Progressive Greetings Worldwide - June 2018

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Leader

On The Cards

@Prog_Greetings

There is too much miserable news out there so this column is going to be unashamedly positive - so lap it up, it will make you feel better!

As I looked at the PG page proofs that had come back from our reprographic company, I really did feel a rush of excitement. I loved page after page of fabulous new products that are set to debut at PG Live (June 5 and 6).

What is great is that the innovation is not confined to the newbies up in the Springboard area, but throughout the whole show.

Having been kept under-wraps for ages, I was happy to prize the news from UK Greetings about its launch of Kindred, its new standalone brand, which is something of a step-change for the major publisher (see pages 75-77). I was also all ears about the launch of Studio by Gemma, again another distinct new thrust from an established player (see pages 130-131).

It is great that this year, the 10th anniversary of PG Live, that we have a stupendous line-up. Santoro is showing for the first time, Roger la Borde is back having not exhibited for nine years, while so many others, who have been loyal supporters of the show, have really pulled out the stops with their stupendous new product ideas.

Above: Paperchase’s deputy chairman, Timothy Melgund with PG’s Jakki Brown talking joyfully about the retailer’s 50th anniversary celebrations.

Left: Danilo will be officially launching the uplifting May The Thoughts Be With You range of cards and calendars at PG Live.

Far left: There will be a warm colourful welcome at PG Live with costumier Sharon Harvey well underway on creating the card dresses for this year’s show!

I really enjoyed looking back at the equivalent edition of Progressive Greetings from 10 years ago, seeing what publishers and retailers were up to then. Having shared some of the early recollections in last month’s issue, there is another tasty dose from stalwarts in this edition (see pages 53-57).

I totally agree with John Simson of Melbourne-based Simson Cards when he says that the creativity within the UK greeting card fraternity is once again on a roll.

If you are a retailer and have been to PG Live before, I look forward to seeing you there, and those of you who haven’t yet come, you won’t be disappointed. And you don't need to pay for your cuppas, your lunch or your drinks at the Opening Night Party.

Let’s drink to that. Hurrah!

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

EXHIBITIONS

THE HOME OF MARKET LEADING TRADE AWARDS

Max Publishing Ltd, United House, North Road, London N7 9DP Tel: 020 7700 6740 Fax: 020 7607 6411 www.progressivegreetings.co.uk PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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Contents

What’s Inside?

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this ETAS 018 R THE 2 ARDS AW HURE BROC Within This Issue: SPOTLIGHT ON CUTE CARDS

57 11-31

65

News

Small (Publisher) Talk

Orderly Conduct

34-37

Go La La’s Laura Kavanagh and John Higgins talk about multi channel options for card buyers.

Over The Counter

Figuring It Out Independent card and gift retailer, David Robertson, co-owner of JP Pozzi in Scotland, crunches some figures.

67-69

123-125

Face To Face

Trend Spot: Crafting

Thoughts Into Action

Artisan Thread

The mindful messages of Charlotte Reed’s May The Thoughts Be With You brand.

Paper Rose ‘sews up’ the crafting trend.

Cardsharp muses over topical events happening in the industry.

71-73

Jeremy’s Journal

Up Close With Paperchase…

Flying By Numbers

43-47

Paperchase celebrates its 50 years!

Jeremy Corner of publisher Blue Eyed Sun, discusses important numbers.

A Sense Of Belonging

75-77

130-131

The power of communities joining forces.

In Conversation With… UKG

Publisher In Focus

49-51

Kindred Spirits

A Second Tier

UKG’s Sandi Parisi reveals the publisher’s new Kindred brand.

Revealing Gemma International’s new Studio by Gemma brand.

Mick Weedon, md of Exp2, shares his insights on High Street retailing.

79-83

133-135

PG Live 2018

Art Source

53-57

Ten good reasons to visit PG Live 2018.

39-41 Cardsharp

Money, Money, Money

A Colourful Half Century

Viewpoints

The Retail Landscape

Death And Rebirth?

10 Good Reasons

PG Live 2018

85-115

Publishers, retailers and overseas distributors share their memories of the first PG Live.

PG Live 2018 Innovations

Show Directors

138-154

Classified

117-121

PG Live 2018 – Springboard

136-137

What’s Hot?

Holding Back The Years

59-63

127-129

Spotlight On Cute Cards

155

News, views and adorable new ranges from the heart of the Cute Cards Market.

Appointments

53

Above: A new koala cutie from Penny Lindop Designs.

A cast of newbies to PG Live Springboard ‘direct’ PG on their lives before cards.

Progressive Greetings is a monthly business magazine.

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Warren Lomax

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Editor

Advertisement Director

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News Editor

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Copyright© 2018. 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.

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PG is the official magazine for the Greeting Card Association GCA: Sharon Little 0203 370 4865 Email: gca@max-publishing.co.uk www.greetingcardassociation.org.uk PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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NEWS Celebs shout out Really Wild-ly

TOP STORY

Scoring A Ten PG Live’s 10th anniversary show beckons With just days to go until this year’s PG Live (Tuesday 5 June Wednesday 6 June) at London’s Business Design Centre, things are certainly hotting up!

“I can’t quite believe it is 10 year’s since the very first PG Live - so much has changed in the industry, in companies and in the world, but the essence of PG Live remains the same. It brings out the best in the greeting card world – everyone altogether under one roof for two days of pleasurable business,” summed up Simon Boyd, co-show director of PG Live.

Making the most of its 10th anniversary, PG Live 2018 will be an inspiring celebration of original design and creative talent - sharing the greatest collection of greeting cards in the world.

The two day show will be bringing the international greeting card industry together under one roof; spotting trends, making friends and, of course, placing orders.

The exhibitor space is completely sold out, meaning visitors can expect over 260 exhibitors, ranging from leading brands to brand new publishers, collectively showing thousands of original, creative designs.

Major launches are being unveiled from well-known publishers – not least

Below: The 10th PG Live opens on June 5.

UKG with its new Kindred brand (see pages 75-77) and Gemma International’s new Studio by Gemma strand (see pages 130-131) - as well as heaps of innovation from other leading names. In fact over 100 PG Live exhibitors will not be showing on dedicated stands anywhere else during 2018!

The varied and eclectic list of new start-ups is equally impressive, with over 160 up-and-coming 'Springboarders' showcasing the results of their hard work and dedication - more than 60 of which are making their greetings debut at the show.

There’s still time to register to visit at www.progressivegreetingslive.com.

(See pages 79-83 for all about the show, pages 85-115 for just some of the new products at PG Live).

Scribbler to deck out the dining room Cutting-edge card retailer, Scribbler will be providing the décor for the dining room, where visitors to the show can sit and relax with a free three-course lunch.

Commenting, John Procter, co-founder of Scribbler said: “It’s PG Live’s 10th anniversary this year.

It seems wholly appropriate that we pay tribute to a show that has put ‘food on the table’ for so many of us in the greeting card sector, including Scribbler, for the last decade.”

The free lunch is just one of the many ‘perks’ of attending PG Live - visitors can also have free refreshments from the tea and coffee trolleys (thanks to Fedrigoni) and a free drinks reception on the Tuesday night (courtesy of G.F Smith).

Left: John Procter (far right) with some key members of the Scribbler team (right - left: Andrew Webb, Sam Alley, Galena Ivanova and Gemma Rochester) at the BDC checking out the venue.

Studio by Gemma debuts at PG Live Studio by Gemma, a brand new greeting card division from Gemma International, is to be unveiled at PG Live.

The publisher’s entire stand is to be dedicated to the new brand whose product portfolio has been curated specifically for independents, premium gift shops and upmarket non-specialists.

(See pages 130-131 for the full story).

Publisher of audio greeting cards, Really Wild Cards is going ‘Politically Incorrect’ with the launch of its new range of celebrity audio cards at PG Live. The publisher is inviting visitors to suggest what other celebrity they’d like to see join the Politically Incorrect line-up and there’s a bottle of bubbly in it for the winning suggestion (of celeb and what they should say) - and 50 copies of the card once it is published.

Explaining the idea behind the new range, John Wignall, owner of Really Wild Cards said: “Since the changes in the law relating to caricature, parody or pastiche I have noticed an upturn in impressionist type shows on TV, and along with such delightfully amusing characters out there, such as Donald Trump and our own Boris Johnson, the new range soon developed into a no-brainer.”

John commissioned illustrator Kelly Pierduta for the caricatures and voice over artist Darren Altman (who appeared on Britain’s Got Talent) for the initial line-up, which includes Gordon Ramsey and Jeremy Clarkson alongside Trump and Boris.

Above: Donald Trump is one of the celebrities on the new range of audio cards from Really Wild Cards.

Museums & Galleries dives into BBC Blue Planet Museums & Galleries has clinched an exclusive licence with BBC Earth for a range of greeting cards and gift stationery that it will launch at PG Live.

The new BBC Earth range features iconic imagery from the landmark natural history series Blue Planet II, Planet Earth II, and beyond. Mirroring the ecological ethos of the brand, the cards and envelopes are FSC-certified and recyclable, and M&G has developed innovative eco packaging.

Ben Dorney, creative director of Museums & Galleries, says: “It's a privilege to collaborate with BBC Studios on such an iconic and important brand as BBC Earth. As you would expect, the range delivers unforgettable images from the animal world, which will resonate with fans of Blue Planet II and Planet Earth II. The ground-breaking spirit of these series has made them a global phenomenon with a vital message, which encouraged us to be innovative with the packaging and production of the range from an environmental perspective too.”

Above: The new range will feature on M&G’s stand at PG Live.

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NEWS TOP STORY

PG Live NIBS

Hammond Gains Its Winged Hat Established player helps out long-time friend When Zana Duthie, founder of fledgling design-led greeting card publishing company, Winged Hat, realised that she could no longer juggle her business responsibilities in the ‘corporate change’ sector with her card publishing business, she turned to her long-time friend, Nicci Gower, founder of Hammond Gower, for advice as to how to take the card brand forward.

As a result, Winged Hat has been acquired by Hammond Gower. Zana debuted with Winged Hat at PG Live in

2017, receiving a rapturous welcome from retailers and overseas distributors.

However, as Zana explained to PG, latterly she found “managing two businesses too much” so has sold Winged Hat to Hammond Gower.

PG Live will see the relaunch of the brand under the Hammond Gower umbrella.

Nicci assured that Winged Hat and Hammond Gower will continue as completely separate apart brands from production and back office.

“We believe the two brands are distinct: Winged Hat to cover a younger, more design-led market and HG catering to the more mainstream, traditional greeting card buyer,” explains Nicci. “The two sets of agents will remain in place with two stands at PG Live and distinct marketing collateral,” she adds.

Above: The Winged Hat ranges are to be kept separate from Hammond Gower.

Left: Zana Duthie (right), founder of Winged Hat on her stand at the recent Spring Fair.

From dreams to reality

l Austrian publisher Pabuku is

flexing its muscles by both appointing Northlight Design as its UK distributor as well as launching new quirky cards especially for STRONG M.E.N. (Marvellous Eclectic Nerds) at PG Live. The vintage, steampunk-inspired artworks are designed for the curious, full of wit and topped with striking neon orange accents.

Above: Pabuku’s new range for men launches at PG Live.

l Elod Beregszaszi, the paper artist and designer behind The Art File’s award winning Form range, is striding out as a publisher in his own right, making his debut at PG Live this year.

Along with his business partner Colin Metson, Elod is launches his new company Mozaik with an initial four ranges using a combination of paper stocks that produce a stained glass illuminated look to the minimalist text based designs.

Above: New card from new publisher Mozaik.

l Earlybird Designs will launch a range of

18 cards at PG Live, featuring artworks from the popular artist, Bex Parkins. “The opportunity to work with Dom and Heidi at Earlybird was a fantastic one and the whole commissioning process was both exciting and straight forward,” says Bex. “Seeing which of my artwork they favoured and seeing the selection of the final designs was really fascinating.”

Above: Bex Parkins’ artwork for Earlybird Designs.

If Amanda Prouten, Emma Bryan and Sarah Maddox had not met at an art retreat in Sardinia, PG Live would have one less exhibitor. The Amanda Prouten Studio was born over a few Aperol spritzers and a lot of paint in beautiful Sardinia. Wanting to move their illustration up a gear, the trio decided to join forces, with PG Live seen as the perfect launch opportunity for their collaborative card collection.

Amanda has worked as an art editor and illustrator in the magazine industry for almost 30 years, on titles from weekly TV publications to high-end home and fashion mags to kids’ publications. Revisiting her illustration career, she has developed a bright, lively range of cards to appeal to the adult and children’s markets for all occasions.

Emma has returned to illustration after a long career in graphic design. She works from a cabin in her garden near London, with two Jack Russell companions, creating designs for licensing and editorial.

Sarah has entered the art world late in life having gained a graphic design qualification and a degree in Art History in her 40s. She recently started selling watercolour illustrations of dogs and their owners (dogs being her first love), which proved popular and lead her to realise perhaps she could draw other things. Sarah’s cards are based on her watercolour illustrations which are mostly of animals.

Above right: Artwork from Sarah Maddox.

Above left: Cards from Emma Bryan.

Left: Bright cards from Amanda Prouten.

Flame Tree makes its PG Live debut Flame Tree Publishing – mostly known for its fine art notebooks and calendars – is exhibiting at PG Live for the first time with an expanded greeting card range.

“In the past we published many ranges of art greeting cards, but as the market changed, so did our products,” says Maria Tissot, sales and digital marketing co-ordinator.

“Recently though we have been asked by customers old and new to expand our fine art greeting card range and are delighted at how well they are selling already. We carefully select best-selling images for our cards that have proven themselves on our beautiful journals and calendars, and then we enhance them by adding our trademark foil finish, so these new cards feel and look very special.”

Above: New designs from Aimee Stewart will be on show at Flame Tree’s stand.

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NEWS Making waves with the tickets

TOP STORY

Jumping For Joy Retas finalists make the most of the limelight The finalists of the 2018 Retas greeting card retailing awards have wasted no time in spreading the good news about making the shortlist for the only dedicated annual awards that recognise UK greeting card retailers. When the finalists were announced at the beginning of May many emailed and tweeted at their delight of being shortlisted.

“What a miserable morning, but oh how the mood can change when you find out you have made the finals of The Retas awards 2018 WHOOP WHOOP!” was the immediate reaction of Liz Stevenson, Jo Parker and Sue Perry of retailer You in Stamford. “We are absolutely thrilled and super excited for the big event. It’s our 20 year anniversary next year as an independent retailer so we are thrilled for the recognition and nomination,” Liz added.

“It goes without saying I’m completely made up about being a finalist,” said Kristan Madigan-Miller, owner of Cadeaux & Co, Wells & Chipping Sodbury. “I have no idea who nominated us, so I’ll be thanking every agent and card company I know! I’m very much looking forward to the ceremony I am NOT missing it!”

