaction: "Totally gob-smacked, amazed and delighted!! Thank you."

Natalie Seager, owner of Gallery 339, Halifax www.xystostrade.co.uk

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PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

Left: Owner of Gallery 339 in Halifax, Natalie Seager, accepts the Best Non-Specialist Independent Retailer of Greeting Cards – North award from Julia Simmons, national accounts manager for Xystos, sponsor of this category.

Below: Natalie is delighted to win a Retas trophy and a Golden PG Live ticket.

RETAS Winners pages Grid 2016_Layout 1 01/08/2016 13:02 Page 7

Best Non-Specialist

Independent Retailer of Greeting Cards - South 2016 Winner: Natsons, Barnes

Sponsored by

www.pigmentproductions.com

Left: Natsons' owner Vipin Patel (left) and its head of greeting card department, Abby Seyoum, is delighted to accept the Best Non-Specialist Independent Retailer of Greeting Cards - South award from Ian O'Brien, managing director of Pigment, sponsor of the category.

Below: Vipin and Abby are very pleased with their Retas award.

Initial Reaction: “Initially, when the finalists in our category were announced, I was nervous. Then, when I realised our name was called as the winner, I was numb, until I got to the stage and I just put my fist in the air in jubilation. The event was fantastic and winning a Reta was the icing on the cake. I still have a smile on my face!"

Vipin Patel, owner of Natsons, Barnes

Best Greeting Card Small Multiple (4-20 stores)

Sponsored by

www.greatbritishcards.co.uk

2016 Winner: Hallmark Thorntons/K&Q Trading, 8 stores in Scotland Right: Abdul Qayum (middle right), and Ilyas Khan, directors, for K&Q Trading Hallmark Thorntons, accept the Best Greeting Card Small Multiple award from Chris Houfe, sales director for The Great British Card Company, category sponsor.

Left: Abdul (left) and Ilyas are over the moon with their award.

Initial Reaction: “Well, before the announcement we felt "Nope, don't think we're going to win", then when we won it was just "YES!", and up we came to get the award, which was just a blur as it happened quickly."

Abdul Qayum, director for K&Q Trading Hallmark Thorntons PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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Best Department Store Retailer of Greeting Cards 2016 Winner: Bentalls, Kingston Sponsored by

www.abacuscards.co.uk

Left: Assistant buyer for Bentalls, Kingston, Jenni Taylor (right) and Louise Clausen, cards brand manager, receive the Retas' Best Department Store Retailer of Greeting Cards award from Mark Roberts, national field sales manager for Abacus, the category sponsor.

Below left: Jenni and Louise are absolutely thrilled with their award.

Initial Reaction: “I was in shock, shaking with adrenalin but over the moon!”

Jenni Taylor, assistant buyer for Bentalls, Kingston

Best Supermarket Retailer of Greeting Cards 2016 Winner: Sainsbury's Left: Sainsbury's junior buyer – everyday cards and wrap, Caroline Hawkins (second right) and junior buyer Isobel Parry, are very happy to accept their Retas award from Jackie Parr, PR and marketing for category sponsor, Progressive Greetings Live.

Below: A smiling Sainsbury's duo with their Retas trophy.

Sponsored by

www.progressivegreetingslive.com

Initial Reaction: “We are really proud to have won Best Supermarket Retailer Of Greeting Cards for the first time since the Retas began. It’s great to get recognition for all the hard work the team have put into the card range and differentiating us from our competitors."

Caroline Hawkins, junior buyer - everyday cards and wrap, and Isobel Parry, junior buyer, for Sainsbury's.

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Best Non-Specialist Multiple Retailer of Greeting Cards 2016 Winner: Waterstones, 280 stores nationwide

Initial Reaction: “We genuinely didn’t expect to win our category so when our name was read out as the winner my colleague Caroline and I just stared at each other in disbelief!”

Claire Fitzgerald, buyer – cards, giftwrap

Left: Waterstones' buyer of cards, giftwrap and calendars, Claire Fitzgerald, is suprised to accept the Retas award for the Best Non-Specialist Multiple Retailer of Greeting Cards from Simon Wright, business development director for UK Greetings, home of the Boofle licence and category sponsor.

Left: A 'top ranking' Retas for Waterstones' Claire.

Sponsored by

and calendars, Waterstones www.boofle.co.uk

Best Specialist Multiple Retailer of Greeting Cards

Sponsored by

www.paperlinkcards.com

2016 Winner: Card Factory, 800+ stores nationwide Right: Justin Fletcher, the property director of Card Factory, receives the Best Specialist Multiple Retailer of Greeting Cards Retas trophy from Bill Greeno, sales and marketing director of category sponsor, Paperlink.

Below: Justin is delighted.

Initial Reaction: "I'm absolutely delighted to accept the award for Best Specialist Multiple Retailer on behalf of all my colleagues in the Card Factory group, it's a great achievement."

Justin Fletcher, the property director of Card Factory PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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Best Garden Centre Retailer of Greeting Cards

Mears Ashby , m riu po Em th or w ck Be r: ne in W 2016 Right: Gift buyer for Beckworth Emporium, Mears Ashby, Heike Brown (left) and Tina Webster, gift assistant, accept the Best Garden Centre Retailer of Greeting Cards award from Lee Hartley, business development manager of category sponsor Noel Tatt.

Below: Heike and Tina (left) proudly hold their Retas trophy.

Initial Reaction: “Totally ecstatic!”

Heike Brown, gift buyer for Beckworth Emporium, Mears Ashby

Sponsored by

Best Greeting Card Retailer Initiative 2016 Winner: Dragonfly Cards & Gifts Knaresborough – for its 10th Anniversary campaign

Initial Reaction: “I've never felt so many emotions at one time - shock, joy, pride and how do we get to the stage without falling over our goody bags! When we won in 2013 it was amazing, but this time was even more special some how shows the first time wasn't just a fluke!”

Rachael Barnes, partner of Dragonfly Cards & Gifts, Knaresborough

Above: Rachael Barnes (left) and her Mum Rita Knibbs, partners of Dragonfly Cards & Gifts, Knaresborough, accept the Best Greeting Card Retailer Initiative award from Chris James, sales director of category sponsor Danilo.

Right: Rachael and Rita (left) are over the moon and stars with their win. All Retas winners receive a Golden Ticket worth £150 to spend at PG Live next year.

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Sponsored by

www.danilo.com

RETAS Winners pages Grid 2016_Layout 1 28/07/2016 14:48 Page 11

Best Greeting Card Wholesaler 2016 Winner: Budget Greeting Cards,

8 branches in the UK and Eire

Initial Reaction: “I feel immensely proud of all the staff at BGC for the hard work they have put in. This award is really for them, as it is their dedication to great designs and great customer service that has won the award for the company.”

Martin Lavery, managing director of Budget Greeting Cards

Sponsored by

Sensations THE PERFECT CHOICE

Above: Managing director of Budget Greeting Cards, Martin Lavery, accepts the Best Greeting Card Wholesaler award from Ade Longe, managing director for Sensations/Xpress Yourself, sponsor of this category.

Left: A delighted Martin with his trophy.

TM

TM

www.sensationscards.co.uk

Greeting Card Retailer of the Year Criteria: All the winners of The Retas awards are truly great greeting card retailers. This award goes to the ‘greatest of the great’ of these retailers - a retailer that has truly excelled in all aspects of greeting card retailing.

Winners of all The Retas categories are contenders for this award.

2016 Winner: Waterstones, 280 stores nationwide Initial Reaction: “To go on and win the gong for Greeting Card Retailer of the Year was an absolute dream come true and I’ve honestly never felt more proud. It is an honour for all our hard work to be recognised with this prestigious award!”

Claire Fitzgerald, Waterstones' buyer - cards, giftwrap and calendars

Top right: Claire Fitzgerald, buyer of cards, gift wrap and calendars for Waterstones, with colleague Caroline McNulty, category manager for related products, win the Retas double and accepts the Greeting Card Retailer of the Year award from Ged Mace, managing director of category sponsor, The Art File.

Right: A happy ending for double winner Claire.

Sponsored by

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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Old Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, E1 11th - 13th September 2016 This iconic Fair comes to London.

The only trade fair exclusively for British craft and design.

Buyers not already registered with us, register here...

www.bctf.co.uk

British by design...

British by design... British by design... British by

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS LONDON AD AUG 2016 LEFT.indd 1 46_PG_August 2016.indd 1

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Innovations

British Craft Trade Fair A selection of card ranges being launched at BCTF, 11 to 13 September 2016 at the Old Truman Brewery, London.

Final Cut

Golden Moments

Seren Papercuts’ Mounted Lasercut Cards is a range of intricate laser-cut designs, presented in a mount, which can be framed as a keepsake or used freestanding as a card. There are five initial occasions designs taken from hand-cut originals from designer Jo Green.

Seren Papercuts 07935 445546 www.serenpapercuts.co.uk Stand N10

Curio Prints is launching Intaglio Occasions, 10 luxury notecards designed by Q.E.S.T craft scholar Rachael Hodgson. These occasions designs feature hand-engraved gold calligraphy, are Intaglio printed with great pressure and counterforce on a traditional printing press creating the distinct embossed golden script and are then burnished to perfection.

Curio Prints 07813 673452 www.curioprints.co.uk Stand N13

Flying South South London is the subject of the latest range from Lucinda Denning. Called London, South of the River, this six card range includes views of the Thames, Battersea Park, Tooting Bec Lido, and other interesting sites, all painted in gouache during 2016.

Lucinda Denning 020 86961292 www.lucinda-denning.com Stand B59

Very Punny

Art On The Webb The Canvas Collection from Fowler & Webb comprises 16 blank fine art designs taken from original paintings on canvas by Emmeline Webb. Printed on textured fine art board, the cards are sized 155mm square and sold wrapped with colour-coordinated envelopes.