Retailer Michael Hampson, owner of Holly Blue in Saltburn-by-the-Sea in North Yorkshire literally jumped for joy when he heard the news that his shop was in the finals of Best Newcomer - North category. “I’m still in my first year so to be nominated for a Retas award is the cherry on the top!” said a jubilant Michael.

Jo Sorrell, owner of Cardies exclaimed that she and

Left: Jo Sorrell with Saturday girl Poppy, and ‘meeters and greeters’ Daisy, Orberry and Jack, outside Cardies.

Below: Michael Hampson, owner of Holly Blue in Saltburn-by-the-Sea jumped for joy on hearing the shop had made it into the finals of The Retas 2018.

Below left: Liz Stevenson, Sue Perry and Jo Parker of retailer You, Stamford, whooped with joy when they heard the news.

Bottom: Maggie Wynn of Just Cards in Honiton celebrates outside her store.

With this year’s Retas Awards being ‘Into The Blue’ - an oceanic theme, the creative team at Paper Rose/The Art Group, who undertook the challenge to design the ticket, jumped right in on the creative front.

The beautiful ticket design is not just lovely to look at, but comes with great environmental credentials.

And with the plight of our oceans in mind, greeting card printers Loxleys – who is producing The Retas tickets – is using bio-degradable glitter as well as its environmentally-friendly printing techniques, while the Ekstract board used, donated by paper company G.F Smith, is made from post-consumer coffee cup waste, made from recycled disposable coffee cups.

Above: The Retas ticket has been designed by Paper Rose/The Art Group.

Below: The ticket opens out to deliver some important messages that echo the environmental credentials of the ticket’s production.

her team were “wooping and woofing for joy” on hearing the news of the shop reaching the finals in The Retas. “I really can’t stop smiling,” Jo said. “With our shop’s ‘meeters and greeters’ (my loveable Labradors), some amazing Saturday girls, family, wonderful customers, great agents and suppliers and PG magazine, I have never felt like I’m working alone.”

“The Retas are now universally acknowledged as being true accolades of excellence,” says Warren Lomax co-owner of The Retas and PG (which organises the awards). “We know the retailers are genuinely excited at making the shortlist, and so they should be - we had hundreds and hundreds of nominations this year, so all retailers who have made it into the finals have every right to feel extremely proud about being one of the best greeting card retailers in the UK.” l The Retas winners will be unveiled at The Dorchester Hotel on July 11. Tickets are still available, contact Clare Davies at Createvents on clare@createvents.co.uk or 01183 340085.

Rose Hill takes on Japan Rose Hill, the artist behind Rose Hill Designs, will be heading out to Japan next year to run one of her Make Your Pet Famous events at a Tokyo boutique, Rachien Smoothie. Rose ran a Make Your Pet Famous event at Aria in London recently where 50 dogs and three cats enjoyed a live photoshoot experience with complimentary photography, alongside made-to-order portraits created by Rose Hill Designs.

Rose explains how the relationship with Rachien Smoothie started: “The owner of the boutique, Kyoko Hashimoto, discovered my work at ITOYA – a very cool 11 storey shop in the middle of Tokyo. She loved my artwork so much she decided to get in touch.”

The planned Japanese initiative is to have a similar atmosphere to the London event. “It’s funny as I think the love for animals can overcome any language barriers – smiles and mime can go a long way!” says Rose.

Above: Rose Hill Designs in ITO-YA in Tokyo.

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NEWS TOP STORY

More People Are Going Naked Campaign for unwrapped cards gathers pace Naked Cards, a campaign initiated by likeminded card publishers to push to move away from cellowrapping cards, is gaining support by the day. Since the campaign officially launched at the beginning of May (through a dedicated website and social media activity), it has gained global support from those wishing to take the ‘naked oath’.

Spearheaded by card publishers and online sellers, Becka Griffin of Becka Griffin Illustration and Louise Verity of Bookishly, with support from six fellow small business owners, these Naked Pioneers are on a mission to galvanise support, initially from the online community to stop selling cards in cellobags.

The thrust of the campaign is simple.

“Basically, all we ask people to do is to pledge not to cello any more cards,” says Becka. At present the Naked Cards

campaign is concentrating on online sales, however the Naked Pioneers would love it to expand into ‘bricks and mortar’ retail. However the campaigners accept this “will be a much trickier conversion as over-handling, lost envelopes and storing stock are huge worries for shop owners.”

Part of Becka’s big dream is “for ‘nakedness’ to become the norm when it comes to online card sales. “We all have a responsibility to reduce our waste - and it’s important to remember it’s not just the individual plastic cello that is wasted, but also the energy that goes into producing, transporting and storing it. It also saves so much time not cello-ing cards - not to mention no more annoying static strips!”

(See page 47 for more on Becka Griffin’s views).

Reactions in the bag One publisher who was inspired to go the ‘naked’ way was Alison Bick of Alison Bick Designs, who commented: “I sell cards online so I might try the naked approach for that. I sell wholesale too, but I’ve worked in a busy gift shop where customers were very rough with cards, as I think they just don’t think about it, or they are in a hurry to make their purchases, and equally they won’t buy cards with scuffed edges.”

One retailer who responded to the Facebook post was Richard Armitage, owner of The Wishing Tree in Codsall, Staffordshire who commented: “I always cello cards because customers don’t care where they grab the envelope from after they’ve read the card, so you end up with cards that are too big for the envelopes. The problem was worse around Christmas when people would swap dark red envelopes for white so they could go in the post. It also adds protection to cards. I would prefer recyclable/biodegradable wrap. If there was a solution to all the issues I would be all ears, not just for the environment but it would save me 5p a card too!” l The Naked Cards campaign has also captured the attention of local media with Lincolnshire Live reporting on a local greeting card publisher - Spotty N Stripy - taking up the Naked Pledge and stopping sending out cards in cellowraps. Explaining why she had taken the Naked Pledge, owner of Spotty N Stripy, Zoe Rampey told Lincolnshire Live: "Recently we have seen lots more images of how plastic is affecting and damaging the seas and wildlife and I just thought to myself that this is a really good thing to be involved in and I should try and do it as well."

Top: Supporters who have taken the ‘naked oath’ are helping to spread the word.

Above: It was her personal New Year’s Resolution that led to Becka Griffin starting Naked Cards with her fellow Naked Pioneers.

Right: Online sellers have been sharing their inventive ways of sending out cards with #nakedcards – this is one from Cheerful Geek.

Sunny weather brings out the shoppers Following the recent warm sunny weather that included a record breaking May Bank Holiday weekend - retailers, including card indies, saw sales soar.

In Port Erin on the Isle of Man, Chris Beards, owner of gift and card shop Mantons, said that the exceptional weather on Bank Holiday Sunday and Monday resulted in an increased average spend and conversion rate, with a higher percentage of customers happy to shop.

“People were definitely treating themselves and we also did very well with gifts for christenings and weddings,” confirmed Chris.

For Jane Apps, co-owner of Paper Turtle in Lewes, East Sussex, the sunshine definitely bought out the tourists.

“Lewes is an all year round tourist destination, but the summer months are great for increased footfall. We find that the average spend by a visitor is much higher as they do tend to stock up. Feedback from visitors is always inspiring too, as it is immediate and to the point. They offer opinions on range and choose freely as it’s all new to them!”

Julie Donabie of My Favourite Things in Wimbledon, London, has decked her window and shop out in summery colours to entice people in. “Because it’s been so nice I have brought forward my summer display and already have a big cutout of a sun in the window along with artificial grass and sunflowers. The shop is always busy and I plan my displays so that I have complementary items close together - like the Jellycat llama and Stripey Cats’ llama card.”

Above: Paper Turtle benefits from a high footfall from tourists who come out when the weather is good.

GiftsandHome.net goes live From the owners of PG Buzz, a new digital portal for the gift industry GiftsandHome.net has gone live delivering news and views on the gift sector into over 7,000 inboxes twice weekly. Similar in format to PG Buzz, the new GiftsandHome.net shares many exclusive news items as well as retailer and supplier interaction.

Sign up for the free twice-weekly newsletter at www.giftsandhome.net Above: Sign up for free at GiftsandHome.net

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NEWS Love is in the air

TOP STORY

When Harry Wed Meghan Wedding bells rang out loudly As PG went to press this month, Prince Harry was about to tie the knot with Meghan Markle at Windsor Castle, and greeting card publishers large and small flexed their creative muscles to come up with some wonderful wedding cards to send to the newlyweds. GCA’s ceo Sharon Little said: “The UK greeting card industry leads the world in design.

This is one event when we can really show our pre-eminence!”

Earlier in the month Sharon sent out an email to all GCA members asking them to design a card for Harry and Meghan and encouraging publishers to send the cards to Kensington Palace.

But it wasn’t just publishers who have been getting into the spirit of the Royal Wedding, so too have retailers by decorating shop windows.

Gifted in Thaxted Essex went for a Jellycat-themed window complete with a bespoke wedding card. Kathy Starr, owner, said: “I

think the window is making people smile.

We've had people who have seen it on social media making a point of coming down to see it for real. It has prompted discussions in store about how people are planning to watch the wedding - it seems for quite a few are planning to pop a few corks in celebration!”

Above right: A bespoke card for Harry and Meghan in Gifted, Thaxted.

Above left: Gifted’s window display featured Jellycat.

Below: Pippi & Me’s Jeannette Stevenson with her creation.

Bottom left: As Words ‘n’ Wishes’ studio artist Kate Hughes commented about the card she created: “Every girl loves to feel like a princess! (although most days I feel more like a frog!). I may start wearing my crown every day to work!”

Below middle: GCA president and UKG director, Ceri Stirland with the specially designed card created in the Dewsbury studio.

Below right: Moonpig’s Sian Roberts with her card.

Sara Miller clinches a top brand award

To celebrate its new wedding and anniversary card range (and with a nod to the Royal Wedding), Cherry Orchard is running a wedding window display competition for indies to show off their displays and be in with the chance to win a prize hamper worth £50.

“We’ve been bowled over by the response, with entries coming from far and wide, from as far north as Scotland, right down to Kent, and the standard of displays has just been amazing,” says Helen Pallen, business development and marketing manager.

“So much hard work goes into these beautiful windows, with lots of dazzling displays featuring a whole range of gorgeous products to the most stunning window which focused entirely on our envelopes, made into an elegant wedding dress.”

There’s still a chance to enter the competition (entries close 31 May), so email pictures to helen@cherryorchardpublishing.co.uk or visit Cherry Orchard page on Facebook and send your photos through that way.

Top: One of the new cards in Cherry Orchard’s wedding collection.

Above: Cardzone in Chepstow’s window display for the competition.

Right: This wedding dress in Sweet Autumn in Buckingham is made entirely out of Cherry Orchard envelopes!

Below: The new Cherry Orchard wedding cards have been a big hit at Rathbones in Chingford, Waltham Forest.

Sara Miller of Sara Miller London has won the Best Talent or Fashion Brand in the Brand & Lifestyle Licensing Awards (B&LLAs). These annual awards are owned and organised by Max Publishing, which also owns Progressive Greetings.

“To be nominated against the likes of David Beckham, Paul Hollywood and Matthew Williamson felt like such an achievement in itself, of which I was incredibly proud, but to actually win… there are no words! I was literally stunned,” said Sara.

Summing up her meteoric rise, from working for publishers Hallmark and Woodmansterne to striking out on her own, Sara said: “It’s crazy to think that it was only three years ago that I showed my work at PG Live and while I had a big vision for what would become ‘the brand’, little did I know, it would come true.”

Left: Sara Miller holding the B&LLAs trophy for Best Licensed Talent or Fashion Brand 2018.

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NEWS PEOPLE

TOP STORY

Paperchase’s 50 Colourful Years Retailer celebrates 50th Anniversary big time With a tagline of ‘50 Colourful Years’ Paperchase is lining up a whole series of events, promotions and fun stunts to mark its 50th anniversary.

“It is all about saying thank you to our customers,” summed up Joe Irons, Paperchase’s multi channel director, who has been spearheading the anniversary festivities.

Paperchase has come a long way since its humble beginnings, a small shop in London’s Kensington set up by fellow Chelsea Art School students Judith Cash and Eddie Pond. It has grown to 140+ standalone shops, as well as concessions within other retailers’ stores, in addition to its presence overseas and online through its own ecommerce site, as well as portals such as ASOS and Amazon.

“It is quite something to think that Paperchase has been selling stationery to three generations - and we want it to carry on doing that for many generations to come,” said Timothy Melgund, who has recently become deputy chairman of the design-led retailer.

As well as an innovative scratchcard promotion for customers, Paperchase has also developed a collection of 50 special products which are based on the original lines stocked by Paperchase in the early days “but with a twist”.

(See pages 71-73 for more).

Above: Paperchase is looking to celebrate its ‘50 colourful years’ in a variety of ways.

Clintons’ PR machine has the force Retailer Clintons has been busy with its PR partner - Houston PR - on promoting card sending outside of the normal occasions. Firstly at the beginning of May the company released a press release around Star Wars Day (May the Fourth) and the rise of ‘newcassions’ - newer occasions often around trends on social media.

Nicola Miller, head of cards at Clintons, said: “Traditional occasions are always extremely popular, and our Christmas card range alone extends to more than 1,000 different cards. What we’re also seeing though is strong sales in blank cards, matched with higher levels of browsing time in the blank cards section as customers look for an appropriate card. We’re closely monitoring hashtags on Twitter to get a sense of the moments and offbeat occasions that people are choosing to celebrate. It makes perfect sense for us to think about the possibility of cards and gifts to reflect this enthusiasm and that’s why, as a trial, we are ramping up our stocks of Star Wars merchandise in anticipation of May the Fourth.”

Then, more recently, the retailer released another press release based on analysis of its own sales data around New Job and Sorry You’re Leaving cards. Its sales figures showed that sales of New Job cards spike during June and July, while overall sales of New Job cards have doubled since 2016. The press release also highlighted a poll on behalf of Clintons that showed 40% of us have been surprised by something written in a leaving card, 10% have discovered a new love interest, while 18% have received a comment which made them doubt the friendship.

Above right: Clintons stocked up on Star Wars merchandise in preparation for May the Fourth Day. Left: Sales of New Job cards have doubled since 2016.

l Maralyn Redfern (right), cofounder of stationery company, Blueprint Collections, has sadly passed away.

Recently retired licensing director of Danilo, Trevor Jones, pays tribute to the lovely Maralyn: “Having spent years establishing the licensed stationery category at retail, it was in the late 1990’s that Mike and Maralyn Redfern felt the time was right to set up a new business. They funded Blueprint Collections in 1999 partly by selling their home, making a complete commitment to making it a success.

The formidable team of Mike and Maralyn proved unbeatable. The company soon went from strength to strength, winning awards, gaining widespread distribution and opening offices in the UK and Hong Kong.

Diminutive in stature, Maralyn was a strong character with a big heart and a no-nonsense straightforward approach to life. Since the announcement of Maralyn’s death, Mike and their four children - Julia, Lisa, Pippa and James - have been overwhelmed by the response.

Many people have been lucky enough to have met Maralyn over the years. She had hundreds of friends across the toy, stationery, publishing and licensing industries around the world who will all hold dear memories of happy times spent in her company.” l Three newly-appointed directors have joined the board of The Bright Agency. Hannah Curtis (above right), who heads up the Art Licensing and new Bright Illustration divisions, is promoted to her new role after eight highly successful years with the agency; Arabella Stein (right), Children’s Publishing and Literary Managing agent with extensive publishing industry and agent experience at Pan Mac, Bloomsbury and Abner Stein; and Eamonn O’Domhnaill (right), who has 20 years’ experience in the publishing industry, completes the new line-up.

Manchester Stationery Show’s new home The Manchester Stationery Show (held for the first time last year) will have a new venue - Emirates Old Trafford over 9-10 October. The news was unveiled as its sibling show, the London Stationery Show, which took place recently.

The show’s first day culminated in a drinks reception attended by exhibitors and buyers where the winners of the 2018 Stationery Awards were announced.

Rani Moochhala, owner of giftwrap company Paper Mirchi won the Gift Packaging and Wrap award for her hand tie-dyed giftwrap - her second award this year, after winning a Gift of the Year award at Spring Fair.

Other card and wrap publishers feted for awards included: Laura Stoddart (winner of the Social Stationery category and commended in the Gift Packaging and Wrap and Diaries, Organisers and Calendars categories), Ohh Deer (commended in the Diaries, Organisers and Calendars category) and Portico Designs (commended in the Filing and Social Stationery categories).

Above: Visitors could browse product from 300 brands.

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Paper & Foil ~ 13 new additions to the range ~ Embossed with gold or blue foil ~ Blank inside

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NEWS NEWS IN BRIEF

TOP STORY

Nearer And Father Let’s hear it for Dad’s Day With Father’s Day a few weeks away still, sales for most retailers are started to pick up pace, but most greeting card retailers are expecting (hoping) the final few days to be frantic. Although the event will never be on the same level as Mother’s Day, sales are still looking OK for the last of the Spring Seasons.

Claire Jarvis and Nicky Stephenson, owners of The Tutbury Present Company in Staffordshire, have had their Father’s Day offering out since Easter.

“Sales have started to trickle in, but we think most people will shop in June when they remember 'Oh yeah, it's Father’s Day this month!' Early sellers this year include the Daddy captioned cards and some of the high-end hand-finished designs. We pretty much sold out last year, so we have extended our offering this year.

We also have more Granddad titles, which, like Grandma on Mother’s Day, seems to be getting very popular.”

At John Lewis Father's Day has been building slowly, and Lizzie Batchelar, assistant buyer for giftwrap, cards and

seasonal events, expects a last minute surge. “We have our Father's Day Pop Up Shop launching on the 3 June, so we expect to see an uplift when this goes live. Belly Button has performed well for us so far, with its best seller to date being the below 'Dad in a Million' card. Susan O'Hanlon has been trading well, with the best seller from her being the 'Dog in Glasses' card. One of our best sellers within the humour category is one from Emotional Rescue poking fun at the not-so tech savvy Dads out there!”

“Father's Day has been pretty good for us the last couple of years,” says Nik Gornall, owner of three Romantica stores in Bristol, “but as with most retailers we probably won't see many sales until June and most will be in the last few days leading up to 17 June.”

Above: A luxurious Father’s Day card from Lagom.

Left: One of the best sellers for John Lewis so far is this one from Emotional Rescue.

Thinking of You Week - home and away For the first time ever Thinking of You Week will be held in the US this year at the same time as in the UK - 24 to 30 September.

The US Greeting Card Association (GCA) launched the concept, together with the US-branding at the 2018 National Stationery Show, which took place at New York’s Javits Center from May 20-23.

US-based Nicky Burton, md of Calypso Cards (which distributes many UK publishers in the States) spotted the potential of translating the UK’s Thinking of You Week initiative in America and has headed up the GCA sub-committee, which has seen it come to fruition.

Nicky told PG why she wanted to bring the concept to the US: “I love the idea of encouraging people to connect through sending cards. We all know the joy of finding a hand-written card or letter in the mail and in these days of electronic communication we can become very isolated. A card can really make someone’s day.”

“It is fantastic to see that this initiative is being picked up by the American Greeting Card Association as well,” says Sharon Little, ceo of the GCA (UK). “The message behind Thinking of You Week is one that works across the globe.”

Meanwhile, back on home turf, the 2018 Thinking of You Week logos and posters have been designed and are now available to download for free from the dedicated website (www.thinkingofyouweek.cards) and will be on display at PG Live (5 - 6 June) on the GCA area outside the Gallery Hall (where the lunch is served).

This year’s livery has again been designed by Miki Rose of The Great British Card Company and Raj Arora, md of Davora has built the website.

“The Thinking of You Week website has now gone live and the build-up to this year’s event has already started,” says Sharon Little, ceo of the GCA. Above: The US branding for Thinking of You Week.

Left: The UK Thinking of You Week assets are now available to download.

l Gift and card group, Between the Lines, which currently trades from 14 stores in the south of England, is all set to expand geographically by opening a further two stores over the summer in Witney in Oxfordshire and Saffron Walden in Hertfordshire. l The Just a Card campaign continues to go from strength to strength, with buying group Cardgains now pledging its support by printing Just a Card shop window stickers for free and will help distribute them to its retailer members. The Just a Card campaign was started over three years ago by artist and publisher Sarah Hamilton to highlight how important every sale to a small independent is, even if it is ‘just a card’.

Above: The new window sticker printed for free

by Cardgains.

l Dragonfly Cards & Gifts in Knaresborough is running a calendar competition, inviting customers to submit their favourite photos of the town to be included in a calendar that the retailer is going to print and sell in the shop.

Above: A poster for Dragonfly Cards & Gifts’ calendar competition.

l Expansion is very much on the cards for Scribbler, with the edgy card retailer having just opened a new store in Bishopsgate, directly opposite London’s Liverpool Street station, and negotiations for another three new sites with the solicitors. Once all four open it will take Scribbler’s estate up to 40 stores. l Major supplier of plush to card retailers, Keel Toys, joined forces with The Wyvern School in Ashford, to break the Guinness World Record for the most people simultaneously hugging a soft toy. “We achieved 374 hugs, up from 261, which was the previous record,” confirmed Keel Toys’ UK sales director Steve Cox after the record-breaking event that took place on 11 May. Above: Keel Toys broke the world record for the number of people simultaneously hugging a soft toy.

l Hallmark’s US parent company teamed up with American actress and model Julie Bowen to surprise mums with an oversized Mother’s Day card in a series of YouTube clips. The States celebrated Mother’s Day on Sunday 13 May and in the clips families brought their mums to the giant card in a park in Los Angeles and surprised them with a special handwritten message in the card.

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NEWS National Trust joins ACID

TOP STORY

Showing Commitment Relationships flourish following GCA Speed-Dating There has been considerable success for many publishers who attended the GCA’s Speed-Dating with Dragons 2 event on April 20, with many of the participating retailers already having placed orders with some of their ‘dates’.

‘Dragon’, Mark Janson-Smith, managing director of Postmark, thoroughly enjoyed his 12 speed dates with publishers. “I have already placed one order (The Pattern Book Press) and expect to place some more once I have had time to properly go through my bag of samples!”

Nick Crowe, partner of The Pattern Book Press was delighted that as a result of the event an order was placed for Postmark’s Turnham Green and East Dulwich stores “with the possibility of rolling out to all five stores later in the year. We’re thrilled!”

Tabi Marsh, director of Papilio (Heritage) in Thornbury said that being a ‘Dragon’ cemented her decision to re-arrange her shop to accommodate more cards and has placed orders as a result.

“I’ve now got a spinner from one of the companies that pitched to me (Megan Claire), plus another from Toasted Crumpet, a company I have ordered from once before at PG Live last year, but never got around to doing another order,” revealed Tabi. “I’ll also be placing some smaller orders over the next few months from some of the other suppliers who pitched to me and have already requested more details from a company I didn’t get to talk to, but who put a sample card in my goody bag that I took away.”

Lucy Sticka and Heidi Richards, co-owners Little Paperie in Ashbourne, may have to do some reorganising of their store as a result of the day. “We are a bit spoilt for choice as we saw so many fab designers. We will definitely be placing an order with Rosie from Proud Couture as we think her cards will fit perfectly in Little Paperie.

We’re pretty sure there are a few other publishers that we will also be placing orders with over the next few weeks too! It’s just so hard to choose as most of the brands we saw would fit perfectly in Little Paperie, we just need a shop twice the size!”

Meanwhile at Sainsbury’s, senior buyer Carly Pearson confirmed that she is “in the process of arranging a follow up day to have some more in depth conversations with a couple of the publishers we met at the event and who left us samples.”

Top: (Left-right) ‘Dragon’ Tabi Marsh of Papilio (Heritage) with Twizler’s Delores and Laura Murphy.

Above: The Pattern Book Press’ range went down very well with several ‘Dragons’.

Joanna Lumley’s stationery addiction Showing her true colours, actress and TV presenter Joanna Lumley admits that she likes to hoard stationery! “Rymans is the shop I can’t go past without going into,” she told June’s Good Housekeeping magazine.

Speaking to interviewer Gaby Huddart, she revealed: “I’ve got boxes full of pads and pens that I’ve bought, and delicious new envelopes, notebooks and pads... I just can’t resist lovely stationery. I’ve always got a notebook in my handbag so that I can jot things down.”

But stationery isn’t the only thing that Joanna can’t resist. She has a similar passion for greeting cards and thank you cards. “I keep them and use them again and again,” she told Good Housekeeping magazine. “I cut them up and make tags for gifts, or cut out the pictures and glue them to boxes.”

“National Trust champions card publishers and designers who have developed their own style that resonates with the public.

Our membership of ACID is a further endorsement of how we do not support copying,” stated Bianca Mastrodomenico, National Trust’s buyer of greeting cards, stationery, clothing and children’s products, in the wake of the announcement that National Trust has joined Anti Copying In Design (ACID) campaign.

National Trust stocks greeting cards in approximately 180 of shops at its heritage sites, ordering from 20+ greeting card publishers direct. In addition, it develops bespoke product ranges, often working with greeting card designers.

National Trust’s decision to join ACID is mutually beneficial to both the heritage charity and the anti-copying campaign group, acting as strong endorsement against ‘copycat’ products.

Below: Dids Macdonald OBE, ceo of ACID (right) with Laura Vincent, senior retail designer for the National Trust.

15 years of Bright-ness The Bright Agency, which supplies many card publishes with designs, from a wealth of award-winning and début creative talent, is celebrating its 15th year.

And in an exciting tie-up with Roger La Borde, The Bright Agency has just announced that one of its artists, Jane Newland, will be creating licensed cards and stationery for the publisher later this year. Jane is one of Bright’s most requested and successful artists whose publishing clients include Usborne, Harper Collins, Templar and Egmont.

Below: Jane Newland’s designs on bags for Times Square in Hong Kong.

Above: Joanna Lumley has confessed to Good Housekeeping magazine that she hoards stationery.

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NEWS TOP STORY

A Boofle Decade Cute as a button 10th anniversary for UKG’s biggest brand Every 10 year old deserves to have their birthday marked, and Boofle is no exception, especially as the cute knitted dog is UK Greetings’ biggest brand.

More than £150 million has been spent on Boofle products since he launched a decade ago, and a whopping 10 million Boofle cards are sold every year.

UKG is treating Boofle to a trio of different greeting card looks (each targeting a different type of consumer taste), which go into store in June, as well as a birthday party, new commemorative logo and full programme of social media activity.

The party, held at UKG’s Dewsbury HQ, provided a great opportunity for the new Boofle collection to be seen in its entirety on an 8’ everyday plan.

As Susan Jones, brand development manager of UKG commented: “Everyone

at the party was invited to select a card or two to take home and it was brilliant to hear lots of “aah that one’s sooo cute” type comments as people browsed the display. It was a celebration of 10 years, but the buzz at the event felt more akin to a major new product launch with everyone falling even more in love with Boofle than before!”

In addition, a specially designed limited edition card has been created, incorporating a ‘Boofle button’, which appears on all the new products.

Boofle has built-up an impressive consumer following over the years, as reflected in his social media rankings.

The cute character has 20,495 likes on Facebook, 11,100 followers on Twitter; there were 102,027 page views on the dedicated website last year alone; the Boofle VR experience was downloaded over 9,000 times; the Boofle Christmas campaign alone reached almost 10 million people, while the various animations frequently top a reach of over 300,000 people.

(See page 117 for more).

Above: Boofle of course had a birthday cake!

Left: Boofle waiting for the guests at his 10th birthday party.

Cardies make the Rich List Greeting card legend Andrew Brownsword (of Forever Friends fame), Card Factory co-founders Dean and Janet Hoyle, IG Design Group’s founder Anders Hedlund and Jellycat co-founders William and Thomas Gateacre ensured that greeting card and gift entrepreneurialism was represented in the recently published annual Sunday Times’ Rich List.

This was the 30th anniversary edition of the Rich List, which claims to track the UK’s wealthiest individuals, couples or families.

Andrew and Christina Brownsword, who topped the Above: Christina and Andrew Brownsword (centre) with William McCracken, former ‘greeting card list’, were cited as the 423rd most wealthy UK md of Ling Design. inhabitants, with their interests valued at a very conservative £295 million. The couple sold their successful card publishing interests to Hallmark for an estimated £165 million in 1994 and have since turned their attentions to developing their hotel concerns.

Dean and Janet Hoyle, who founded Card Factory, come in ranked as 427th, against another conservative estimate of £290 million. Although no longer involved in Card Factory, Dean Hoyle is now a major shareholder and chairman of The Works as well as owner of Huddersfield Town FC. The Gatacre brothers William and Thomas, co-founders of Jellycat, receive their just deserts for their winning take with their plush and gift company, appearing in 723rd position, valued at £155 million.

Although his business interests are now a lot broader than the own brand cards, wrap, crackers and stationery that IG Design supplies to retailers, Anders Hedlund retains a stake in the company he co-founded back in 1979 with his (and his family’s) wealth put at £153 million, 761st in the top 1,000 Rich List.

Furry friends post New research from Royal Mail to mark National Pet Month revealed that over a third of dog and/or cat owners have sent a card or a letter to their pet at least once. In fact, over half of those who have sent them a card or letter say they send their canine or feline companion a Christmas and/or birthday card on a yearly basis.