Fowler & Webb 01462 454019 www.fowler&webb.com Stand N8

Tania Holland Gallery is the home of the Wordplay Menagerie, a light-hearted collection of contemporary animal designs, each incorporating a second motif or theme that together create a visual pun appropriate for specific occasions. The designs are all richly detailed mixed media collages and each includes a dictionary style definition of the pun that it represents.

Tania Holland Gallery 07879 452807 www.taniaholland.com Stand D14

Fabric Of Life Heidi Meier debuts at BCTF with three collections: British Countryside, Animal Magic and Fun & Friendship. There are 18 beautiful designs in total, reproduced from her colourful textile embroidered artworks, which often have a humorous, nostalgic or a hidden twist. The cards are sized 150mm square, blank inside and sit nicely alongside a fine art range which will also be on display at BCTF. Heidi Meier Textiles 01206 240933 www.textiletreasures.co.uk Stand N2

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SMILE.

4 -7 SEPTEMBER 2016 NEC BIRMINGHAM UK

With over 90 new, original and exclusive exhibitors in our Greetings & Contemporary Gift hall alone, you’re sure to discover exciting designs that’ll leave you and your customers grinning from ear to ear.

Get your free ticket today:

www.autumnfair.com Credits: Tutti & Co ‘Oh Happy Day’

AutumnFair-ProgressiveGreetings.indd 1 16_PG_August 2016.indd 1

15/06/2016 16:22 27/07/2016 11:53

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Innovations PG Showcases A Collection Of New Product Launches

Roses Are Red A gorgeous new range from Rose Madder London is Flower Press, featuring unique collages made from hand-pressed flowers and painted leaves. There are 29 cards in the range with more new spring flower releases due for autumn 2016. Printed on FSC quality paper, the cards are sized 150mm square, blank and sold wrapped with recycled eco-brown envelopes, or with gold/silver envelopes on request.

Rose Madder London 07527 258409 www.rosemadderlondon.com

A Fairy In A Box! Boxed framed fairy prints are the latest product from Flicker Wings. Featuring the artwork of Sue Colman, each print has delicate wings that that flick out and are delightfully displayed in the glass fronted white wooden frames. There are 10 designs to choose from, some with an additional decoration such as a baby dummy, a pram or silver baby feet.

Flicker Wings 01226 728616 www.flickerwings.com

Hands Across The Ocean

In A Pickle

US based publisher Elyse Designs is launching an eponymous range, celebrating the beauty of the world, with rustic birthday cards and inspirational paintings of mountains and lighthouses. There are 16 4” x 6” cards in the range, sold wrapped with complementing envelopes.

Elyse Designs ++1 818 378-1694 laurenelysegonzalez@gmail.com

Mischievous Moggies is a range of handfinished cards by new publisher, Pickled Cat. Inspired by designer Reeya Patel’s cat Jess, the 12 cards feature illustrations of cats in various playful situations and potentially troublesome predicaments – which is quite fitting seeing as Jess regularly gets himself into a right old pickle.

Pickled Cat 07739 042653 www.pickledcat.co.uk

Darrington Style The Chroma Collection from Laura Darrington Design is a stylish range of 24 Christmas designs comprising both general and relations captions.

Each design is 165mm square and is finished with red glitter to create added sparkle for the festive season. All the cards are blank and sold wrapped with matching envelopes.

Laura Darrington Design 0116 2849660 www.lauradarrington.co.uk

Neon Dream Kate Guest is introducing its exciting new Neon Stripes range, featuring 18 birthday and blank cards. This new range uses letter stamping and a roller press to create unique imagery, which is then printed onto highquality recycled grey board. The cards are presented wrapped with one of three different neon coloured envelopes.

Kate Guest 07976 031464 www.kateguest.com PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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HOT

CALENDARS

FOR 2017

Danilo Promotions Ltd | Waltham Abbey |

EN9 1AS | 01992 702 900 | sales@danilo.com

/DaniloCalendarsUK

@CalendarsUK

All rights reserved. / Studios Licensed by Universal Studios Licensing LLC. TM The Secret Life of Pets is a trademark and copyright of Universal © & TM DC Comics and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (s16) © 2016 Storyteller Distribution Co., LLC / © & LucasfilmTMLtd. / of Nintendo. / SUICIDE SQUAD and all related characters and elements Inc./GAMEFREAK inc. , ®, and character names are trademarks © Disney / © 2016 Pokémon. © 1995-2016 Nintendo/Creatures

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Innovations PG Showcases A Collection Of New Product Launches

The Good, The Bad And The Bawdy Bawdy Designs is a new and audacious greeting card publisher, recently launched with two ranges invented by the founders Spencer and Jared Coleman. Bawdy-Good is very inspiring, motivating and affectionate and Bawdy-Bad is illmannered, brash and extremely funny. The two collections amount to 88 magnificent 130mm square cards all designed by hand. Take a look!

Bawdy Designs 07564370314 www.bawdydesigns.co.uk

Cats’ Eyes Erina Y is a new publisher featuring the works of Japanese artist Erina Yamashita, whose unique eye for cats has been captivating the hearts of animal lovers in Japan for many years. There are 20 blank designs in the range, sized 105 x148mm, and sold wrapped with luxury ivory wove envelopes.

Erina Y 01743 343517 www.erinay.co.uk

Evocative Art Art Nouvocative has recently added stylish new designs into its popular Art Deco and vintage inspired collection, with gorgeous photography and artwork from a range of artists including June Griffiths. There are 28 new designs, all blank and sold wrapped with white envelopes.

Art Nouvocative 07961 992836 www.artnouvocative.com

Under The Mistletoe Alex Underdown Art is channeling the Christmas spirit by adding six fabulous new Christmas cards to its Humorous range, bringing this range to 18 designs - so plenty to choose from! New everyday occasions, baby cards and funnies coming soon!

Alex Underdown Art 00353 8709 15907 www.alexunderdownart.co.uk

Give Me An Oooh!

Cardooo is thrilled to announce the arrival of the Love from Lexi, greeting card range. There are two series of cards in the range: Animal Balloons and Animal Legs, all showcasing London artist Lexi Hayman’s unique drawing style and sense of humour.

Cardooo 020 3167 1800 www.cardooo.com

Spirit Of India Created around Mughal style paintings, the eyecatching Frisky Fresco range from new publisher Papagrazi, captures the colour and vibrancy of India mixed with a little gentle humour and modern culture. There are 12 fun and funky cards designed by Rosy James, all glossy, sized 150mm square and sold wrapped with white envelopes.

Papagrazi 07775 833065 www.papagrazi.com

A Rosé Garden This August, Hotchpotch will be launching 12 154mm x 154mm additional designs to its already extremely successful Rosé collection. Rosé is a sparkly and pretty range featuring hand-drawn lettering, a feminine colour palette and a sprinkle of rose gold glitter. Price code II/65, RRP £2.19.

Hotchpotch 01243 792600 www.cbgtrader.co.uk PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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America’s Original Candle!

Quality Candles • Fantastic Value

Xystos Flame & Fragrance • Bath & Body

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For more info, contact our Customer Service Team Email: sales@xystos.co.uk or Tel: +44(0)191 499 1570 www.xystostrade.co.uk

02/08/2016 09:38:33 12:18 01/08/2016

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Innovations PG Showcases A Collection Of New Product Launches

Innocent Days Earlybird have just launched a charming card range by artist 'Sunflower Bill' (aka Kathryn Boyt). Combining collaged tissue and watercolours, this sweet range of 16 birthday cards, kids’ age cards and occasion cards features fruits, lollies and jellies with a charming innocence. In a new humour cards venture, Earlybird has also collaborated with ‘Product of the Environment’ artist Rebecca Chitty to launch a new set of 12 hilarious blank humour cards.

Earlybird 01227765372 www.earlybirddesigns.co.uk

Comic Capers James Ellis has recently added some popular birthday relations designs to its Kapow Shakies range, including Dad, Mum, Sis and Bro. The cards measure 125mm x 125mm and come with a kraft envelope. They are individually cellowrapped, blank inside for your own message and are available in units of six. £1.25 each (RRP £2.99) James Ellis 0117 927 7667 www.jamesellis.com

My Tribe Tigerlilly incorporates the tribal fashion trend for 2016 into Tribal Age, a cute and colourful tribal children’s age range. There are six cards, printed from original paper-cut art, in vibrant colours, all made with precision tools and lots of patience!

Tigerlilly 07835 893775 www.bytigerlilly.co.uk

A Festive Flurry Paperwhale have been busy making a new collection of nine luxury Christmas Cards. They are available as singles or packs, cello-wrapped with 155mm x 155mm envelopes. They are full of curious creatures with intricate collage detail, made using found paper, vintage books and magazines. All cards are printed in the UK using textured FSC certified paper.

Paperwhale 07960812279 www.paperwhale.co.uk

Word Play Roisin Cafferty's unique new range A Way With Words features cute animal illustrations where the messages are created out of the imagery. The various occasions include anniversary, new baby, congratulations, Christening, thank you, and many others. There are 20 designs so far (more will be added later this year), that come wrapped with a 155mm x 155mm fleck kraft envelope.

Roisin Cafferty 07742 983 044 www.roisincafferty.com

Graceful Greetings Dear To Me Studio is a fine paper goods company known for its minimal designs in delicate rose gold foils that grace paper like fine jewellery. The Love and Friends collection includes greeting cards celebrating the family.

Printed with a rose gold foil either on a soft pink or pristine white card, they are accompanied by an envelope in the corresponding colour.

Dear To Me Studio 0751 555 4549 www.deartomestudio.com

Driving You Wild!

Really ‘motoring’, Really Wild Cards has taken sound chip technology to a new level and are excited to announce the launch of its 18 new ‘Classic Collection’ designs in partnership with the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu. Beautiful classic cars from the Museum’s amazing collection are brought to life as you open the card to hear the authentic engine sound of each model.

Really Wild Cards 0203 174 1144 www.reallywildcards.com PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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Design Spotlight

Diverse Direction The creative stimuli in design, evolving from the diversity of cultures now woven into the UK, is celebrated on greeting cards.

From the myriad of spiritual and religious influences, to the cultural and socio-demongraphic changes, such as the longawaited marriage legalisation for the LGBT community, and a vast array of designers with alternative or dual cultural heritage, are all helping to enhance the richness of the card industry.

Publishers adding to this diverse design depth talk to PG about their inspirations.

Davinia and Hilda Richardson, accounts manager and co-founder for Cardigan Cards, recently launched the Loving Words LGBT Range: “Cardigan Cards has been creating inspirational greeting cards for 25 years. We have seen a lot of trends come and go during that time but there is one thing that never goes out of fashion, and that is, the desire to tell the special people in our lives how much they mean to us.

As a company, in our Loving Words portfolio we have always included a selection of cards with design, title and verse which are suitable for all, regardless of gender, and these have always been very popular. When speaking to friends from the LGBT community however, we were told that there was very little choice in the marketplace for tasteful cards specifically designed for LGBT customers, so we decided to conduct a little survey on social media to ask what kind of designs, words etc LGBT customers would ideally like to give to their partners. The overwhelming answer was exactly as we had expected, "We want to say the same things to our partners, lovers, husbands and wives that a heterosexual couple want to say to theirs, but we would like the titles and imagery to be representative of us as a couple."

Diverse Development: “Is this a growing market? The answer is a resounding yes! There has always been an LGBT community, so that market is always there, however, with the long awaited legalisation of gay marriage, the demand for marriage-related cards will indeed bring a new clientele looking for suitable products. Actually, if you think of it from a retailer’s point of view, where once they had perhaps two or three rows of Wedding Day cards all for one group of people (heterosexuals), they now have the opportunity to open up that space to include both male and female couples, that's two new groups of potential customers who once they know that particular shop caters for them, will not only return to purchase LGBT products but also buy for their heterosexual friends and family as well.”

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Fehmida Shah, director for Ink & Ocean, provides beautiful contemporary cards for the growing card sending Muslim market: "I wanted to create a range of design-led cards and social stationery aimed at the Muslim card market because the choices are still quite limited to very traditional designs or cheap quality imports. I think the market is getting stronger if my sales are anything to go by.

My busiest month to date was July when Eid took place. There are two Eid celebrations in the Muslim calendar so I’m now gearing up to the next one! Other than Eid, there are also other Islamic occasions, phrases, events and wedding cards that I cater for.”

Diverse Development: “My design ideas come from many different places. I like to spend the day at the British Museum with a small sketchbook, and always come back feeling creative. Inspiration comes from Islamic art, architecture and calligraphy... in particular for my geometric and Mughal-inspired range. I also like to mix things up a bit, with seasonal holiday colours and objects my ‘snow globe mosque’ card was very popular for Eid. I also have a fun Eid card range aimed at children.

The range is aimed at the UK market, although I have customers worldwide, especially in the US and Canada. The modern take and premium quality is appealing to a diverse market of not only the Muslim consumer but consumers who are buying for Muslim friends or want to stock a small range in their shops."

Top right: A fun children’s card for Eid from Ink & Ocean.

Above: Ink & Ocean’s ‘snow globe mosque’ card was a favourite for Eid this year.

Above left and far left: Cardigan Cards’ LGBT collection includes wedding day for both male and female couples, engagement congratulations, anniversary and four Christmas LGBT titles.

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Design Spotlight

Georgina Fihosy, director of Special Touch Designs, enhances her designs with elements of African wax fabric prints: “I am of African decent, my family are Nigerian and I was born and raised in the UK. I was looking for a card for a Nigerian friend who had just given birth to a beautiful baby and I wanted a unique card with which my friend could identify. However I couldn't find one so I decided to make the card myself and from that moment Special Touch Designs was born.”

Diverse Development: “I wanted to design cards that would celebrate diversity. I love art and fashion, especially African wax print fabrics, and I so set out to design cards that would fuse my love of contemporary art with gorgeous fabrics. I envisaged designing cards that would spark conversation about culture in a positive way.

Each card has some element of African wax print fabric added to them. The designs are simple, but I feel they can be appreciated by all cultures. One of my favourite cards in the Live In Colour Collection is the Just Kick It design, which features a high top trainer in print fabric.”

Right: Georgina Fihosy, director of Special Touch Designs, with some of her beautiful cards that have elements of African wax print textiles.

Megan Glocker, marketing and social media assistant for IC&G, explains the inspiration behind the publisher’s new fresh and modern Christian range: “IC&G’s directors, Simon and Ian Wagstaff, have nurtured the family business that has grown from a religious based start-up. Our new The Movement range is an exciting continuation of our Christian roots. The range comprises contemporary designs, finished cards, paired with soft powder grey and kraft brown envelopes to match the modern feel. We envisioned the cards being sent by family to family and from friend to friend. The cards were created to be versatile and they can be sent as ‘Just because’ cards, exam encouragement etc... any reason to inspire or lift up one another.”

Diverse Development: “We wanted to give a fresh take on Christian greeting cards, something different, something bold and uplifting. In an age of ‘insta-wisdom’ it seems that you can’t be online without seeing a motivational quote. The scriptures Above and right: IC&G’s new The Movement we have chosen are universal enough to apply to range is a wonderfully uplifting and any situation, reminding you that you are ‘strong and contemporary range of Christian cards. mighty enough’ to tackle anything. Faith-based merchandise is a growing market; which holds great potential for artists who cater to this niche. In our approach we are attempting to tap into a young audience attracted to the photographic images and motivational quotes. We believe this reflects the way many young Christian consumers are thinking and buying.

We carefully sourced images that reflect religious Bible text. We used anchors to represent staying grounded, clever use of design elements in our ‘Salt of the earth and light of the world’ design – these details that relate to the Bible verses translate our Christian beliefs into playful yet powerful messages.”

Raj Arora, managing director for Davora, well respected for its multi-cultural cards, has recently launched a collection of Polish designs under a brand new sister brand, Misiu Cards: “As with most of our ranges, our inspiration for Polish cards came from our customers. We're often asked if we publish cards for various niche occasions, and rather than simply saying “yes” or “no”, I like to do some investigation, and see if there is a market for the request. In the case of Polish cards, there was evidence of a good commercial basis.

We had dabbled in Polish cards before under the Davora brand, but this year I wanted to do it in a more holistic way. We created a dedicated Polish card brand (Misiu Cards), designed some brand new cards, adapted some existing best sellers and launched with 30 designs at Spring Fair.”

Diverse Development: “Our new Polish range is published under a dedicated brand, Misiu Cards (Misiu translates as ‘little bear’) and covers many of the life occasions that we all know - births, marriages, birthdays, Easter and Christmas.

We've also included some occasions that are specific to the Polish community, such as Polish Mother’s Day, which falls on May 26 each year. We also have cards for ‘Name Days’; many Polish celebrate a specific date dedicated to their name. Each date in the calendar has a number of names associated to it. Name Day celebrations are as revered as birthdays, if not more so. A common greeting for Name Day and Birthday is ‘Sto Lat’ - which translates as ‘Wishing you life of 100 years’. There is so much to learn and take in when designing a new range like this. Luckily, one of our team members is Beata Wisniewska, who is from Poland, who has been instrumental in helping us get the range right!”

Top right: It's a European team at Davora, with Beata Wisniewska from Poland (left), Anna Scandella (middle) from Italy, and Pooja Shah from London.

Above right: There are currently 30 designs in the Misiu Cards range.

The text on the front and inside is in Polish, with the English translations on the reverse. This design is a Birthday/Name Day card.

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JEREMY’S JOURNAL Business blogging by publisher Jeremy Corner of Blue Eyed Sun.

By Association Jeremy Corner, owner of greeting card publisher Blue Eyed Sun, considers the value of trade associations.

What is the point of trade organisations? I’ve been asking myself this question a lot of late, having just become the new vice-chairman of The Giftware Association (GA) as well as being Treasurer for the Greeting Card Association (GCA). Since getting more closely involved with these two trade groups over the last few years, and helping to improve their offering and membership numbers, it’s really got me thinking hard about what makes joining them a ‘must’ rather than just a ‘should’.

Blue Eyed Sun has been a member of the GCA, the GA and the FSB (Federation of Small Businesses) for over a decade now.

We’ve also been approached by a number of others over the years, including local enterprise groups and other specialist trade bodies like ACID. It’s quite easy to see the direct debits siphoning off your hard earned cash each year and wonder whether it’s all worth it. So what are the benefits of joining?

Financial Benefits As supplier members, there are key financial benefits that each offer. In Blue Eyed Sun’s case we enjoy 10% off our stand at PG Live through the GCA and 5% off our stands at the Spring Fair and Autumn Fair trade shows through the GA. We also get discounted rates from key suppliers through both organisations. Both leverage the numbers of their memberships to negotiate member deals with website designers, courier companies, insurers, credit controllers and credit checkers.

GA retailer members benefit from member to member trade show discounts, discounted hotel costs, cheaper Retail Week subscriptions, retail advice and legal insurance protection.

Each trade association also has free half hour calls to top legal experts dealing with key industry issues like brand protection, sales agents and copyright law.

brochures and websites. It also has a credit discussion group to identify and help deal with customers who are slow to pay or in danger of defaulting.

Marketing

Above: Jeremy has recently become the new vice-chairman of The Giftware Association.

Below: Left to right: Sarah Ward, chief executive for The Giftware Association (holding Frank the dachshund) and Simone Rose, the GA’s business development manager, with Matthew Hopkins, managing director for The Great British Exchange, who have established a community for businesses who are passionate about British made products.

time we release a new range so that we don’t inadvertently market products with the same range name as another publisher. With so many companies and ranges out there this is easily done even after the usual Google and the IPO Trade Mark Register checks. It works closely with legal company Briffa and supports its affordable insurance schemes, Designprotect and Brandprotect which allows members to protect their own IP and provide a fighting fund should infringement incur.