1 in 10 pet owners claim to have sent their pet a Mother’s, Father’s or National Pet Day card at least once; and as many as 585,000 say they sent their furry friend a little note to celebrate the birth of a litter, to welcome them into the family, or even to celebrate their pet’s wedding!

Above: Is Nessa from Austin & Co, Malvern waiting for a greeting card?!

Publishers donate designs for charity Hannah Dale, founder of Wrendale Designs, is continuing Lynn Tait’s legacy in raising funds for Action Medical Research (AMR) charity through coordinating the production of Christmas card packs featuring designs donated by those who have been involved with The Ladder Club and generously produced by suppliers free of charge.

Continuing Lynn’s (who sadly died last June) dream, a full 100% of the proceeds will go to the charity. This is only possible thanks to the generosity of trade suppliers Loxleys, G.F Smith, Enveco and Fulcrum Films who are covering the cost of the cards’ production.

“We were completely inundated with so many wonderful designs from the talented Ladder Club members and it was really hard to decide which designs to take forward into the final collection,” says Hannah. “I worked alongside the charity to come up with a selection that they felt would work best for their demographic. We hope that we can raise a lot of money and do Lynn proud!”

Among the publishers who have donated artwork for the initiative include: Jessica Hogarth, Just a Little Note, Megan Claire, Nicki Sclater, Pippi & Me Trumper’s World, Val Goldfinch Designs and Wendy Jones-Blackett (pictured above).

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OVER THE COUNTER

Figuring It Out Independent card and gift retailer, David Robertson, co-owner of JP Pozzi in Scotland, crunches some important business numbers, highlighting 10 years of PG Live.

‘A good decision is based on knowledge not on numbers’ - Plato While it may be hard to argue with Plato, in 2018 numbers will play a huge part in the running of any indie business. With interest rates and inflation on the rise, margins being squeezed and the banks (along with everyone else), having to find ways of improving their bottom-line, numbers are and forever will be crucial to your success. There are many numerals that need to be considered in 2018, here are just a few... l £7.83 - the new Living Wage. l 2.5 - the mark up that used to be enough. l 19% - the corporation tax level. l 2% - the pension level as it starts to rise. l 16 - major companies failed in 2018 so far. l 13,000 - employees affected. l 1,046 - the number of banks closed in last two years with 400 more to come this year. l £15,000 - the small business rates relief threshold.

All of these numbers impact on us as a small business, and I am sure your head is buzzing with facts and figures. It is impossible to turn on any news-based channel without hearing how tough it is. The ever changing, every challenging face of the high street really is the main topic of discussion across business, and that old adage that you have to know your numbers to survive has never been more true. The Dragons on BBC2 are definitely right!

Yet in the last two weeks I have been in London, Manchester, Glasgow and Birmingham and their city centres have been thriving. Perhaps Scribbler’s method of only opening in sites with exceptionally high footfall is correct, but unfortunately for most 34

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

Top: Numbers man, Plato.

Above: Bank closures are affecting high street footfall.

Below right: The Old Trafford Centre, Manchester.

of us this is not an option, and so we have to try and make it work where we are.

The issue of bank closures is also a huge one, for us indies using the services provided and indeed the banks simply attracting people onto the high street. I believe that as this continues at pace it will become an increasing challenge for retail. I know personally how we are feeling the impact of two bank closures that were in the heart of our town, and it is just another reason for the public not to come into town, park and dwell.

In the last few weeks retailers in Scotland presented evidence to the Economy, Jobs and Fair Work committee proving the time and effort and impact of closing bank branches was having a massive effect on their day to day business.

The high street in some respects is not a term we can use in the way we used to as it means entirely different things in different parts of the country. In Manchester this last weekend it felt exciting to shop. It felt busy and bustling. It felt like it used to feel all over the country. Now I think this is the exception

rather than the norm. Manchester has stores such as Harvey Nichols and Selfridges, which are big attractions in their own right.

The city has different restaurants too, which were busy, and the pubs were heaving as the temperatures went into the 20s... and there were lots of shopping bags to be seen.

The simple truth is that you won’t find many indie stores in these types of main high street drags anyway, and we continue to see companies that try to survive here rise and fall quicker than ever before. The dream of being your own retail boss has never been more challenging, YET there are still many who want to try.

It is not all about retail either. The dream of designing, making and selling is something that remains strong with many. The creative urge to express yourself and to hopefully make a living at it is more accessible than ever. With digital print runs slashing the cost of card production more and more people are putting their ideas into reality and onto Instagram, but it is not a guarantee of success.

Somehow or another I reckon 2018, with Brexit and worldwide political unrest and unpredictable trading, may yet be another landmark year.

What is it about the years ending in 8?

2018 will mark a number of very significant anniversaries. We will celebrate a 100 years since the end of WWI, 50 years of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 - two immensely significant events in history. In 1988 Red Nose Day began and in 1998 a little known

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OVER THE COUNTER book called Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets arrived unheralded.

This brings me neatly to PG Live, which was launched back in 2008. There is that 8 again!

So where did people who loved, sold and made cards go before ten years ago?

Quite simply it was a very fractured system.

Each trade fair had a card hall but there was nowhere with the focus purely on the genre.

These fairs were very expensive and it didn’t really give start-ups the opportunity to get in front of the card buyers at a price they could afford? By card buyers I mean everyone from the one-man bands to influencers such as Clintons and Scribbler.

In terms of designers/makers you had The Ladder Club (around 20 years young) launched by the amazing Lynn Tait and PG’s Jakki Brown. This group is very focused on providing support and advice to all those publisher newbies to our industry, but before PG Live there wasn’t one place to bring the whole of the card world together under one roof.

So 10 years ago after a lot of planning, sweating and worry PG Live launched!

Ten is a very significant number in history and mythology. It has many meanings: The completion of a cycle… The holiest of numbers... The start of a new cycle... The Tarot Wheel of Fortune card...

The sign of perfection.

Ten for whatever reason is viewed as a lucky number and with the challenges that we have I think it is very apt that PG Live has reached its double digit birthday and is still going strong.

I have attended all but one of the PG Live shows (I missed one due to the ash cloud in Iceland!) and in my opinion the idea behind the show still rings true today. It was to give one focal point for cards where companies new and old, large and small, could highlight their product in a formal but funky environment.

The idea was to make it a show like no other. No expensive entries, inclusive for all,

free lunch with the emphasis on meeting other people and talking. And there is a social event after the show closes, for networking and the opportunity to become part of the greetings community.

The card business, although a large one in terms of money, has a real family feel to it, and as you progress you will make friends/contacts with not only other retailers, but with owners, publishers, designers and everyone else involved in this great industry of ours.

This is where I think PG Live and its driving forces deserve a lot of credit. I think that it is because of who they are, and more importantly the way they are, that the show got off the ground and works.

So what about the show? Well this year I am attending with three different hats on and they are all quite exciting. Obviously I am there to find and buy for myself. I am also there in my new role to help shape Cardzone a little and work with Paul and James Taylor to get them where they want to go. Finally, I am taking someone who has always dreamed of doing her own card range.

With this the case she is a little bit ‘excited new puppy’, bouncing about and asking lots of questions about the show and the industry. Indeed, I often get asked how I buy? - What is my plan? So this is what I told her, and I thought I would share it with you to get the most out of the show: 1. Walk the show in its entirety - Take your time to take it in. Mark down what you like, get a sample, get the publisher to explain the range. Never buy on the first sweep round. It's a bit like exams, always look at the whole question before starting the answer.

2. Use the excellent show guide to mark what you like for now or the future. I love the guide, it makes a great reference document both while tat the show or at home.

3. Think about what area you are really targeting - Humour? Traditional?

Handmade? Quirky? I write little headings and take a note of what I like and I don’t like going back to review.

4. Cards are great as you can try something really different for a few hundred £pounds, so be brave and give it a go, and remember no one knows your customer like you! Trust your instinct.

Above: The PG Live lunchroom decked out by Lagom, who were celebrating its 10th milestone.

Below: In 1976 gymnast Nadia Comaneci achieved the

5. Stagger orders so you get a constant stream of new product. Make sure you don’t only note when you buy but when it will be delivered. I always think cards are best like a dripping tap where you have a constant stream of new.

6. Use the chance to speak direct to publishers. Get a handle on what is coming.

Cards are very much an extension of fashion and they can often help with the gift buying.

The way the publisher displays the cards on their stand can also be replicated to great impact in your store, as amazing product can be lost on stands or spinners.

7. Strike up a conversation with someone at the event or lunch that you don’t know - it really is the friendliest industry and a quick conversation can confirm your thoughts or reassure you that the current climate is the same for all of us.

This is all common sense I hear you say, and that is true, but it doesn’t do any harm to actually say it!

My personal favourite part of PG Live is Springboard, where young and fledging publishers mix with complete PG Live virgins.

There is always an eclectic mix of cards and companies, and an interesting point to me is when do they move out of this section? When does new become established?

Words like ‘innovative’, ‘quirky’, ‘fresh’ don’t even really cover all that you will find in Springboard. Please make sure that you spend time there as I always feel there is a special energy in this part of the show.

So the number 8 and the number 10 have been mentioned a lot, but that said, the most important numbers are 5 and 6 as these are the dates of the PG Live show in June… oh, and maybe number 4 if you are taking the bus to Islington!

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

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Kaleidoscope, a collection of 12 beautiful cards from illustrator Josie Shenoy.

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CARDSHARP

MONEY, MONEY,

MONEY Cardsharp always looks forward to the annual Sunday Times Rich List magazine published every May. Even though Cardsharp has not a hope in hell of making it into the big money league, there is always something fascinating about reading about the wealth of the Super Rich. This year’s 30th anniversary edition did not disappoint, especially as there are few ‘greeting card names’ still contained within the line-up.

The first edition of The Rich List came out in 1989 and Cardsharp reckons he has read every one of the editions The Sunday Times has published.

In the early days the Queen topped the list for four successive years. In 2018 she has dropped down to 91st position. ‘The Firm’, at least comparatively speaking, has not been performing too well financially.

Cardsharp remembers in the early days, the list seemed to packed full of landowners and inherited wealth, dukes, earls, viscounts and knights, the Lord Buftons and Tuftons, so to speak. Then as the nineties gathered pace, retail started to appear more prominently and shock horror so did greeting cards. Cardsharp clearly Above: Abba will be cashing in on a virtual tour soon.

Right: Clintons’ Don Lewin was on the Rich List for many years.

remembers that our industry legend, Andrew Brownsword, has appeared a number of times, based on the profit and turnover of his eponymous publishing company and after the sale of his company to Hallmark in 1994. Don Lewin, the founder and largest individual shareholder of Clintons plc, was also a

regular on the Sunday Times’ List right up to the mid noughties. And Ron Wood, the founder of the Birthdays chain, which was eventually sold to Clintons, also made appearances.

In many ways the later nineties and early noughties were the halcyon days for UK bricks and mortar retailing. The British consumer, emboldened by rising living standards went on a ‘ten year shopping spree’ that really only slowed down with the development of internet shopping and the financial crisis of 2008 and the prolonged downturn that came in its wake.

So, it was not surprising that in those years, retail entrepreneurs like Don Lewin and Ron Wood, and those supplying them like Andrew Brownsword and Simon Elvin, would be making regular appearances in Rich List. They were joined by many other retailers and retail suppliers in that period. It helped of course that the entry point for appearing on the list, which in those days was as low as £25 million, is today £115 million!

And in those days, Cardsharp seems to recall, the list only included 250 entries, while now spans 1,000 of the well-heeled.

So step forward to 2018 and the composition of the list has certainly evolved over latter years.

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CARDSHARP from bricks and mortar in particular) have all but disappeared in the top 100 and for those still there it tends to be on the basis of heritage money made in better retail times.

Cardsharp could only spot four: Mohammed Fayed, the Egyptian-born entrepreneur, who made his real money selling Harrods a decade ago, Jonas Kamprad, the Swedish heir to the Ikea fortune, who inherited his late father’s company and fortune, and the much maligned Mike Ashley of Sports Direct and the equally much maligned, Sir Phillip Green. So of the four, two are foreign born and the other two viewed as pariahs in many circles.

And then moving down the list, retail and retail suppliers are few and far between. There are a few high profile ones like Paul Smith and Jacqueline Gold, and a few family-owned food wholesalers, often of second or third generation South Asian descent, but generally retailers on the list are conspicuous by their scarcity. A real reflection how tough bricks and mortar retailing has become in the last few years.

These days, despite (or is it inspite of) the Banking Crisis that started a decade ago, finance is the big winner. Some 169 of the 1,000 entries hail from the finance sector, 46 from hedge funds alone.

Cardsharp finds this statistic in itself truly depressing as it means that nearly 5% of individuals listed who have been made fabulously wealthy by betting in favour of companies performing badly by taking a ‘short position’. In other words little more than financial ambulance chasers! This is so

Left: Andrew Brownsword.

Below left: Dean and Janet Hoyle.

Below right: Ron Wood (far right) with ex England soccer captain Bryan Robson (left).

different to retail where a product is provided for someone’s enjoyment or practical use.

However we in the greeting card industry still do have some representatives in the list, although admittedly the wealth is primarily historic.

Andrew Brownsword still appears in the rollcall but at number 423, far from his rarified heights in the 1990’s. After the estimated £165 million he received from the sale of his company in 1994, the List now places his wealth presently at £295 million. This is a figure that under estimates his real total wealth so ridiculously that it puts the accuracy of much of the List under scrutiny. Andrew has now carved out a second successful career in top end hotels and Cardsharp’s guess is that his total wealth is probably at least twice the one listed.

A more contemporary entrant is Dean Hoyle. He and his wife Janet, appear at number 427 and interestingly they are the UK’s 32nd richest married couple. If you remember, Dean and Janet, the founders of Card Factory, sold their major share in Card Factory for £250 million (with the the company selling in total for £350 million).

Cardsharp was amazed to see this happened in 2010... how time flies. Once again in Cardsharp’s eyes, the Sunday Times’ estimate of their joint wealth at £295 million seems on the ridiculously low side.

Dean has subsequently taken a significant share in The Works retail chain and become its chairman. The Works seems to be bucking the trend at retailing with its eclectic mix of competitively priced attractive products. To Cardsharp’s mind, this stake added to Dean’s previous earnings from Card Factory must surely add up to more than the extra £45 million attributed on top of the sum he received for the sale.

And the Rich List seems to take no account of Dean’s other amazingly successful second career (what is it about these incredible entrepreneurs!). This is the acquisition of Dean’s beloved home town soccer team, Huddersfield Town. When Dean bought the vast majority of the Club’s

shares in June 2008, this historic club (the Terriers won the league three times in a row in the 1920’s) was languishing in the third tier of English football. A decade of sound management has bought phenomenal success inspiring the Terriers not only promotion to the Premier League and all the riches that go with it, but actually managing to survive in the first season. And achieved in Dean’s words, “Doing it the Yorkshire way, by not spending any money”.