The GA has a scheme set up called Copywatch, which helps companies register and protect their designs as well as warding off plagiarists with their Copywatch logo on

Members of both the GCA and the GA have profile listings on their websites, which makes it easier for customers and suppliers to find them and help grow their businesses. More customers means more sales and better suppliers can mean cost savings and improved service for your customers.

These listings also have strong SEO (search engine optimisation) benefits and are a good opportunity to show off what you do. The GA also offers competitive advertising opportunities on its website for those looking to enhance their industry profile.

GCA associate members who supply publishers and retailers get listings in the supplier directory on the GCA site, free access to the GCA Market Report (worth £500) and exclusive access to members at GCA events and online.

Both organisations offer the opportunity to be featured in trade newsletters or magazines.

While separate, the GCA has a close link with Progressive Greetings as its official magazine and Sharon Little, its ceo, also looks after the Innovations section of the magazine.

It also is an official supporter of The Henries.

The GA has an email newsletter called Giftwrap which goes out regularly to a large database of retailers and suppliers and is always looking to feature stories on its members. It also has a free weekly email called GA Reflect which includes relevant industry news. The GA also runs and organises the Gift of the Year awards, a great marketing tool to promote suppliers in the industry.

Credibility Protection The GCA has a really useful Range Name Register which Blue Eyed Sun checks every 56

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The GA and the GCA logos add credibility to your business. You can use them on your website, email signatures, letterheads, at your

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JEREMY’S JOURNAL

Left: Crafts Beautiful magazine featured the GCA’s Thinking of You Week initiative last year, reaching the consumer market.

Below: Abacus’ Bev Cunningham and Wendy JonesBlackett at last year’s GCA AGM at Attitude 360 in London’s Millbank Tower last year.

Below right: Sharon Little, chief executive of the GCA, gets into the Christmas spirit for Festive Friday a GCAinstigated initiative which falls every year on the last Friday in November.

Clintons), rising publishing star Hannah Dale, founder of Wrendale Designs and inspirational comedian Sanderson Jones (founder of Sunday Assembly). If you missed them you can catch up on the GCA YouTube channel.

This year’s GCA AGM is on Tuesday 8 November at the Royal Horseguards in London and promises another fantastic line-up. premises and in your brochure. We have their logos on our trade show stands as they add another level of reassurance to customers that we are a credible well-established business with strong links to our industry community.

Events Both associations put on regular events like seminars and networking gatherings. The GCA has some fantastic seminars on subjects like improving sales with sales agents and distributors. Recently it’s also been adding video footage of its events to its website so you can see the latest seminar on licensing and distribution on its YouTube channel.

These events give members a chance to keep up to date with legislative changes and ask questions from more experienced members. Similarly, the GA has had some excellent Business Boost days to help members drive sales and cut costs. It also organises Meet the Buyers days with major retailers, where suppliers get face time and invaluable feedback with leading retailers who in turn get to discover exciting new products for their stores.

Both trade associations have inspiring AGM/Members’ Day events that are well worth adding to your diary and attending.

This recent GA Members’ Day included keynotes specialising in customer service, branding and network thinking as well as informative talks on auto-enrolment pension changes, resale price maintenance compliance and HR recruitment.

Last year’s GCA AGM featured brilliant keynotes from the experienced card retailer Dominique Schurman (CEO of

No Trade Associations?

All of these benefits and more for card publishers, retailers and suppliers deal with the “what’s in it for me?” question most nonmembers ask before joining. Understandably, prospective members want to know the immediate return they get for their money.

There is a more important consideration though: What would we do if they didn’t exist?

For example, how would we respond to industry threats? Who would lobby government on our behalf to protect our interests when legislation changes or needs changing? Who would support new companies into our card and gift industries to keep our industry fresh and vibrant? Who would help us when we find ourselves in difficulty? Who would mediate and offer opportunities for competitors to come together and protect their industries? As busy business owners or companies, these are not tasks you or I might be able take on

our own and yet they are absolutely vital to all our livelihoods. It’s easy to forget that the real purpose of these organisations is to make us stronger together as a group.

Both chief executives of the GCA (Sharon Little) and the GA (Sarah Ward) have a wealth of experience, industry knowledge and a network of contacts that can help almost any member in a business situation they are having difficulty with. I find having these two experts on the end of the phone an invaluable benefit of our membership.

Community When you sit on the committees at these organisations you join a group of passionate businessmen and women who see beyond their own businesses and recognise the importance of the bigger picture. It’s a great way of connecting with influencers and thought leaders and I have grown so much from spending time with such wonderfully inspiring industry peers. The organisations thrive on these hubs of passion and dedication to our industries.

Beyond the committees, the membership of these associations is a thriving community of businesses and entrepreneurs who all want the best for their industry’s future.

Those who set up the GA, the GCA and other trade bodies decades before us recognised the importance of contributing a small share to provide a focus for the well being of the industries in which they trade and we must continue to do the same.

Even if the benefits I’ve listed above are of little or no use to you, contributing to our community is something worth paying for. This is what makes membership a must rather than a should.

Read more on Jeremy’s blog at www.blueeyedsun.co.uk/blog PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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Retailer Face To Face

Flutters Its Wings Rachael Barnes and Rita Knibbs, co-owners of Dragonfly Cards & Gifts, planned to do something special to mark the 10th anniversary of their Knaresborough shop this year, but they hadn’t anticipated the celebrations to include receiving a Retas trophy, a letter from the House of Commons or a very special one-off greeting card.

PG went to visit a Rita-owned Retas award to find out more about the past and the future for this great Yorkshire greeting card retailer.

Above: The Retas trophy has pride of place in Dragonfly’s left-hand window underneath details of the retailer’s 10th anniversary ongoing promotion which will have involved 10 winners over the course of the year, together with photos of the winners thus far.

Left: A jubilant Rita Knibbs (left) and Rachael Barnes at The Retas with their trophy.

Right: The poster which fanfares the retailer’s 10th anniversary promotion.

If

there was an award for best smiles in the industry, mother and daughter duo Rita Knibbs and Rachael Barnes, co-owners of Dragonfly Cards & Gifts in Knaresborough, would win it hands down, such is their innate sunny disposition. However, they have a very good reason to smile at the moment – having just won the Best Greeting Card Retail Initiative award in The Retas 2016 for their inventive 10th Anniversary Celebrations programme.

‘One of Knaresborough’s best loved businesses’ is how one local newspaper described Dragonfly in its coverage of its Retas win, including a photo of this rock solid mother and daughter duo at The Dorchester holding their Retas award.

“We were absolutely delighted to win the award, especially as we are so little in the scheme of things, and were against other major retailers in the finals,” says Rachael.

The reason the initiative scored so highly with the judges was due to its integrated and ongoing approach, involving suppliers as well as the local community over the course of a number of months.

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“We wanted to come up with a way of thanking our many customers as well as including our lovely suppliers,” said Rachael.

Coupling Rachel’s marketing prowess (shined from the senior marketing role she held at the AA after she left university with an English degree) with Rita’s retailing acumen (she had previously owned a shop during Rachael’s school and college days, selling it when her parents became ill), Dragonfly’s 10th anniversary initiative has involved creating 10 mega goody bags (containing suppliers’ ‘goodies’ worth at least £50) which are then won by customers.

“As we have a lot of loyal customers, some of whom come into the shop every day, we didn’t want to have a set pattern. It might be to do with the 10th of the month, or at 10am, or the 10th customer of the day. Best to keep people guessing,” explains Rachael.

At the time of PG going to press the first three had been announced, their photos featuring in the Dragonfly window, above the poster about the anniversary and, now The Retas trophy.

As a tha thank ank yyou fo for o yyour sup or support uppp pport wee w will be running unning g 100 ggivea giveaways wayys with a ffabulous aabulous ggoody oody bag up for grabs for 10 lucky people.

It could be at 10am, on the 10th of the month, to the 10th customer of the day day,, to the 10th person to “like” o FFacebook our acebook aceboook statuss etc etc!

Will you be one of our lucky 10?

In addition, clinched by The Retas win, a celebratory party is also in the planning, as well as full engagement with Knaresborough town’s annual FEVA (Festival of Entertainment, Entertainment and Visual Arts), which is likely to see Dragonfly’s Retas’ trophy being festooned with a bright pink feather boa (in keeping with the FEVA colours).

“As we see it, the major challenge to independents like us is keeping the high street alive. It is sad that even big names are disappearing. Touch wood, retailing in

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Retailer Face To face

Knaresborough is pretty healthy, but you cannot take it for granted, hence the reason we are so involved in our Chamber of Commerce and participating in the FEVA Festival,” says Rachael.

When, after several years working in Hampshire after graduating, Rachael and her husband hankered to move back to Yorkshire, she was in no doubt as to her next career move: “Open a card shop in Knaresborough with Mum!” Spotting a cute shop unit, with lots of nooks and crannies in the town’s market square, they didn’t hesitate for a moment.

“Tony Roberts [of UKG] speedily came in and helped us measure up, allowing Dragonfly to open its doors on January 14 2006.

It has been a very special adventure ever since,” sums up Rachael, who is more ‘front of house’ in the shop, while Rita now looks after the ‘behind the scenes’ running of the business, though both are high profile

at trade shows and of course The Retas awards.

“When we started we had a bit more competition, there was a Clintons and a more wholesale-orientated shop, but both of these have now closed. We now cater for a wide spectrum of customers, and stock a wider selection of cards to cater for them.”

Along with UKG, other mainstay publishers and ranges include Nigel Quiney’s Pizazz (which is also celebrating its 10th anniversary this year), the Rainbow humour range (“we couldn’t do without them” says Rachael) and Jonny Javelin (“people like the fact the publisher is local,” she adds).

“We still do very well with wordy ranges, if customers come to the till with a tear in their eye it is invariably because a

Like Mother Like Daughter The bedrock of Dragonfly’s success is the rock solid relationship between Rita and Rachael.

In response to the question, of what are the downside and upsides of owning and running a business with your mother, Rachael only has to think for a nanosecond,” she says.“It’s lovely, we are so similar that we agree on everything. The only downside is that we never switch off and always talk about the business,” confesses Rachael.

Hanging round Rachael Barnes’ neck on the day of PG’s visit was a delicate silver necklace depicting a fairy dancing on a moon.

“Mum gave it to me just after we had won the award, the wings for Dragonfly, the fairy figure for The Retas and the moon to tie-in with the theme of the event. She is so thoughtful,” says Rachael.“I am still working on what to give her from me in celebration!”

Thoughtfulness is a trait that clearly runs in the family, as Rachael, soon after her return from The Retas event at The Dorchester, was presented with a delightful handmade ‘Well done card’ by her 7 year-old daughter Lauren, describing the win as ‘orsum’!

Top left: A card publisher in the making!

Rachael’s daughter Lauren with the congratulations card she made for her mum to celebrate Dragonfly’s Retas’ win.

Top right: A quirky animal design (left) from Miko Greetings and a NQ Pizazz card, are from ranges within Dragonfly.

Above middle: Over the years the Dragonfly card displays has evolved to now combine both traditional with contemporary designs.

Above left: A new Jonny Javelin design.

The publisher’s cards sell very well in Dragonfly as it is only based a few miles away from the shop.

Above right: Rachael and Rita sourced Catherine Kleeli’s cards at PG Live in June.

Cardigan Cards design has hit the spot,” reveals Rachael. However, on the more contemporary side, PG Live resulted in some notable discoveries.

“We loved Catherine Kleeli’s animal cards. Five years ago we would not have been able to sell anything like these, now they are flying out. We also ordered Miko Greetings’ quirky animal designs, feeling that they are a bit different.”

Personalisation is one area Rachael has clocked. “The effect of more online activity means that personalisation has become expected. We are always ready to help customers personalise their cards, be it with the Second Nature Express Yourself DIY or the latest Words N Wishes great new range which includes several captions in a card.”

For Rachael and Rita having an independent card shop is the ideal way of being at the heart of a community. “Even in the space of the last ten years people we have served as children now have children of their own. It is lovely how we have seen them through their school days to their exam congrats, engagement, wedding, new home to the birth of their children,” says Rachael.

So what are the plans for Dragonfly’s next decade?

“People ask us if we would like to open another shop, but I so enjoy being so involved with this one. I would love to have more space to do gifts well, so if either of the adjacent units came available we would be very interested.”

Until then, Reta, Rita and Rachael have the rest of a major anniversary year to celebrate!

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ARTSOURCE

TO APPEAR REGULARLY IN THE

ARTSOURCE SECTION OF PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS CONTACT TRACEY ARNAUD ON

01234 740 051

61_63.QXD_49/51 27/07/2016 18:03 Page 1

ART SOURCE

PG helps to paint a pretty picture of freelance artists, designers, verse writers and photographers’ worlds in order to promote their talents to publishers and, conversely, make it easier for publishers seeking artists.

ARTIST IN FOCUS

PA McKenna I am a painter and designer based in Birmingham.

Since completing my BA (Hons) Degree in Fine Art in 1993 I have worked in a wide range of media, including oils, acrylics and collage, and have exhibited in various galleries around the country. I have worked in a variety of styles, including Impressionist, Post Impressionist, Cubist and Abstract - and my work has been influenced by painters such as Turner, Matisse, Picasso and Klee. A style of painting that has been a particular favourite of mine over recent years, and in which I am currently creating a new series of landscapes, is atmosphere of spontaneous and exuberant joyfulness. By contrast, in other strands of my work, I seek to make a simpler and more refined visual statement by employing a minimum of well-chosen elements.

Alongside my work as a painter I produce designs

specifically for cards and textiles. The visual language of this aspect of my work has been influenced by the vintage artwork of such British designers as Lucienne Day, Sylvia Chalmers and Robert Stewart, and by the American graphic designer, Paul Rand.

Apart from the work of other artists and designers, other influences that enter into the creative mix when I'm working with images include inspirations from classical music and jazz, the effects of different light conditions in natural landscapes, and the seemingly limitless variety of patterns and colours, both natural and manmade, that continue to fascinate me wherever I look from the colours and shapes of flowers, fruits and vegetables, to the patterns in wood, clouds and water. l Email: i_eusabius@yahoo.co.uk l Web: https://goo.gl/photos/

Dzbouvub9X9Sfn359

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 Emma Cain on emmac@max-publishing.co.uk. This is an editorial feature and as such is free of charge.

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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ARTSOURCE

TO APPEAR REGULARLY IN THE

ARTSOURCE SECTION OF PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS CONTACT TRACEY ARNAUD ON

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ART SOURCE Yee Von

I’m Yee Von, an illustrator based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I have a naughty and adorable miniature schnauzer named Max. I enjoy travel, stargazing, reading, Japanese food and collecting various paper goods. One of my dreams is to visit Norway to see the Northern Lights with my own eyes.

After completing my Degree in Graphic Design, I then earned a Masters in Communication Design in Melbourne. Whilst in Melbourne, I made my decision to become an illustrator as I found that is my heart’s calling.

My artwork is usually hand-drawn on paper with pen and ink. I feel more connected to my illustrations that way and it gives them a personal touch as well. I usually colour them in Photoshop to finish them as I find it easier and less messy for me.

I'm highly inspired by forest animals, as they’re unlike so many of us who are lost in the busyness of modern life, leaving little room for living. The animals in my artwork usually enjoy their moments of friendship, connecting with nature and celebrating love and joy together.

When I’m not drawing, you’ll find me driving around the town, meeting friends for tea or reading at cafes. I secretly imagine there’s an animal in every one of us.

Mine would probably be a leopard spending time daydreaming by the lakeside and gazing upon the stars. l Email: nicole@astound.us l Web: www.astound.us

Gordon Barker I was born in Gibraltar in 1960. My father was in the army so my family moved around the world until we finally settled in Northamptonshire when I was twelve.

I have always had a vivid imagination and even from a young age I’ve found art fascinating. However, it wasn’t until I came to secondary school that I was given the encouragement from my art teacher to paint and draw in many different ways and was also encouraged to go to Art College in London, but I chose to start work instead. On leaving school I continued to paint in oil, but I was always experimenting with different materials such as glass. I had a few local exhibitions but also ventured to London with my work.

In 1981 I began to paint landscapes for the first time. Initially these were mostly sunsets and silhouettes, but in time I began to paint pictures with more colours and many different subjects. I met my wife in 1982 and I even gave her photographs of my paintings to take home with her until our next date! Of course I made sure I was in one of the photos too!

In late 1983 I sold my first painting to a recording company in Milton Keynes. This gave me the confidence to promote my work to a wider market. This was just the start. Over the next few years I sold about eight hundred originals to companies like MTV Europe, The Gap and also many private collectors, many of these being commissions which have helped to develop my unique style of painting.

The best thing about being an artist is that I start off with a blank white canvas and gradually, as my imagination takes over, the colours flow until I finish with a colourful, busy story that I hope will grab people’s attention and take their imagination to another level. I want people to enjoy my art and see things in my paintings that also mean something personal to them. l Email: gordonbarkerartist@yahoo.co.uk l Tel: 07530041151 PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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PG asked a selection of card retailers for their ‘hot’ card sellers.

Sarah Davey, manageress of Simply Cards, Beccles, Suffolk A medium shop in a pretty market town with a loyal locals and varied customer base.

Category

Name of Publisher

Product/Name Range

Comments

Cute

Carlton (UKG)

Boofle

Humour

Cardmix

Off The Leash and On The Prowl

Photographic

Noel Tatt

Cube

Contemporary

Paperlink

Mimosa

Traditional

Jonny Javelin

Handmade/ Hand-Finished

Second Nature

Velvet, Secret Garden and Fudge Yours Truly

Children’s

UKG

Disney and Marvel

Good designs that appeal to both children and adults. For us they sell well across the ages and relations.

Cartoon style illustrations about the antics of dogs and cats. Great for animal lovers and the cards are flying out.

With traditional, fun and arty images within the collection, it's a good all-round range.

Sometimes customers just Above: Dog (and their want a simple design with plain, unfussy words. owners) humour They just sell and sell! Beautiful cards that cover features in Cardmix’s Off The Leash range. relations and occasions and everyday sends.

Such great value at 99p retail, and design-wise there’s something for everyone. The publisher has also recently added some new humour designs to the range.

Good ranges of licensed characters that the children love. And parents and grandparents are aware of what their children and grandchildren like.

Juliet Esp, owner of Penny Farthing, Much Wenlock, Shropshire A small shop in a historic market town with a loyal locals and tourists customer base.

Category

Name of Publisher

Product/Name Range

Comments

Everyday

Tracks

Gogglies and Sparkle

Cute

Little Dog

Across The Board

Humour

Peartree Heybridge

Photographic

Medici Cards (GBCC)

Camilla & Rose and Spring Chicken English Heritage

Contemporary

Woodmansterne

PINK

Handmade/ Hand-Finished

Talking Pictures (Ling)

Across The Board

Ancillary

Bomb Cosmetics

Bath Bombs

Di Palomo

Lip balm, perfume, hand-cream etc

A good all-round bright and fun range of designs with wobbly eyes.

The Sparkle range are beautifully foiled and embossed relations and occasions and milestone birthday cards.

There are big animal lovers in the area, and the cards’ artwork is just lovely.