In the mad topsy-turvey world of Premier League soccer, that must put the value of Dean’s share of Huddersfield in the region of £250 million if he was to sell to some Chinese billionaire.

But moving back to Cardsharp’s initial point about retail, the list really is a reflection of the trials and tribulations retailing is undergoing at present. And will we ever see a new greeting card industry entrant in there? Perhaps, as Cardsharp was surprised not to see industry veteran, Stuart Middleton, creative director and still the largest individual shareholder in Card Factory, in the lower echelons of the List at least. And who knows Paul Taylor, owner of the Card Zone chain, seems to be growing fast in difficult times and has ambitious plans. Could Paul be in there in a few years time?

Who knows? But one thing is sure, this year’s Rich List reflects two of the fundamental problems that our UK economy faces: An over-reliance on the finance sector and a woeful neglect of removing the obstacles that face bricks and mortar retailing in 2018. And given the government’s total absorption in Brexit at present don’t expect these issues to be addressed too quickly.

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Megan Claire’s new range ‘YOU GO GIRL’ will be launching at PG LIVE on stand 428. Featuring empowering words for the girls, this contemporary range will be complimented with a luxury gold dot lined envelope.

There will also be new additions to the ever-popular TUTTI FRUTTI and BUTTERSCOTCH ranges. Contact us today for more information. hello@meganclaire.co.uk / www.meganclaire.co.uk / 01536 560345

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VIEWPOINTS

A Sense Of

Belonging As highlighted by last month’s Mental Health Awareness Week campaign, for all the methods of communication open to us, loneliness is at an epidemic level in the UK, with isolation leading to anxiety, depression and upset.

At the opposite end of the spectrum is the sense of belonging. PG shines the light on some great examples from the greeting card industry where joining forces with others is delivering collective benefits in great abundance.

Sarah Holmes owner of Pencil Me In, Elgin: “The MyShoplife Instagram challenge has built an awesome little community of indie shop owners. We congregate in a private Facebook group and cover all sorts of topics from card machine best deals, customer loyalty incentives, window displays and footfall, as well as celebrating shop birthdays, award nominations and wins! The group works super well as almost all of us are one woman/man bands, therefore the Facebook group is our ‘office water cooler’. It makes you feel less alone in the world of self-employment.

Locally though I really value my neighbouring business community. When I opened two years ago I didn't have any neighbours, but our indie street has since filled up and now I've a full realm of support right on my doorstep for a day to day check in or even just a cheery wave. We've also come together to promote our indie offerings as a destination of shops and services, which has proved to be a real power of community.”

Chris Dyson joint managing director of Cardgains: “In a few weeks time, 40 of us - retail members, suppliers and several of us from the Cardgains team - will be setting off for our Kumbaya Cumbria Challenge, a tough 27.5 mile walk. This will be our 20th event of this type which, over the years, have raised more that £300,000 for various charities. This year we are aiming to raise £12,000 for Motor Neurone Disease Association charity.

But it is not just the charity fundraising that is the important aspect of our challenges, it is about us being together - those bonds between retailers, suppliers and the Cardgains staff will be a lot stronger at the end of that walk, I can tell you!

The whole ethos of Cardgains as a buying group for independent retailers is that we bring retailers and suppliers together.

Yes, it has to work commercially for both sides, but we are in this together. Cardgains represents 1,000 independent rooftops, it gives them a collective voice. Our recent announcement that we are supporting the Just a Card campaign is a further step in this, joining independent retailers with the general public.

The Cardgains Village at Spring Fair and Autumn Fair provides a meeting place for ‘the family’, while members can also meet up at the seminars we run, be it the recent social media ones or the upcoming balloon decorator one that we are currently planning.

Individually we may be strong, collectively we are stronger.”

Above: A scene from last year’s Cardgains Charity Challenge.

Left: Chris Dyson (back) with Cardgains’ marketing director Penny Shaw (right) and members Kate and David Hall of The Card Hall, Maidstone the Cardgains Village at the Spring Fair.

Above: Sarah Holmes outside her Pencil Me In shop in Elgin.

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Sally Matson owner of Red Card, Petworth:

Hannah Dale founder of Wrendale Designs: “When I first started Wrendale, as with many small publishers, I was largely working alone, which was quite a culture shock having previously only worked in a busy office environment.

Attending my first Ladder Club seminar introduced me to other publishers going through exactly the same thing as me. It felt amazing to have other people to compare notes with and run things by when I wasn’t sure about something. This was compounded by exhibiting at trade shows where the sense of camaraderie in the greeting card halls is absolutely wonderful you really feel part of a community and there’s definitely a sense of collective cheer when something goes well, as well as support and suggestions when things aren’t going so well.

Being an active part of the industry is very important to us and can lead to wonderful collaborations - the Action Medical Research Christmas card project is one such thing - it has been hugely successful in raising money for the charity and would have never been possible without the contacts, friendships and connections that result from being part of a community of publishers. I feel very privileged to be carrying on Lynn Tait’s legacy by co-ordinating the project this year, having been wonderfully supported by fellow Ladder Clubbies donating artwork and suppliers taking care of the production.

We also feel it’s important to give back to the wider community which is why we supported the charity Build Africa with their work. We were fortunate to be able to fund the building of a new classroom and toilet block for a school in Kenya. In business as in life, it is so important to belong and also to pay it forward.”

Top: Having attended The Ladder Club when she was just starting her business, Hannah Dale (4th from right front row) shared her story with attendees at the 2016 meet up.

Above: The schoolroom that Wrendale Designs funded in Kenya is now being put to good use!

“Before I became an independent greeting card shopkeeper I had done many different jobs. What has struck me the most about this industry is the positivity which surrounds it. Through the various events hosted by the industry - PG Live, GCA’s Speed-Dating With Dragons, The Henries, The Retas, I have been given the opportunity to meet and mix with a huge variety of people who have become friends, mentors and colleagues. Given that when you’re at the top of the tree (ie the owner) often you don’t receive feedback, this industry is one that consistently generates positive feedback and makes you realise that you really are part of a collective.

So, as part of this collective I also have the opportunity to work with my shopkeeper colleagues and support others in the industry particularly the small publishing companies who invest their talent and time producing gorgeous (beautiful, funny, smart, thoughtful) greeting cards for us to sell.

I have recently become a member of the ‘My Shoplife Collective’ Facebook group, a group spawned from the ‘Pencil Me In’ 30 Day April Instagram challenge [see page 43]. I love that this group is open to independent shopkeepers with the aim of sharing everything, from top tips to funny customer tales to advice on setting up loyalty schemes, insurance etc.

I believe there is even more potential. As a collective we have so much power that could be really positive to lobby government in support of small businesses, but also as a group who can support good causes.

Through connection we see each other’s ideas and successes and this in turn helps to generate more positivity and motivation in our industry.”

Above: Sally Matson at the recent GCA Speed-Dating With Dragons 2 event having shared her positive feedback to Iryna Bykova-Nimmo of Family Designs.

Nik Gornall owner of Romantica, Bristol:

Below: Romantica’s Nik Gornall is a keen supporter of community activity, as evidenced by the ‘reusable cup and water bottle’ campaign.

“Our reusable cups and water bottles campaign is going well. A significant number of cafes and bars on the Gloucester Road in Bristol have joined in the initiative by offering discounts to people using their own cups for takeaway drinks and we hand out a list of these when customers purchase a reusable cup from us.

Part of the Gloucester Road, where two of our shops are based, is in a BID area (Business Improvement District), as such we all contribute a levy each year based on our business rates valuation and a committee decides how these funds are spent. It would be impossible for everyone to agree on the amount collected or how the money is spent, but no-one can deny that the concept is for the benefit of the area as a whole. We use the acronym BID in a slightly different way - the area is called Bristol's Independent District.

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VIEWPOINTS We try and promote it as a destination for independent shopping, to attract people from outside the area. Whether the amount spent by businesses translates to the same amount or more through the tills is extremely hard to evaluate, but in these difficult trading times it could be argued that if the BID wasn't in place, trade would be even more difficult.

We are in a battle with the online behemoths and it is only through collaboration that we will retain our slice of the pie. There is a strong case to be heard that we will see a complete destruction of high street shopping, but I believe that at some point there will be a certain level of opposition to online shopping, either brought on by increased anger at the unfair tax that is paid, greater awareness of the shocking working conditions in online distribution centres or perhaps another oil crisis rendering delivery vans uneconomical to be on the roads.”

Becka Griffin a pioneer of the Naked Cards campaign: “We are delighted that everyone has taken to the Naked Cards campaign [for unwrapped cards from online retailers] so well.

We're now heading towards 650 followers on Instagram, with fresh interest every day. We're gradually winning over people who were at first a little sceptical, and the word is spreading quickly too.

Community is a huge aspect of the campaign. So often online card sellers are working alone from home, and do not feel particularly part of anything. To have a campaign that you can easily align yourself with, and become a part of, is a huge bonus.

I'm the Team Captain of the Merseyside Etsy Team, so I have first-hand experience of seeing how creative communities can pull together and really make a difference. Over the past few years our local team has raised around £4,000 for local charities, and provides a valuable community resource for any Merseyside-based Etsy sellers, both in-person and online. We aim to combat the loneliness and isolation that can be experienced by designer-makers who are working from home.

In 2015 I was also involved with setting up an online charity auction Makers for Refugees - where around 100 designers and makers came together to donate products, raising over £9K for the Red Cross. (NB since then another group who are also called Makers for Refugees have done some amazing things in a similar community, but we are unrelated). This was a really special project, and as it was measurable and finite there was an incredible energy to it all. Getting so many creative and motivated people to harness their energy and work towards the same end goal was really incredible.

I think that the appeal of becoming involved in a project is that you're coming into contact with other people in a similar situation who really want to make a difference and spread the word. It definitely makes us really proud - and a bit warmer inside too!”

Top: Becka Griffin, a pioneer of Naked Cards.

Above: The striking logo and tagline for the campaign.

Chris Fox marketing manager of Wishes of Cudworth and founder of Gift Shop Hub: “I’ve always considered it important for independent shops to be part of their community. While myself and Wishes’ owner Julia Keeling don’t live in Cudworth, the village where the shop is based, we’ve always felt part of Cudworth community. It all started with last year’s Cudworth Bunny Trail, an idea I had to link local shops together.

A retail trail that was made up of nine Cudworth shops with small, colour rabbit sculptures in our shop windows.

It was a great success but it didn’t end Above: Wishes of Cudworth’s Julia Keating with some of the with the Bunny Trail, the shop owners promotional literature for the Cudworth Bunny Trail. continued to talk to each other.

Friendships were made, more events planned and we continued to inspire each other, to work together with an overall goal of making Cudworth a better place to live, work and prosper.

In time, this group has become an official community association: Cudworth Businesses & Community Together. This mix of skills, personalities (businesses and residents) all with a passion for Cudworth has had a positive impact on the village and its high street.

A good indie shop should be part of the community. To quote Helen Keller: “Alone, we can do so little; together, we can do so much”.

Kate Malt founder of Love Kate’s:

Below: Kate Malt of Love Kate’s is a firm believer in the kindred spirit.

Bottom: Post Pals charity sends cards, letters and gifts to poorly children.

“Two years ago I was approached by the charity Post Pals, asking if they could buy 50 3D Pop-Up cards from us to send out to poorly children and were looking for a little discount. In partnership, Love Kate’s and Second Nature donated the 50 Pop-Ups for the children. But this was just the start...

Since then we have been overwhelmed by support from so many in the industry. We have been donating approximately 50 cards a month to Post Pals ever since, so that’s well over 1,000 cards. We’ve had donations from Second Nature, Nigel Quiney, Holy Mackerel, UKG, CardMix, Blue Eyed Sun, Woodmansterne, Carte Blanche, Ling, Paper Rose/The Art Group, The Art File and Pigment, and we have donated a few times from our own stocks of cards. We are now looking to line up more donations for the coming months.

I believe it is very important to feel that you belong in all areas of life, at work the greetings industry is a very strong community. Being able to help the work of Post Pals by tapping into the industry through my connections has brought me lots of satisfaction, and seeing photos of children with their cards is truly heart-warming.”

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The Retail Landscape

The Death Or Rebirth Of Retail?

Right: Retail has definitely changed a bit since the Ladybird Shopping with Mother book was published.

Below: Michael Weedon has spent the last three decades tracking and commenting on the retail scene.

Household retail names are disappearing, online sales soaring and running costs for indies escalating, yet we are still spending £1 billion every day in the UK’s half a million shops, the population of shoppers is growing at a rapid rate, shop openings are almost keeping pace with closures, with all these highs and lows it is difficult to get an accurate reading of the UK’s retail landscape.

Retail commentator Michael Weedon, managing director of Exp2, summarises an insightful presentation he gave at the recent London Stationery Show on the realities of the High Street.

This year has produced a flood of shocking news headlines featuring household name retailers, with administrations at Toys’R’Us, Maplin and MultiYork, widespread store closures by New Look, Carpetright and Moss Bros, and contractions announced in the estates of House of Fraser, Debenhams and Marks & Spencer. Adding to the bad news from product retailers has come a slew of announcements of further branch closures by several big banks. More than 20,000 jobs are estimated to be in danger within just this group of businesses.

So, is it game over for the High Street?

A more relevant question is whether this is actually different from any other spring.

Human beings are attuned to threats in our environment. We find it easier to identify what might be trends with well-known fascias than we do when we think about a large numbers of small things, like independent

shops. It doesn’t help that the big picture is not readily available to most of us anyway.

Either way, we find it difficult to see the context within which these headline events occur.

But context is key.

For a start, there are about half a million retail units in Britain. Each year roughly one in ten of the businesses in these areas shuts up shop. Almost all of those are replaced quickly with a bright, optimistic new outfit.

Half a million of anything is a difficult number to visualise. If one person from every shop was given a ticket to Wembley Stadium you would need five and a half Wembleys to seat them. Not helpful?

OK, if you gave a ticket for one person to each of the shops that closed in 2017 and one to each that opened they wouldn’t quite fit in to one Wembley. The thing to bear in mind is that huge changes occur every year and what makes the difference to the high street is the gap between openings and closures. In 2017, about 5,000 shops closed net which is only slightly more (1%) than the shops that opened.

This closeness in the opening/closing relations has Above: Shop vacancy rates are no where near as bad as they have been.

Left: Maplins’ demise is one of many chains to close down.

paused the long-term downward trend in shop vacancy. In 2011, when we had 14.6% of shops empty - equating to an astonishing one in seven shops - the government was panicked into action, appointing Mary Portas to report on solutions to the problem of “the failing high street”. The latest figures from the Local Data Company suggest that after several years of improvement, roughly one in nine units remains shuttered - one in eight retail outlets and one in 12 leisure units. Whether this pause is the prelude to further falls or the beginning of a new upswing remains to be seen.