Not too rude funny cards for the genteel folk of Wenlock.

A newish photographic range to us.

There is a black and white collection of nostalgic English images but the nice coloured photos of rural England scenes go especially well.

Delicate art cards with broad appeal; there’s something for everyone.

We do very well with this publisher’s designs, especially the large square cards for relations, ages and special milestones.

The packaging and product looks pretty and is reasonably priced.

Top: Chuckling at growing older, Camilla & Rose from A good product with lovely Peartree Heybridge. packaging and made in England. Above: Tracks’ Gogglies range features fun wobbly eyes.

64

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Mary Marshall, owner of Cards Unlimited, West Wycombe, Buckinghamshire A medium shop in a small village with a loyal locals, tourists and families customer base.

Category

Name of Publisher

Product/Name Range

Comments

Cute

Sally Scaffardi Design

Animal Range

Wrendale Designs

Across The Board

Two Bad Mice

General

Humour

Paperlink

Kook, Colourful Mind and Bestie

Above right: Sally Scaffardi’s Animal Range plays on words.

Right: Counting Stars’ Talisman range is beautiful, simple and spiritual.

Simon Drew

General

Splimple

Alison’s Animals

Photographic

Woodmansterne

Framed

Art

ArtPress

General

Contemporary

English Graphics

Glitter & Crystals

Handmade/ Hand-Finished Children’s

Five Dollar Shake Counting Stars Rachel Ellen

Across The Board Talisman Across The Board

Very popular animal designs with subtle and clever play on words.

Amazing designs and the company is so professional.

The adorable animal cards with sweet captions appeal to everyone.

Always a favourite! The humour is just so silly and good… and so many different ranges.

With his great puns the cards always go down a treat.

Very gentle humour that just tickles you.

Stunning images and the company has had the wherewithal to choose the most beautiful shots.

Contemporary and well-known artists who are unique.

Very simple designs enhanced with a perfectly placed crystal that is very effective.

Beautifully done! Lovely line drawings and detailing.

Exquisite, simple, dainty and quite different.

Bright and colourful designs that catch the attention…. and children love them.

Louise Walker, manageress for SWALK, Lindfield, West Sussex A small shop in a pretty market town with a loyal locals and varied customer base.

Category

Name of Publisher

Product/Name Range

Comments

Cute

Pippi & Me

Little Creatures

Humour

Dean Morris, Brainbox Candy and Hunky Dory

Across The Board

Art

Louise Mulgrew Designs

Across The Board

Contemporary

Meraki

General

Rosie Made A Thing

Gin & Frolics

Handmade/ Hand-Finished

The Tortoise And The Hare

General

Children’s

Paper Salad

Across The Board

Ancillary

Meri Meri

Temporary Tattoos

Just cute as a button! And they’re flying out the door.

We have a rude cards box under the counter for the naughty designs… and people from our little village ask us for it; customers love the cards and we have such a giggle ordering them.

Such beautiful cards, we are on our third or fourth order. Customers come in the shop and ask for them specifically.

Quite girlie, fun designs in neon colours that just stand out.

One of my favourites! The childlike look on life is great fun and the designs cover a whole spectrum of sending occasions.

A lovely local lady who creates Liberty-esque fabric cut-outs, such as numbers and a house for New Home, placed on beautiful white board.

Fun, bright, sparkly eye-catching designs; we are reordering all the time.

Temporary tattoos perfect for summer festivals. A little pick-up that we have displayed on a small spinner on the shop counter.

Top: Fun and eye-catching neon colours on a design from Meraki.

Above: A zebra ready to party on a card from Louise Mulgrew Designs.

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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The habit of doing it right.

theimagingcentre.co.uk

Quality

27/07/2016 11:47

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L

LYNN’S LINES

L

On the ball comments by retailer and publisher Lynn Tait of The Lynn Tait Gallery.

Long Live The

Community While I love retail and card publishing, notching up nearly 30 years in both, it is not the actual selling that sets my heart singing, it is all the razzmatazz that goes with it that is my passion.

It’s what’s outside ‘the box’ that I am passionate about.

I must be an adverting salesperson’s nightmare because I don't remember ever placing an advert about my business… unless it was to support a local event. For 35 years, even before I had a shop, I have been lucky enough for my businesses to be featured editorially in the local paper. I have maintained a close and mutually beneficial relationship with my local press for that last three and a half decades. I have never been misquoted and the local newspaper has always treated me with the utmost respect when it has written articles about my business or invariably my latest madcap scheme . All in all, I have probably had about 15 double page spreads and about 100 articles written about my business.

I have always wanted to put the fun into business and right from the start I have been community-focused, project-driven and event-led. Invariably, the minute one project is over I'm planning my next.

This ethos has been the core of both of my businesses and it's a win win situation. In most cases it ignites a great bond with the community, it makes work more fun for my staff, it gives the business a higher profile, it often raises money for charity and it fills positive inches of columns in the local press.

Of course, there is a budget for this. It is a lot of work and you have to be inventive and creative, but everyone is capable of doing it. If you haven't got any ideas, then copy someone else’s from another part of the country.

I am as in love with my business now as I was when I started it producing local nostalgic calendars and modern postcards sets with images of local events, such as storms and arctic weather, pier damage and fires, and local industries now long gone.

My latest escapade, mentioned in my last article, was

Above: Bringing together her community is what Lynn is passionate about.

Below: Two postcards from Lynn Tait’s collection series of Nostalgic Leigh and Old Leigh photographs.

my Design a 90th Birthday Card for the Queen Competition that involved four local schools - West Leigh, Leigh North Street, Chalkwell Hall Juniors and St. Michael's.

We received an astonishing 1,500 entries and to reward those who were involved we recently held the awards’ presentation evening for the children. There were lots of prizes - 60 First Place Winners, (including awards for the best designs as well as the best messages written inside the cards) with a further 80 Second and Third Place winners, and over 100 Highly Commended mentions.

This meant that effectively, a fifth of those who entered the competition received

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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LYNN’S LINES Left: Some of the local children who received a prize for their entries into Lynn’s Design a 90th Birthday Card for the Queen Competition.

Below right: Lynn (middle) with (far left) Poppy Beckwith who undertook the display instore with three Action Medical Research ‘Muskateers’ who sold raffle tickets and organised the refreshments at the event.

Below: The Design a 90th Birthday Card for the Queen competition entries will remain on display in Lynn’s shop all summer before being delivered to Buckingham Palace.

a prize. I am so glad I had started planning early, sourcing commemorative prizes since last year’s Harrogate Home & Gift show as I wanted to give out as many prizes as possible. I really wanted the children to remember the occasion and have something to show their children.

The overall winner, Scarlett Taylor, was presented with a large canvas featuring her card artwork. All the 1st Prize winners received a mug, the Second Prize winners won a spoon, the Third Prize winners a bookmark with all the Highly Commended winners receiving a postcard.

Everyone who attended the prize giving event was encouraged to wear red white and blue to add to the royal theme and we even raised some money for Action Medical Research through a raffle and ‘name the bear’ competition. One of the many highlights of the evening was PG’s Jakki Brown giving a talk to the prize winners (their parents and school teachers) about the visit she made with the GCA’s Sharon Little to Buckingham Palace to meet the Queen’s team who reply to the many thousand of people who send HRH gifts and greeting cards. As guest of honour Jakki also

helped me give out the prizes to the excited children.

The second highlight of the evening for me was having three head teachers there to support their pupils who had won prizes. With the four major competitions that I have organised since the Queen’s Jubilee four years ago I have never had a head teacher come to the prize giving event, usually it's the children’s art teachers that attend. To say I was totally thrilled is an understatement - being presented with flowers from the head of the school in which every single pupil had submitted an entry almost sent me over the emotional edge!

It really did feel like a wonderful community event. It totally reinforced that I have formed important bonds with the schools that will enable me to run future projects. It was also so lovely to put a face to the children’s artwork and messages. And it was great for the parents to see school staff supporting the children in out of school projects.

The 2016 Ladder Club Dates The Ladder Club is the real ‘community event’ for newbie or would-be card publishers - with the second day being for those looking to climb up the ‘next rung of the ladder’.

With my health issues (fingers-crossed!) at a manageable level, PG’s Jakki Brown and I are now full steam ahead with plans to ensure that this year’s Ladder Club Seminars will be truly memorable.

The dates we have set aside are Tuesday 15 November (for newbies and would be) and Wednesday 16 November (for publishers who have done at least one trade show and have been to a previous Day One Ladder Club Seminar). The seminars will take place, in what has become The Ladder Club’s ‘spiritual home’ of the Cliffs Pavilion, in Westcliff, Essex (though it's actual address says Southend-on Sea). I strongly advise everyone attending to arrive the evening prior to enjoy the networking dinner. Once again, I am indebted to Clare Davies of Createvents who has kindly offered to organise the bookings for The Ladder Club this year. The cost will only be £53 for the day (you can choose where you want to stay).

Get in touch with Clare to book your slot on clare@createvents.co.uk or by phone 01183 340085.

Meanwhile I am now working on a stonkingly great agenda!

The 1,500 cards will remain on display in my shop, bunting style, during the summer holidays. It is such a joy for customers to marvel at the artwork and for children come in to proudly show off their work to their families. My thanks go to paper company GF Smith who donated all the blank cards that the pupils used as their ‘blank canvas’.

I was delighted to receive notes and messages from parents, including the following: "My son has been so pleased with himself for winning something, especially something creative. Sadly it is too rarely considered at school these days. Thank you for bringing the community together and for inspiring the young creative minds in the area. It was a pleasure to be part of the competition and my son will feel good about his achievements for a long time."

No amount of record sales in the shop could possibly match up to the joy I felt when I received this note! This is the reason why I do it, this and the many lovely comments we receive in the shop keep me uplifted on a daily basis. Hopefully, it is these projects that make my shop unique and will make yours too if you find a project to set up to involve your community. Being part of a small community is our trump card, and as an independent retailer you too can use it.