So, is this about retail turnover? Not according to the ONS, which publishes a fascinating series of figures for sales. Its monthly retail sales release actually talks about retail volume (how many things sold), but most of the retailers I know just talk about what’s in the till. Last year we, the Great British Public, spent just over £365 billion PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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with retailers. That’s a neat billion quid a day. Just under £8 in every £10 that we spent went to large retailers and the rest to small businesses. So, last year we spent £80,000,000,000 between us with small shops.

Not allowing for inflation, retail, overall, put on £15.2 billion in sales (up 4.3%) and card shops and the other non-food stores grabbed £5.6 billion (up 3.5% on the year previous). Both of these percentages were a little ahead of inflation, despite the rises that we have seen since the referendum vote in 2016. Odd. We have been getting poorer. Wage growth has trailed behind inflation for some time. It is only now just getting its nose in front as inflation falls back.

One cause might be an even bigger number that we find difficult to grasp - the population of the UK goes up every year. It’s not a static audience. Over the ten years to 2016, the number of people in the UK has risen by just under 1% every year. That

effectively adds up to about half a million extra customers every 12 months. In each of those years something equivalent to the entire population of Bristol were out shopping that had not been there a year previous - not bad when you consider that the West Country city supports 7,500 retail and leisure outlets.

We may be spending more money, but we are also spending it, and our time, differently. Looking back over the cumulative footfall figures measured by research tracker Springboard and the British Retail Consortium (BRC) it seems that retail footfall has dropped by more than 5% since 2011, with high streets and shopping centres registering 10% fewer footsteps and retail parks gaining more than 5%. To put that another way, retail parks have been keeping pace with population growth while the others have fallen behind. No surprise then that

Above: If a retailer representative from each shop gathered together they would fill Wembley Stadium over five times.

Below left: Consumer spending in small shops is still showing a slight incline.

Below right: Card Factory’s 900th store was in a retail park in Loughton, directly opposite Clintons’ HQ.

Card Factory, Cardzone and Paperchase are among those to have beat a path to retail parks in the last few years.

Small shops though, like cafes and restaurants, are showing growth in retail parks such as Rushden Lakes, for example. Of the gain of 109 stores net on retail parks in 2017, 44 were independents. If high streets present problems to independents, maybe retail parks can provide more fruitful locations. It’s all about ‘fishing where the fish are’ - being where the consumer’s attention is.

Attention on the growth of retail parks has been scant in comparison to the scrutiny given to online sales.

Online sellers are good at selling products, not quite so good yet at vending food and fairly poor at selling services delivered in person.

In the past five years the number of non-food goods shops have dropped by nearly 6,000, while food, leisure and service ‘shops’ have more than made up for this number.

In the past ten years, ONS figures show, the share of sales made online rose from a 20th to about a sixth of all spending.

Oddly that does not mean that bricks and mortar shops have less in the till. In 2008 they banked £271 billion and last year their takings were £308 billion. In the same period online sales rose from just under £14 billion to nearly £60 billion. Take out inflation and what you see is that online sales have soaked up most of the real growth in the market.

Significantly though, online sales made by retailers that also have shops have made up half of that total. To put that another way - if £2 in every £12 we spend is spent online, then one of those pounds is spent with retailers who also have shops. Only £1 in £12 is spent with pureplay online retailers.

Now the percentage of greeting cards bought online is not as high as other product sectors, but it is growing, with high street names like Paperchase and Scribbler both admitting that they have been taken by the surprise of online sales. The grocers, although they do offer cards as part of their line-up, have not really got to grips of the potential there.

It’s not all about e-commerce though. One of the fastest expanding stores in the country, operating in one of the most difficult sectors of the high street, yet still cranking out 3% like-for-like sales growth year-on-year, doesn’t sell online. Primark does engage with its audience, but through social media, with more than five million followers on both Facebook and Instagram. If you want its goods, though, you’ll need to visit one of its stores - and while cards are not a front line product for Primark, they do stock them. The important thing, once again, is to be where the attention of the consumer is to be found.

Service and leisure in particular have been replacing non-food retailers since the crash. While banks have been pulling down the shutters year after year, barbers, for example, have been opening their doors in increasing numbers. Anything which gives the consumer a reason to be in a particular place rather than being able to carry out transactions purely on their smartphones, gives the retailer a reason to provide a place for them to be. Services such as personalisation, as evidenced in stationery and card retailer Kikki.K and Paperchase’s flagships, fit right in. And smart retailers can make that work for them both online and in person.

Whether it’s choice of a particular type of location, a key type of service or an addictive media type, the key thing for the high street of the future will be the same thing that made the high street of the past so important - it will need to be right at the centre of consumers’ attention.

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Come and see us at Home & Gift Harrogate

15-18 July Stand A12

• Beautiful rainbow lustre effect.

• Delicately finished with gemstones.

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PG Live 2018

Left: Hard to believe it is now 10 years since the first PG Live took place, back in 2009.

Holding Back

The Years Rachel Hare, founder and managing director of Belly Button Design: In the beginning: “I can remember the first show very clearly as I ran out of time putting the cards on the stand! I was on my own and PG’s lovely Angie Bryant stepped in to help me stick them on the wall with me.

There was a real feeling of excitement for something new that was happening too.”

The evolution: “The early shows were about testing the waters, so we tried everything, but have now settled on the fact that customers really come to see something new so we always have a strong new launch planned around PG. No gimmicks or discounts, just strong product.”

Belly Button’s decade: ”Belly Button has changed a lot over the last 10 years.

We have two businesses now, Bubble for giftware and Belly Button Designs for our cards - and we show both at PG Live.

Our brand look has evolved and I have really pushed design, so we have seen a growth in sales and our customer base in the independent sector, key accounts and multiples.

Our export sales are also in growth.

We have passed through a period of change and restructure in the business to

Above: The Belly Button stand will be dedicated to the Coco by Rachel Hare brand.

Right: A lot has changed since Rachel Hare needed help to affix the cards to her first stand at PG Live.

Turn the clock back ten years and PG Live (taking place June 5-6 at London’s Business Design Centre) was just about to open its doors for the very first time as a dedicated international greeting card show.

Following on from last month’s edition, PG talks to some more publishers, retailers and overseas distributors who were at that inaugural show, who share their memories, as well as their views on what has changed in the trade and in their respective businesses in the intervening years.

Digital printing and an increased awareness of process and accessibility to the industry for small publishers all contribute to a vibrant environment.”

At this year’s show: “I will be launching a brand new collection of Coco designs under my own brand Rachel Hare.

This will see the range expand to include occasions and age cards. We are also going to launch an exclusive Bubble Coco range of bags and stationery too. Coco has been our ‘stand out’ collection this year and is so current with its imagery and colour palette.

The aim at the show is to make an impact.”

allow for the growth and seen the benefits in all areas.”

The industry’s biggest changes: “The biggest changes have been the challenges for the high street independents (the core of our business) and of course internet shopping.

Design has also moved on incredibly across the industry as trends/looks filter down more easily now and are far more accessible. The bar is raised higher and higher, driving the quality up and keeping greeting card design relevant to a contemporary, image-saturated market.

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John Simson, managing director of Melbourne-based Simson Cards:

Miles Robinson and Nigel Williamson, partners of House of Cards:

In the beginning: “OMG...it cannot be 10 years since the High Street of Islington was first graced with those wonderful fresh greeting card skirts reminiscent of rocking around the clock with Bill Hayley!

When PG Live was first mentioned to me, the concept of coming to London in the summer was more than appealing.”

Above: John Simson has The evolution: “For us, PG been known to change his Live has turned out to be better than expected. What PG Live has brought to our industry was an event that was enjoyable; that combined the hard work with fun; a time to catch up with old mates and make new friends in a sociable environment. It is a ‘community event’ with a good cross section - from the old stalwarts to the newbies - and it comes with all the benefits London has to offer. For an international buyer of UK greeting cards, this is the perfect combination of environment and opportunity.”

The industry’s biggest changes: “Much has changed over the past 10 years of importing cards from the UK. With the first PG Live preluding the ‘Global Financial Crisis’, we then lost some UK publishing partners to the crisis, but most noticeably, we saw many publishers, especially those in the middle tier, dramatically reduce their caption offer. Where historically we could have imported all the low selling captions from the UK, such as Grandson Christening, this resource totally dried up as caption after caption was discontinued from model lines. The GFC also made UK publishers retard their range extension design development, instead focusing on re-hashing old material to save cash. Now, 10 years later, we are seeing the impact of a resurgence in confidence as UK publishers are again pushing the boundaries in their design development.”

Simson Cards’ decade: “Simson has shared wonderful distribution and licensing partnerships with UK publishers, many for over 30 year,s and we remain the largest importer of UK greeting cards into Australia, something we are very proud of. As the master vendor to both department store groups in Australia, Simson has had to provide grids of up to 4,000 pockets to some stores, a number we could not possibly handle within our own local publishing programme. Our UK greeting card partners have been instrumental in our distribution model and without their contribution our business would not have had the same impact on the Australian market.”

Thoughts as you prepare for this year’s trip: “While the overall sector maybe shrinking, for us at Simson, greeting cards remain buoyant in the Australian market. I firmly believe that if you provide the consumer with great design and good value, they will support you. Our UK partners help make this possible.”

In the beginning: “We can clearly remember the first show as it broke completely new ground for greeting card trade shows. The level of service and attention to detail was second to none and never have we felt, as buyers, so well looked after.”

The evolution: “The show has certainly got bigger with more publishers exhibiting over the years and has certainly kept up with the fast changing industry. As buyers it has become the ‘must visit’ greeting card show, even if you can’t buy from every exhibitor!”

House of Cards’ decade: “In many ways the last 5-10 years has seen more changes than the previous 20 years! The perfection of digital print has enabled many new publishers to enter the market place, but this has made our job much harder, even though it has led to a buyers’ market.

Ten years ago we dealt with perhaps 20+ publishers. Now it’s over 40!

This has resulted in everything being spread a little thinner. The constant move into gifting has been a necessity of staying in business, as a retailer can no longer survive on greeting cards alone. Ten years ago, 60% of our sales were from greeting cards, now it’s nearer to 50%. What has shone out in all of this is the absolute ‘must’ of having great product. In our opinion, this is more important than ever before.”

Above: (Left-right) House of Cards’ Nigel Williamson and Miles Robinson at the first ever PG Live in 2009 with Celebrations of Carlisle’s Sonya Haandrikman-Sibbald and her mum and business

Claire Williams, co-founder of Paper Salad: In the beginning: “When Warren [Lomax, PG’s co-owner] first approached us to tell us about the show. Partly through a fear of missing out though, we agreed to a stand, a fairly big one at that!”

The evolution: ”We have Above: Paper Salad co-founders, Claire Williams enjoyed doing the show so much that (second left) and Karen Wilson (far right) with the now sadly deceased Lynn Tait (second right) in we always rebook. In addition to the the lunch room at PG Live which the publisher orders we write at the show, the sponsored to mark its 10th anniversary. contacts we make while exhibiting are very important, especially the multiple accounts and overseas distributors with whom it may take a year or two to receive your first order!

PG Live always feels like a mini holiday to us and it doesn’t feel like work.

The social aspect of PG Live is fantastic and it’s great for cementing relationships with buyers. This has stayed the same since day one! We especially enjoyed being the first to host the free lunch for our tenth birthday!”

Paper Salad’s decade: “We have grown phenomenally! We ran the business from a smallish studio space back then, and we were forever tripping over boxes of cards. We have moved and expanded our floorspace several times since then and now have own warehouse complete with forklift truck! We haven’t changed the way we work though; we still create all of our artwork by hand and focus on clean and bright colours!”

The industry’s biggest changes: “The industry has changed enormously over the last decade, the most notable being in print technology. When we launched, digital print wasn’t a viable option as it wasn’t very good, plus it was very expensive. It meant that we had to take a leap of faith and invest £thousands, and print tens of thousands of cards the traditional lithographic Continued on page 55 PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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way every time we launched a new range.

As digital print has progressed it now means that pretty much anyone can have a go at being a card publisher.”

At this year’s show: “We are launching a new look for us, Above: Paper Salad’s new Jamboree using a new print embossing technique (that I range has lots of added textured. believe hasn’t been used by anyone else yet) mixed in with our usual bright colours and foil. We are launching 39 children’s age cards, from age 1 through to 21, plus a couple of birthday cards.”

Ben Dorney, creative director of Museums & Galleries:

Steve Baker, sales director and Martin Powderly, creative director of Pigment: In the beginning: “The show has always been a hit for us from that very first day. One big difference I guess would be the quality of the exhibitors’ stands. The competition to make an effort for the two days is remarkable.”

The industry’s biggest changes: “There’s been a noticeable change in taste levels among consumers. The predominance of traditional and cute seems to have declined in favour of trend and art. Humour looks more diverse than ever, which is great. I think design standards are generally higher and the ‘personality’ of the successful publishers are more individual, more original.

On the retailer front, the influence of key buyers in influential groups and nationals has been elevated over the last decade.”

In the beginning: “While Debbie and Alan (Williams, co-owners) have fond memories of the very first show, I joined M&G in late 2010, so my first experience of PG Live was in 2011.

Coming into the card industry as an ‘outsider’, PG Live was a perfect introduction to the many brands and companies, both large and small, which form the landscape of the greeting card world.”

The evolution: “Something which thankfully has not changed with the Above: Pigment’s Steve Baker was very happy show over the years is that the size of stands at PG Live levels the playing when Paperchase chose to spend its Golden field a little bit, and gives visitors a chance to see who and what’s new in a Ticket with the company at PG Live 2014.

Right: One of the new designs in Pigment’s manageable space which I really like. Long may it continue!”

Happy News range.

Museum & Galleries’ decade: “M&G’s core offer - high quality paper products from renowned licensed arts brands - hasn’t really changed, in a good way! Part of M&G’s appeal is that we Rajeev Arora, managing director of Davora: plough our own furrow and offer something outside of the In the beginning: “I have vague mainstream. That said, the content and scope of our collection memories of the first PG Live. My wife has significantly expanded and I were expecting our second child, and modernised around our the Davora team consisted of me, ‘classic’ core. There is a myself and I, and I was operating out of huge appetite for heritage a small corner of my Dad's warehouse. brands and imagery, but the I sold Eid, Diwali and a handful of way it’s packaged (literally Jewish cards, and my catalogue and conceptually) has had consisted of a few sheets of A4 printed to work hard to keep up on a home printer and stapled in one with wider industry trends corner. Yet I'd found a niche, and I was determined to own it.” and social tastes. As for Davora’s decade: “Over the decade, we've evolved alongside PG M&G as a company, Alan Live. We now have a much bigger range, including and Debbie have Welsh, Polish and Christian cards; our main catalogue is transformed it into a truly a 38 page glossy affair; we use a fulfillment house for forward-looking business Above right: Museum & Galleries’ storing and delivering stock, and I have an amazing team with a real sense of purpose.