Fired up by this latest project, I am now planning a project for September for Thinking of You Week. Watch this space...

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*GCF 1HĆ‚EG +353 (0)404 20528 Email info@garlanna.com www.garlanna.com

Polissh Po h

Te T el: 0161 1 64 641 0 06 655 Email: m sales@da sales@d avora.co.uk av 135 Hea 13 135 eaton Moorr Rd | Stockp ock kpo port ort SK4 4H 4 4HY HY

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WATERWELLS DRIVE, GLOUCESTER GL2 2PH UK TEL: 01452 888999

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H OTC H P OTC H PUBLISHING

Eye catching, luxurious Gift Wraps, Gift Tags, Gift Bags, Roll Wrap, Tissue Papers & Ribbons for all occasions Glick, Unit 1 Allenby House, European Industrial Park, Knowles Lane, Bradford BD4 9AB Tel: 01274 655980 email: sales@glick.co.uk www.glick.co.uk

L U X U RY C A R D S P R O U D LY M A D E I N T H E U K Order s can be placed on our trader site

w w w. c b g t r a d e r. c o. u k

or call our customer ser vice team on

+44(0)1243 792600

)

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.

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

Cards made with love...

60 years

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

Huge selection with immediate delivery y.. Buy direct or from your wholesalerr..

Listan Labels 3 Isis Court, Wyndyke Furlong, Abingdon Business Park, Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX1 5JN Te T el 01235 465489 Fax 01235 532118 www.listanpublications.co.uk sales@listanpublications.co.uk

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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LING DESIGN The UK’s leading privately owned publisher of Greetings Cards and Stationery. ...The home for and ...and the UK home for

Products: Greetings cards for all occasions, Christmas and Spring Seasons cards, gift wrap and bags, charity cards, social stationery.

Bespoke service for charities and other fundraisers.

Ling Design Ltd 14-20 Eldon Way, Paddock Wood, Kent TN12 6BE Tel: 01892 838574 Fax: 01892 838676 Email: enquiries@lingdesign.co.uk Website: www.lingdesign.co.uk

Silk Screened Retro, Pop & Classic Cards Inspired by Music and 1960’s American Advertising.For all Vinyl & Rock n’Roll lovers

L E T U S TA K E YOU BAC K

Products An exciting and innovative range of quality Birthday, relations, special occasions, art and humorous greeting cards. Full range of Christmas and Spring Seasons merchandise. Comprehensive collection of handmade cards.

Pizazz gifts.

Brand Names Pizazz, Pizazz Gallery, Say the Word, Carousel, Meadow Sweet, R&R for Men, What a Picture!

For further details please get in touch.

info@vincentmcevoy.com

+44 (0)7779 578340

Cloudesley House • Shire Hill Saffron Walden • CB11 3FB T: 01799 520200 F: 01799 520100 www.nigelquiney.com

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.

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

THAT’S WHY WE’RE ORIGINAL!

01932 267 300

Three great publishers, all under one roof, contemporary, graphic, humour, cute and photographic ranges with a fantastic range of occasions and relations cards.

Key brands: V&A, Portobello, Spirit, Daisy Patch, Sugar Pips, Marzipan Toybox, Born to Stitch, Idols, Life, Sweet Tooth, Brights.

Method of sale: Direct to retail, Export and Licensing.

Riverside House, Centurion Way, Riverside Business Park, Nottingham NG2 1RW Tel: 0115 986 0115 Fax: 0115 986 0116 Email: sales@paperrose.co.uk Web: www.paperrose.co.uk www.artgroupcards.co.uk

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paperlink... the home of fabulous cards!

356 56 Kennington Rd L London SE11 4LD T 0 020 7582 8244

TM

The Playful Indian cards are a unique fusion of the east and west. Simple and quirky, they have made many people smile...so what are you waiting forr,, put a smile on someone’s face today!

info@pa @paperlink.co.uk www.paperlink.co.uk ww

Suppliers of humorous & Sup contemporary Birthday, Christmas, Spring Seasons, Occasions & Relations cards Brands include: Bottomline, Bestie, Wrinklies, Hat Trick, Route 69, Bangers & Flash, Humdingers, Lacie, Sassy, Stay Wonky, Patisserie, Tinklers, Made With Love, and many many more!

holy y cow! it’ss your birthd it ay

Method of Sale: Direct

Greeting Cards that are unique & special with creative wit.

Looking for top-notch agents to join our expanding team.

rosierobins.com 01992 536461

Paperlinkcards @paperlinkcards

Uk publisher of Greetings Cards with an extensive range of quality Birthday, Relations, Occasions and Seasonal product... available from

LING DESIGN

Mr Figgis, when we say parents invited, we usually mean to sit and watch!

Our Brands: The Crazy Side of Life, Laughter with Animals, Sporting Fun The Funny Side of Life, Twiddly Winks.

Dad - I thought you said I could be the, one to tell him you re out

Me th od of sa le : Direct to Retail 14-20 Eldon Way, Paddock Wood, Kent TN12 6BE Tel: 01892 838574 Fax: 01892 838676 Email: enquiries@lingdesign.co.uk Website: www.lingdesign.co.uk

Design-led Stationery, Gifts, Calendars, Diaries and Cards Brands Laura Ashley, Roald Dahl, Lily & Val, Vintage Ladybird, Caroline Gardner, Monsoon, Born to Shop, Flash Gordon, Boofle and many more.

Our In-house design studio and established supply chain enables us to offer bespoke services. tel: +44 (0) 1225 329494 email: sales@porticodesigns.com website: www.porticodesigns.com

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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red

DIRECT TO RETAIL & EXPORT

Sensations International Ltd

striking contemporary cards designed by nicole

Unit 6, Quad Road,East Lane Business Park,East lane, Wembley,MIDDLESEX HA9 7NE Tel. 0208 3854470 Fax: 0208 385 4471 Email: sales@sensationsinternational.com 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.

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: Direct to retail.

0781 5811158 info@redberrycards.co.uk

www.redberrycards.co.uk

TEL: 01480 435562 FAX: 01480 450599 www.tracksltd.com UNIT 2, 12 BLACKSTONE RD, STUKELEY MEADOWS IND EST, HUNTINGDON, CAMBS, PE29 6EF

The UK’s leading publishers 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 14-20 Eldon Way, Paddock Wood, Kent, TN12 6BE

Tel: 0845 450 1815 Fax: 0845 450 1816 Email: enquiries@talkingpics.co.uk Website: www.talking-pictures.co.uk

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

Brands: Designer Collection, Feelings, Impressions, Inspirations, In Touch, Isabel’s Garden, Paper Wishes, Planet Happy.

Method of sale: Wholesale Distributors

&DUGV &D &DOHQGDUV &D &R & RDVWHHUUV 1RWHERRNV

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

To appear in the Product Directory please contact Warren Lomax on

w: www.tomcatcards.co.uk e: tomcat@tomcatcards.co.uk t: 01243 837300

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PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

020 7700 6740

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● PRODUCT DIRECTORY

Market Leaders in

Verse

& entimen

01923 200600 | www.woodmansterne.co.uk

● PRODUCT DIRECTORY

Top-notch British Greeting Cards for Thoughts that Count

PRODUCT DIRECTORY

To appear in the Product Directories simply contact

Warren Lomax on:

an extensive range of superior quality,

020 7700 6740

for all occasions, Spring Seasons & Christmas.

Tracey Arnaud

design-led Greeting Cards

or email on warren@max-publishing.co.uk or contact on:

07957 212 062 Method of Sale: Direct to Retail

or email on tarnaud@btinternet.com

Orders can be placed on our trader site

www.cbgtrader.co.uk or call our customer services team on

+44(0)1243 792600

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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Directory of wholesalers Directory of wholesalers DIRECTORY OF WHOLESALERS ●

NATIONWIDE

MERSEYSIDE

UNIT 4, THE ARGENT CENTRE, SILVERDALE ROAD, HAYES, MIDDLESEX, UB3 3BS

Merseyside Greeting Cards Ltd

TEL: 020 8573 2975 / 1768 FAX: 020 8561 2349

Merseyside’s Largest Greeting Card Distributor

Email: info@abbeycards.com

Due to our massive buyer power, we are able to offer you the best prices and also take a pride in our friendly service.

LONDON’S NO 1 GREETING CARDS STATIONERY PARTY AND BALLOON CASH & CARRY

Greeting cards * Gift ranges * Pocket money toys * Balloons * Badges * Banners * Soft toys * Stationery * Collectables , including dolls * Photo frames

Trading Hours Our Opening Hours are: MON, TUES,WED & FRI 9.00 - 5.30pm THURSDAY 9.00 - 8.30pm

Always something different Check us out now!!!

Mon-Fri 9.30 to 5.30 Sunday 10 to 1 Late night Thursday till 8pm Freephone 0800 0279072770 Fax: 0151 207 1564

To appear in the Wholesale Directory simply call Warren Lomax on

Unit 7 & 8 Devon Street, Liverpool, L3 8HA

HERTS & LONDON

SUMAN BROS

Stationery and greeting card wholesaler

magnus RUPERT

T: 01923 200 900 F: 01923 200 909

TRADING

LONDON’S NO 1

Just off the M1 Junction 5

WEST MIDLANDS

020 7700 6740

Crown House Otterspool Way Watford WD25 8HL

Great deals Great location Plentiful parking

WALES

GREETING CARDS STATIONERY PARTY AND BALLOON CASH & CARRY

Trading Hours Our Opening Hours are: MON, TUES,WED & FRI 9.00 - 5.30pm THURSDAY 9.00 - 8.30pm SAT CLOSED SUN 10.00 - 4.00pm UNIT 4, THE ARGENT CENTRE, SILVERDALE ROAD, HAYES, MIDDLESEX, UB3 3BS TEL: 020 8573 2975 / 1768 FAX: 020 8561 2349 Email: info@abbeycards.com

Crown House Otterspool Way Watford WD25 8HL Tel: 020 8993 2231 www.rupertmagnus.co.uk Wholesale and direct-to-retail greeting cards, gift wrap, gift bags, social stationery, partyware and gifts.