It’s co-owner, Debbie Williams, looking after the business. Plus I've found myself on the delighted to have been presented been an amazing journey, and with a Silver Ticket at PG Live.

GCA Council. we’re still on it.”

Above: The big news on the M&G stand this year is its new signing of Our highlight has to be our own 10 Year Anniversary The industry’s biggest BBC Earth for a range of cards, in 2015, when we took over the show with our Punjabi drummers. Ten notelets and stationery. changes: “From our perspective, years was quite an achievement for my little company, so I made sure we I feel that ‘fine art’ product was falling off retailers’ radar a bit a celebrated the only way us Indians know how to - with a bang!” decade ago or so. Strangely, I think the sheer pace of change, The industry’s biggest changes: “The greeting card industry has and all things social/digital, has helped us. Licensed arts fared well over the 10 years in my opinion. Despite the unprecedented brands offer something familiar, with cultural ‘roots’ and interpressures that the advent of social media brings, the UK industry has generational appeal that people connect to in a fast-paced held its own, and even grown. PG Live, being the only dedicated world. At the same time, heritage and arts licensing has grown greeting card show, with its emphasis on networking, can also take massively in recent years as culture brands look to expand their some credit for keeping the industry thriving.” reach, relevance and revenue.”

At this year’s show: “We are super excited to be launching a BBC Earth range!”

Top: Raj and his family outside PG Live 2015 with the Punjabi drummers that ‘banged the drum’ to mark Davora’s 10th anniversary.

Above: The Davora catalogue featuring cards that celebrate all manner of cultures.

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The

World is better in

3D

PG Live 2018 Stand 337

5-6 June 2018 Business Design Centre, London, UK

LOUIE Awards Finalist Š Santoro 2018

www.santoro-london.com Email: HappyToHelp@Santoro.co.uk Tel: +44 (0) 1709 518100 Santoro House, S63 5DB, UK

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PG Live 2018 - Springboard

Show Directors

As PG Live 2018’s doors open and the ‘curtains’ reveal the 260+ exhibitors at this year’s greeting card trade fair, some card publishers will be taking to the PG Live stage for the first time, launching in Springboard or as newbies on the Village Green.

A cast of these rising publishers direct PG on their past ‘lives’, the route into cards, and what they hope to gain from showcasing their designs at the fair.

Kathy Fearn-Webster, founder/illustrator for Dotty Dog Art: Life before cards: "Before entering into the world of greeting cards I worked at Guide Dogs for the Blind, working with visually impaired people and their dogs. I was sadly made redundant which prompted me to set up my own business as a dog portrait artist, combining my great love of dogs with my passion for art. This has evolved into designing dog-themed greeting cards, which I really love!

I’ve never before worked in such a supportive and friendly industry.”

New design adventures: “Dogs play a huge part of my everyday life and as an artist I want to portray their funny, carefree characters on paper! I share my studio with two bouncy poodles, who are an endless source of entertainment and inspiration for my card designs, and it’s where my ideas for the Fun Lovin Dogs range was born - a range of funny cards where dogs live life to the max riding bikes and scooters for fun!”

PG Live opportunities: “I’m really excited to be exhibiting for the first time at PG Live this year. I’m looking forward to meeting lots of friends, new and old, and talking about my latest range of cards.

I feel really lucky to have almost accidentally fallen into the greeting card industry, I have a huge amount to learn but I’m loving the happy journey that my love of dogs and art is taking me.”

PG Live Stand 752 Top: Kathy with one of her adorable pooches.

Above: A Dotty Dog Art’s design, ethically printed on FSC® re-cycled card, from the fullof-life 'Running Dogs’ range.

Tom Kennedy and Jamie Watkins, founders of Divine Savages: Life before cards: “Well, I (Tom) have a background in illustration, graphic design and branding, working for a wide range of fashion and apparel brands, as well as in the music industry, before biting the bullet and going freelance. And I (Jamie) work in programme acquisitions, buying content for a global entertainment company. Basically I get paid to watch a lot of TV!” New design adventures: “Together we launched our luxury lifestyle brand - Divine Savages - in late 2017, focusing on wallpapers, fabrics and home accessories. We received so much positive feedback on our art prints that we decided to design a range of greeting cards, which allows us to fully express our twisted sense of humour!

We launched our card range in January at Top Drawer and were crowned Finalists in the Spotted Awards for best new brand. It’s been a whirlwind of a journey.”

PG Live opportunities: “We are really excited to launch new designs exclusively at PG Live and to meet with new stockists from all over the world. We’re also on the lookout for agents that can help spread a little Divine Savages love. We look forward to seeing you all there!”

PG Live Stand 730 Top: Divine Savages' Tom and Jamie.

Left: A tamer Divine Savages design.

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PG Live 2018 - Springboard

Cadell Cruse, designer for Cadell Cruse: Life before cards: “I was an art teacher in two different secondary schools for 13 years. I am fine art trained, but had always made cards for my friends and family. I could never find cards that I liked in shops so I preferred to make them.

First of all I made them using lino-printing, but it wasn’t clean or precise enough for me (I’m an artist who doesn’t like to get her hands dirty!). So, when I was on maternity leave with my second daughter, when she slept, I taught myself Photoshop by watching YouTube videos.”

New design adventures: “I started producing collections of cards from my hand-drawn illustrations edited into printable designs. Propping a sketchbook or a laptop on my lap was much more practical than whipping out a canvas and some oil paints. I got totally addicted to the process of drawing, editing and then collecting my products from the printers.”

PG Live opportunities: “In 2016 I did my first professional pitch at Liberty Open Call. I was unsuccessful but it helped me to gain the confidence that I was really lacking to push myself forward.

I’m really looking forward to meeting other independent greeting card publishers, learning more about the industry and making contact with potential agents and stockists at PG Live 2018.”

Left: Cadell with two of her lovely designs.

PG Live Stand 790

Anwen Roberts, owner/designer for Draenog: Life before cards: “Before entering the greeting card industry, I worked as a graphic designer and then as a web content editor for various companies including S4C and Cardiff University. I was designing cards and also working full-time for a few years until taking the plunge and leaving my 'proper job' in 2016.

'Draenog' is Welsh for hedgehog and the name comes from the name of the farm where I grew up in Mid Wales. I'm not sure if it's just a Welsh thing, but people are sometimes known by the name of their home - so 'Anwen Bryndreiniog' turned into 'Anwen Draenog' (I guess it's easier to say!) and the name stuck!”

New design adventures: “My mam and my sister opened a shop in Oswestry (Siop Cwlwm) and they struggled to find modern cards in Welsh. So I designed a range of cards for them, which sold out quickly, and it's grown and grown from there!

The journey has been amazing! I only designed Welsh language cards until 2017, and launching cards in English has been a massive learning curve, but the industry is so friendly and supportive.”

PG Live opportunities: “I'm hoping to meet some lovely stockists and maybe some agents. I've exhibited at two other trade shows so far and learnt so much from both, so I’m hoping to get feedback on my cards and keep improving. I've heard great things about PG Live and can't wait to catch up with the people that I've met in the last few months and hopefully make new friends too!”

PG Live Stand 822 Above: Draenog’s Anwen Roberts.

Inset: Both English and Welsh designs will be on display on Draenog’s stand at PG Live.

Ali Kittermaster and Emily Parton, joint owners of hh designs: Life before cards: “In our previous lives, Emily worked in advertising for Ogilvy London and Ali worked in licensing for Warner Bros. We left the corporate world to start families but maintained our passion for creativity by becoming professional photographers. With over 20 years of photographic experience between us we met through mutual friends a few years ago and discovered our shared love of photographing animals.”

New design adventures: “Our passion for creative photography, product design and style led us to where we are now! We realised quite early on we had skills that complemented each other which, alongside our mutual passion of capturing animals in a fun and slightly quirky way. So we began hh designs in April 2017 with two small photographic ranges, and now have more than 10 ranges with over 250 designs in our portfolio (and many more in the pipeline).”

PG Live opportunities: “We are really looking forward to meeting new customers at PG Live. It's a chance to showcase what we have created and get some insightful feedback about our offering. It will be great to meet other publishers too and learn from them how they operate.

Having signed our first licensing deal with ICTC, we are also excited to meet with other potential licensees.”

Above: Full of vitality, PG Live Village Green Stand 95 a hh design card.

Tracey Colliston, director for Ginger Betty: Life before cards: “I have been designing greeting cards for my entire working career, and it has become my lifelong passion. Having previously worked with major publishers on many varied projects, I have gained an insight into the whole industry.”

New design adventures: “Creating the characters of Elliot and Buttons and Lots of Woof for UKG has proven to be very successful, and I now feel that the time is right to take the next exciting step into publishing my own work.

Above: Ginger Betty’s Tracey Colliston.

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PG Live 2018 - Springboard

All of my designs are handpainted and are inspired by my love of fashion, nature and all things quirky. I’m hoping to capture a sentiment and a personal touch to engage directly with the purchaser with my designs.”

PG Live opportunities: “At PG Live I’m launching a diverse collection consisting of three new ranges of cards including a fresh and stylish range targeted at females, a quirky fun range, and a clean, contemporary cute range, which offers real sentiment. I’m hoping that my varied collection will attract interest from retailers and agents.

I’m currently busy providing the finishing touches and excitedly planning for the launch of this first venture into publishing as Ginger Above: A gorgeous Ginger Betty - I just can’t wait for PG Live!”

Betty design.

PG Live Stand 830

Iryna Nimmo, creative director/founder of Family Designs: Life before cards: “I have worked in the public sector (internal auditing and children’s social services) for 10 years. However, after the birth of my second son I had a very strong urge to be creative and produce artwork. I could draw my ideas from all sorts of objects and experiences and I wanted to capture some of these ideas as a legacy for my children. This is how Family Designs was born.”

New design adventures: “My journey so far has been very interesting. I attended The Ladder Club seminar (day one) last year and I was very excited to start a new venture. Since then, I have enrolled onto this creative path, while continuing my full-time job and raising two children under three years-old. Saying it has been a steep learning curve is understatement!

I enjoy the creative process for its opportunity to produce beautiful artwork and kind sentiments and hope my little start-up idea will pick up soon.”

PG Live opportunities: “This will be my very first trade show. I am very excited. I hope to get some feedback and inspiration from market experts. Meanwhile, I continue to work on creating new ranges and I’m preparing a few bespoke freebies ready for those who visit us at PG Live.”

PG Live Stand 808 Above: Iryna and her son from Family Designs.

Above: Ranges such as Modern Vintage, Furry Fun and Ages and Stages, as well as new additions to the Baby Zodiac and Childhood Memories ranges, can be seen on Family Designs’ PG Live stand.

Hazel Ponting, founder/designer for Londonland Designs: Life before cards: “I’ve always had a passion for art and photography, so I decided to learn how to combine the two. I attended a design course in London and used these skills to produce unusual greeting cards and prints.”

New design adventures: “All of my work includes many elements of my photography, taken while travelling around London and the world, on the farm, in the kitchen and anywhere else I see inspiration. These images are then combined digitally into quirky, eclectic and sometimes eccentric artwork. One of my favourite missions was taking the family along with me on a summer trip to photograph reindeer in July!”

PG Live opportunities: “I have found the greeting card industry to be very friendly and helpful and I'm so pleased to be a part of it. I hope by attending PG Live I’ll be given the opportunity to share my work further afield, and also enjoy learning from other talented publishers.”

PG Live Stand 800 Above: Londonland’s Hazel Ponting.

Left: Fabulously surreal, a Londonland Design.

Claire Maraldo, illustrator/designer for Made In Pixieland: Life before cards: “I studied graphic design at college and after I graduated I worked as a magazine designer, mainly on teenage titles. I did a fair bit of photoshoot styling too and the odd illustration here and there.”

New design adventures: “When I had my son I wanted to design something just to satisfy my creative need.

I’m now part of a cooperative group called Canterbury Makers and we have various pop-up shops in East Kent. I’ve been amazed at the amount of sales I’ve had locally and how loyal customers are, and I get a lot of repeat sales. Working in shops has given me a lot of insight into what customers are looking for. It’s been fun building the business and getting my designs exactly how I want them.”

PG Live opportunities: “I hope to get some new customers of course, and I’m always interested in customer feedback. I’ve got some new designs in production for the show. I’ve heard that it is a fun and friendly show so I’m really looking forward to it!”

Above left: Made in Pixieland’s Claire Maraldo.

PG Live Stand 663

Above right: A super cute Made in Pixieland design.

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TALK

Orderly Conduct In the first of a series of columns in which small house publishers reveal the thrills and spills of trying to make headway in the competitive industry, John Higgins and Laura Kavanagh, founders of humour card publisher Go La La, reveal how they utilise multi-channel options to make it simpler for retailers to discover and order their cards.

Being an old married couple, we were lying in bed one morning having a scintillating conversation about shopping. Or, more to the point, shopping for gig tickets for bands whose heyday was in the 80s. In those days you’d rely on newspapers, posters and fanzines for the information, rally your mates together by phone landline or letter and book tickets using a postal order. Now, you just text your mates and book your tickets online in the space of five minutes without moving from the sofa.

So, we all know too well how the internet has changed our own personal buying behaviours. But how do these convert to selling a product and addressing the needs of busy greeting card retail buyers?

As a card publisher, in the absence of a network of sales agents, working to Above: The publisher has launched a ‘Trade Only’ website.

Right: This Go La La design covers the diversity issue down to a ‘tea’.

Far right: Another Go La La design that demonstrates the wonders of the human psyche.

Below: John and Laura of Go La La contemplating a publisher’s plight from bed!

market your product pretty much takes over your life. But ultimately, as publishers, we all know how busy card retailers are, and in this competitive market we need to make our product not only as visible as possible, but simple to order.

Naturally, and for most of us, our marketing starts with social media. Go La La uses Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Linkedin.

We circulate tweets, posts, pics, updates, videos, stories and highlights every day. We engage,

discuss, emoji, comment, like, share and retweet. We connect with peers and potential customers. We are nice. We are helpful. We crack a few jokes. Our fragile egos sometimes take a bashing. We pull our big girl and boy pants up and keep going.

We circulate printed marketing materials.

We research shops to mail out to so that hopefully we don’t send precious resources that will just get dumped into the recycling bin. Each mail out we send to a shop costs somewhere around £4£5. We encourage ordering via email or phone, but frankly, we wouldn’t care if it was via a Facebook message with a GIF of a dancing unicorn or a tweet from Donald Trump.