Great range, competitive prices, excellent service.

EUR RO OPE’S LEADING GREETINGS CARDS, PAR PA RT TY PRODUCTS, GIFTS, CANDLES, TO OY YS, STATI TA ATIO ONER RY Y AND FLORIST SUNDRIES DISTRIBUTION CENTRE 75000 SQ FT BESCOT CRESCENT T,, 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 AT T,,SUN 8.00am-1.45pm

NORTH WEST

C A P S

574 Manchester Road, Bury, BL9 9SW 0161 796 7353 Card & Party Store Ltd

The North West s Largest Supplier to the Independent Specialist Card & Gift Shop

Massive range of Cards, Partyware, Gifts, Gift Bags, Gift Boxes & Gift Dressings Mon / Wed / Fri: 8.00 - 5.00 Tues / Thurs: 8.00 - 7.30 Sat: Closed Sun: 8.00 - 1.00

Order online at www.card-party.co.uk 78

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

To appear in the Wholesale Directory simply call Warren Lomax on 020 7700 6740

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Polypropylene & biodegradable bag specialists

GREETING CARD

Over 40 years quality service to the trade Hotfoiling also available

T 01206 396209 E sales@badgerconverters.co.uk www.badgerconverters.co.uk

GIVE E YOUR

V VIP

TREA AT A TMENT HIGH CLARITY L TY Y BA AGS FOR RG GREETING ET T NG CARD DS, CALEND EN N ARS ARS A AND ND D ARTW TWORK WORK ŏ ŏđŏ

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FOIL LB BLOCKING NG G EXTE XTENSIVE NSIV VE RANG V R RA ANGE OF S ST TOCK S SIZES IZ ZES AND BES AND BE ESPO OKE KE MANUF KE MANU UF FACTU TUR TURE T U E AT TED D WRAPPING SERVICE NEW AUTOMA

ENVELOPES

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

CALL CA CAL C LL US ST TO ODAY OD

100% Recycled Paper Av Available

www.fful ulcr ulcrumfilms. rumfil m lm mss co.uk uk

Bespoke Service on Request

0122 1228 228 2 28 8 56 5605 60 052 26 6

RECYCLED

PAPER A

Stock & Bespoke Cello Bags Peel & Stick Envelopes p

ORDER ON LINE AT: www.regentenvelopes.com 01274 583000 sales@regentenvelopes.com

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

01274 220 220 www w.wrapid.co.uk sales@wrapid.co.uk PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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Quality Bespoke Envelopes!

From 5,000 quantity to many millions we can produce excellent quality envelopes for you.

Plain, printed, coloured & textured finish.

100% recycled & FSC available.

Please call us on 0843 5066684 with your enquiry or visit our website

www.ukenvelopecentre.co.uk We will be delighted to help!

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

FORFURTHER INFORMATION REGARDING THISMUST SEEEVENT PLEASECONTACT TRACEYON 01234740051

PRINTERS

PJ Print (London) The Capitals only Greetings card printer You name it what ?

We can do it.

With probably the most comprehensive range of card finishing in the

LITHO OR DIGIT GIT TAL, TA L WINDLES GR RO OUP ALWAY LW WA AY YS SM MAKES THE RIGHT HT PRINT IMPRE RE RESSION.

UK card market PJ Print The answer to all your card production needs

PJ - PRINT E-mail: sales@pj-print.co.uk The Print Works Colville Road, Acton London W3 8BL tel 020 8993 5160 www.pj-print.co.uk 80

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

WWW. W..W WINDLESGROUP P..CO.UK

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Specialist UK and Global manufacturer for the greeting card industry

Di ittall Pri Digi P int Speciali S i list for the greeting card industry What we offer: • Greeting cards • Artworking and design • Short-run print • Pick, pack and distribution • Promotional items • Bespoke gifts

To discuss how we could work with you contact Simon King Tel: 0115 928 7766 Email: sales@sherwoodgroupuk.com

www.sherwoodgroupuk.com

• Marketing literature • Exhibition graphics • Stationery • Brochures • and more...

To discuss ho we could P

07974 133735 paul.watson@sherwood dgroupuk.com Hadden Court, Glaisdale Parkway, Glaisdale Drive West, Nottingham, NG8 4GP

The home of greeting cards nd e nt g indepe r in d a le The UK’s rd manufacture ca greeting kY j_ed

heZ ] YWhZ f ]h[[j_d \eYki ed b _W i Y [ [ f _Y I eki[ i[hl ][ e\ _d#^ <kbb hWd [Z ]kWhWdj[ GkWb_jo Y[ i j_j_l[ fh_ 9ecf[ Z h[b_WXb[ _edWb Wd Fhe\[ii Wbb [h jee ic kY j_ed$ De ehZ Wij fheZ dZ <Wh ; W A K j^ 8e services, ur unique ation on o 250 1150 rm 14 fo in 01 n re o For mo sales team e th ct ta n please co eys.co.uk sales@loxl or email:

YOUR MANUFACTURING PARTNER FOR VALUE ADDED PRODUCTS English speaking production team, prices quoted in sterling... and only 3 days delivery to THE UK...

Really... and there s no VAT to pay or customs procedures either...that's a great deal!

• Hand made and hand finished greeting cards • Boxed sets and acetate packs of cards / envelopes • Giftwrap and tag packs • Individually open and closed wrapped cards • 'Pop up' and cardboard engineered products • Notelets and social stationery • Specialised printing on plastics & lenticular For production enquiries, estimates etc., please contact our UK Agent:

Rob Pearson 07710 132 232 rob@solutions-polska.com

Benb[oi" A_bd Ijh[[j" I^[\Å[bZ I. &OI

FSC accredited (BV-COC-002485). Audited member of SMETA. Printing to ISO12674-2 standard.

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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WAREHOUSING & DISTRIBUTION

The Professional and Caring Approach..

• LITHO PRINT • DIGITAL PRINT • FOILING

• DIE-CUTTING • FLITTERING • PACKING

• EMBOSSING • DISTRIBUTION • FLOWRAPPING • INSERTING

Tel: 01274 531828 Contact Chris Sharman. Email: chriss@herbertwalkers.co.uk

www.herbertwalkers.co.uk

... to 3rd Party Warehouse, Distribution and Hand Finishing needs.

With over 25 years experience in the Greeting Card and Gift Industry, we specialise in providing a very fast yet efficient and friendly service to all of our customers.

Our close links to the port of Felixstowe allowing excellent access for both UK and overseas business.

We would be happy to talk to you and provide further information please contact either: James Smithies on 01449 778360 e: james@setinhand.com Tracy Davies on 01449 778363 e: tracy@setinhand.com Please visit our website at www.setinhand.com for further information.

Your Success Is Our Success

LB Warehousing (Women in Transport & Logistics Finalist)

S AME DAY order turnaround A CCURATE fulfilment and same day turn round V ALUE ADDED only as you sell the product E XCLUSIVELY Greeting Cards D EDICATED Account Managers With an excellent reputation we work as an integral part of your TEAM bringing much more than fulfilment.

Our costing structure is SIMPLE and TRANSPARENT.

We specialise in providing high quality print for short to medium runs, incorporating multiple images. Go to our website for prices, alternatively call or email us for a bespoke quote.

T

01274 305832

E

info@hellocards.co.uk

W

www.hellocards.co.uk

We carry out ALL aspects of hand finishing and assembly and provide whatever ADDITIONAL services YOU need Our select team of outworkers carefully hand wrap any size or format of cards urgently, OVERNIGHT! We CARE about your product as much as you do. Attention to detail, QC Issues and IT supported by a comprehensive paper trail for all stock movements are our hallmarks.

Our CAN DO approach means that WE solve your problems.

Outsourcing your warehousing operation releases your time to CREATE/MARKET/SELL/ MANAGE/GROW THE BUSINESS YOUR BUSINESS IS OUR BUSINESS, please visit our web site and see what OUR customers say, then to find out more call Lynda Raymond and perhaps we can arrange to meet and discuss your needs I am sure that we can help.

LB Warehousing, Units 1, 2 &3 Wayside Warehouses, Toseland, Near St. Neots, Cambridgeshire. PE19 6RX Tel 01480 880800 Fax 01480880900 Mobile 07889 399341 lynda@lb-warehousing.co.uk

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DISPLAY AND SPINNERS

UNIVERSAL

SHOP EQUIPMENT GREETING CARD DISPLAYS

• Manufacturers of

quality Display Units for over 25 years

• PVC Interlocking Tiers • High Impact 2mm Edging

• Vast range of colours available

• From one unit through to full shop refits

INNOVATIVE DISPLAYS TO MEET YOUR NEEDS www.universalshopequipment.co.uk Tel: 0151 546 4525 (Showroom) Tel: 01929 550085 Email: sales@westminsterwire.com Web: www.westminsterwire.com

Home of the Wire Spinner Stand

The Wire Spinner is proven to be the most cost effective method to display and enhance products.

We also offer sheet metal, wood, acrylic and cardboard solutions or a combination of materials.

WANTED

CALLING ALL GREETING CARD PUBLISHERS We could buy your old images even if they are several years old. Turn your used and discontinued greeting card image concepts into cash.

Fair price paid immediately.

CUTTERS COLLECTIONS LTD 92 STATION ROAD, WILLINGHAM, CAMBRIDGE, CB24 5HG

FORFURTHER INFORMATION REGARDING THISMUST SEEEVENT PLEASECONTACT TRACEYON 01234740051

e: denniswoodruff@btconnect.com PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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