But what more can we do to make ordering super easy for card retailers?

Until recently, our website was purely for public sales, but after reading some commentary from retailers and taking feedback from some of our customers we decided to convert it to a Trade Only site for online ordering. Now we have the option of a trade shop front from which to select designs, add to basket and checkout with orders going straight to invoice. Job done.

The return from this new system has been extremely positive. But an article on trade brochures in the March edition of PG demonstrated that many card buyers still like a catalogue in their hands. So while not everyone wants an online facility, it’s there for some folk.

Often, we hear that card retailers only like to place orders through sales agents, which is great if you’re fortunate enough to have an agent in that area. Most of us publishers can only dream of having all territories across the UK being represented by sales agents; if this is you, then get in!

So retailers, finding a new product and squeezing aside the time to see that order through could be just the boost a small publisher needs, and hopefully the start of a fabulous new relationship!

Contact Go La La at info@golala.co.uk PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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Face To Face

Thoughts Into Action May The Thoughts Be With You is a positive brand that was borne out of turbulent times, but now Charlotte Reed’s soulful messages and simple illustrations are very much a force for good.

With a film optioned based on Charlotte’s story, a range of cards and calendars officially launching from Danilo at PG Live, a second book in the offing, plus all her work as a ambassador of MIND, there is a lot of ‘doing’ as well as thinking going on.

PG greatly enjoyed talking to the inspirational woman whose approach to self-help is now helping millions of others.

PG Live is always a very jolly affair, with lots of banter, frivolity and camaraderie. And with its wide customer base and increasingly broad product portfolio, and popular team, the Danilo stand is always busy and noisy.

And this year is a special one for the publisher as it celebrates its 40th anniversary, so it has some unexpected treats in store. May The Thoughts Be With You is one of those.

Amplifying the publisher’s push into

more on-trend adult concepts, its May the Thoughts Be With You collection of greeting cards and calendars reflects the growing appreciation of wellbeing, mindfulness and uplifting positive support.

While the names of key characters such as ‘The Shoeless Guru’ and ‘Happy Hippy’ will bring a smile to the face, the story behind the range, based on the illustrations and thoughts of Charlotte Reed, warms the soul and no mistake.

“Back in 2008 I started to suffer from depression,” Charlotte explains. “Things got pretty bad but I was adamant I didn't want to take medication. Instead I tried other things like CBT, psychotherapy and acupuncture. I also completely changed my diet and started exercising.”

It was at this time that she also had another idea: “To write a little positive message to myself every morning to try and change my outlook on life.” She suffered with the depression for two years “so by the time I'd recovered I'd written loads of thoughts,” explains Charlotte.

Encouraged by friends to progress her messages so that they could be published in a book, Charlotte went for it. “I realised a book would look a lot more appealing if the thoughts had illustrated characters to go with them, but I couldn't afford an illustrator so I had to create them myself. It was a great learning experience having no training whatsoever.”

Left: The Shoeless Guru and The Happy Hippy are two of Charlotte’s popular characters which impart words of wisdom.

Inset: Charlotte Reed in her studio.

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Face To Face

Giving her draft book the title of May The Thoughts Be With You, she blasted the idea out to book publishers, but every one of them turned her down. “That's when I had the idea to self-publish and sell it myself from a stall at Portobello Road Market. It was incredible - books literally flew off my table and before I knew it I'd sold thousands of copies and had a large following including celebrities, royalty and MPs! I was over the moon,” recalls Charlotte. One of these MPs was none other than George Osborne, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer under Cameron’s reign.

Soon after that she was approached by a global publisher and offered a worldwide publishing deal. Off the back of that Charlotte secured a positive thinking column in the Metro newspaper for a year and, then, thanks to George Osborne becoming editor of London’s Evening Standard, May The Thoughts was given (and still has) a weekly column in the newspaper featuring Charlotte’s thoughts and illustrations.

The brand’s move onto other products, which Danilo is trailblazing through the cards and calendars, is another lovely story. It came about as a direct result of Giles Andreae (creator of Purple Ronnie and Edward Monkton and co-creator of Happy Jackson) suggesting (via a mutual friend)

Above middle: This is one of Charlotte’s favourite Thoughts.

Above right: Charlotte’s artwork and thoughts are being used by the NHS to brighten up corridors.

Right: George Osborne, the former Chancellor and now editor of the Evening Standard is a big fan of May The Thoughts as evidenced by the exposure in the Evening Standard.

Above: Charlotte turned her positive messages into a book, which she sells from her stall in Portobello Market, which her Mum and Dad help man from time to time.

Granting Wishes Danilo is putting the final touches to its PG Live stand, which will fanfare its inaugural May The Thoughts Be With You range of cards and calendars, with other designs expected to follow subsequently.

Commenting on the appeal of the positive brand, Dan Grant, Danilo’s licensing director said: “Charlotte’s work will strike a chord with so many people and will help to lift the spirits. The sending of cards is very positive anyway, but with her messages they can be even more so.”

Left: Danilo’s licensing director, Dan Grant with Charlotte and one of the calendars.

that Charlotte should attend the Brand Licensing Europe trade show. It was there that she won the License It! competition run by the show, which resulted in her being represented by Larkshead Media for licensing. While Larkshead is hoping to sign deals for all manner of products (from gifts to healthy eating), a literary agent is very close to finalising a deal on a second book, which is to be used as the basis of a film about Charlotte’s journey!

Every mindful of how low she was before her own self-therapy resulted in the creation of May the Thoughts, and how far she has come from her deep days of despair, Charlotte has pledged to offer help, and support to others. She is a leading light as an ambassador of charity Mind, and was super busy during Mental Health Awareness

Week (May 14-18) giving talks and press interviews sharing her experiences, offering advice and in doing so reducing the stigma that surrounds mental illness.

“One in four people in the UK will suffer mental illness over the course of their life,” explains Charlotte. “I am genuinely so happy that the cards and calendars are launching, so that they can help people to think more positively and spread awareness of mindfulness.”

Speaking from her own experience Charlotte says that while she was in the depths of depression it was difficult for any messages of support to penetrate but when she started to feel a bit better she really welcomed all the cards she received. “It was lovely to know that people were there for me - though the ones that said ‘get well soon’ didn't seem appropriate.”

As Charlotte points out, “there are lots of people struggling out there, facing all sorts of challenges, going through life changes, feeling scared and lost. I really like the thought of people receiving a May The Thoughts card from someone as a show of empathy that will brighten their day.”

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Up Close With... Paperchase

A Colourful Half Century When two Chelsea Art School students had an idea of opening a shop in Kensington to cater for their artistic needs little did they know that 50 years on it would have evolved into a beloved retailing emporium trading from well over 140 shops in the UK and many more overseas.

This month, as Paperchase kicks off a whole year of celebrations to mark its half century, PG met up with Timothy Melgund, deputy chairman, and Joe Irons, its multi channel director, to talk about ‘50 colourful years of stationery’.

When art school students Judith Cash and Eddie Pond opened the very first Paperchase store in 1968 unicorns had been invented, but not emblazoned on sequined journals. Greeting cards were around in the late 60s, but nothing like the 3,000 different designs (not to mention the additional 1,000 postcard options) that tantalise every aesthetic taste and cover every occasion imaginable on the racks at Paperchase’s Tottenham Court Road store.

Top: Paperchase has always championed design, in products and within its own store environments.

Above: A blast from the past! Timothy Melgund (right) and Robert Warden in their early days at Paperchase.

Above middle: A window poster to thank customers for the last 50 years.

Right: Some of the 50 updated products that form part of the anniversary collection.

It has grown to be a retailing ‘bestie’ to everyone who loves cards and stationery. Its stores differ in size, shape and even feel, it’s product range constantly evolving to reflect the trends both in design and society in a fun confident way, and it has nurtured its relationships with customers, bringing them closer into the ‘tribe’ through elements such as its Treat Me cards, curated emailers and events instore.

To borrow a quote from Reggie Perrin, ‘Paperchase has not got where it is today’ by harking back to the past, but some milestones are definitely worth marking.

Under the theme of ‘50 Colourful Years of Stationery’, a whole programme of events

kicked-off in the middle of May and will run over the course of the year.

Among the highlights is a product launch on 50 updated products from when the retailer started, a scratchcard customer initiative (offering freebies to customers) and heaps of social media activity “It is quite something to think that Paperchase has been selling stationery to three generations - and we want it to carry on doing that for many generations to come,” said Timothy Melgund poignantly.

The retailer’s anniversary is a marker in the sand for Timothy personally, having recently relinquished the position of ceo to Duncan Gibson, himself taking the deputy chairman’s position.

It is now 22 years since Timothy joined forces with the former Boots buyer Robert Warden and staged a venture capital-backed management buyout of Paperchase from former owners WHSmith (for whom Timothy previously worked). It was seen as a big deal at the time, but Paperchase only had nine stores and was viewed very much as a niche player, its stores expected to be confined to major conurbations, which had a large population of affluent arty types.

Now look, over 140 standalone stores all over the UK, trading from high streets to PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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Up Close With... Paperchase

train stations, concessions in other stores (Selfridges, Next, House of Fraser, Fenwick), and a growing online presence (on ASOS, Amazon as well as on its own ecommerce site). Its recent tie-up with Norwegian book chain, Norli, adds to Paperchase’s overseas trading activities, which include a franchised business in the Middle East as well as concessions in many other leading retailing names, such as Galeries Lafayette in France, Karstadt in Germany and Hudson’s Bay in Canada among others.

Having sat in the ‘big funky chair’ at Paperchase for almost half of the retail brand’s life (through a couple of changes of venture capital backers as well as a period when it was owned by the US Borders book chain), Timothy has plenty to write in the designer journals the retailer produces, on the changes and challenges it has faced over the years.

As to the biggest changes, Timothy’s natural default is to product. “The British greeting card industry has become ever more creative, which is great as the consumer’s expectations have risen too. Being able to source from the wonderfully diverse and talented publishers out there as well as develop our own brand products that are tailored to our customers’ tastes has served us well. But it is not getting easier!” he admits.

Timothy says that the quickening pace of trends coming in and out of fashion has put increasing pressures on Paperchase.

“We have had to become quicker to respond to trends, be more inventive with how we communicate with our customers and stay ahead of the competition,” he sums up.

Left: Paperchase’s store in London’s Berwick Street reflects the trendy Soho vibe.

Below left: Duncan Gibson, chief executive of Paperchase, against a backdrop of some of the 3,000 greeting card designs it stocks in its flagship Tottenham Court Road store.

When asked who he sees as Paperchase’s ‘competition’, Timothy is quick with his retort: “It’s everyone and no one,” he says. “The consumer has so much choice of where and how to shop, hence the reason that we have concessions within other retailers, online, in high streets, train stations and retail parks.”

Contrary to what one might expect, Timothy is full of praise for Card Factory, on a holistic level seeing the value retailer as having helped to safeguard the sending of cards.

“You cannot deny the huge volumes of cards that Card Factory sells which has helped to ensure youngsters recognise the importance of sending cards, and so they too will hopefully adopt the card sending habit,” he says, citing the sheer number of Card Factory stores increasing cards’ visibility and its value offer an meaning that cost is not an obstacle to consumer buying in what have been tough times for retailers and the public alike.

They say that the darkest hour is the one before dawn, when asked whether the troubles at retail will start to improve, Timothy draws on his many years of experience.

“Are we at the bottom? I am not sure, it is difficult to tell. The retail businesses that have failed are those that have either over borrowed or made silly mistakes. We are not perfect, but we know our customers, feel fortunate that we are selling products that the public has a real affinity for and we are focused on delivering the best that we can - both now in our 50th year and in the future.”

The Irons man challenge Having joined Paperchase six years ago, Joe Irons, whose many responsibilities are wrapped up in an all encompassing title of multi channel director, has enjoyed a great run up to this special anniversary year.

Having headed up Paperchase’s Treat Me loyalty card scheme (which now has 2.5 million members) as well as its online and social media activity, Joe is completely logged into the Paperchase customer, their buying habits as well as their likes and dislikes.

Thankfully, the dislikes are far fewer than the likes - but that does not mean they should be ignored, as testified by Paperchase’s quick response to its customers’ outcry over its rollwrap promotion in the Daily Mail, taking exception to the newspaper’s homophobic stance. Paperchase went further than just apologising, going as far as giving its assurances that it would “never” run a promotion with the newspaper again.

As Joe says, “There is no point in asking customers what they would like us to do and then ignoring it”. Something Joe and the team are most definitely not ignoring is the opportunity to mark Paperchase’s ‘50 Colourful Years’.

“It provides us with such a great opportunity to remind people of what we’re about,” says Joe. Part of this is a special collection of products. “We are ‘bringing back with a twist’ 50 products that Paperchase would have sold in 1968,” says Joe about the modern day incarnations of notebooks, lunchboxes, bags.

Among the many events in store, customers will be given scratchcards offering amazing prizes, and, as PG went to press, work was well underway on a special video that is bound to chime with the fun irreverence.

“It is all about saying thank you to our customers. They are who have supported us throughout the last 50 years of trading - and many more to come!” says Joe. Left: Joe Irons (left) with Timothy Melgund in Paperchase HQ. Above: Customers will be given scratchcards to win prizes as part of Paperchase’s anniversary celebrations.

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In Conversation With... UKG

K ndred Spirits “There is a will and a spirit that brings so many of us together, irrespective of age, gender or ethnicity. An urge to belong, share in the values of friendship and to live in the moment - this is the very essence of Kindred,” explains Sandi Parisi, creative director of UK Greetings, revealing the significant new brand that will make its debut at PG Live this June.

PG opens itself up to the vibe of this new strand to UKG’s portfolio.

At last year’s PG Live exhibition, the UKG stand was ‘in your face’ Disney. Battles were staged using the Star Wars cards with popout lightsabers, it was hard to ignore the bold bright graphics of Spiderman and co, and visitors were encouraged to have a laugh taking selfies with the various party props.

This year, the atmosphere on the stand will be much more soulful, as it will be dedicated to the launch of Kindred, the publisher’s new standalone brand that is totally in tune with the all pervading spirit of mindfulness, wellbeing and urge to connect.

In Kindred’s case, it was less of a ‘lightbulb moment’, and more of a ‘fridge opening moment’ that reinforced Sandi Parisi, creative director of UK Greetings’ strong feeling to launch this new standalone brand.

“I opened the studio fridge door and could not see any normal milk, but there was lots of almond milk, soya milk and oat milk!” revealed Sandi, highlighting how tastes and our approach to life have moved on

Right: Sandi Parisi, creative director of UK Greetings with some of the Kindred designs in the company’s studio.

Below right: The ‘greeting card rulebook’ has been discarded for Kindred, no need for all the action to be in the top third, with the designs having a simple beauty.

Below: Living and breathing the ‘kindred spirit’ - as part of its commitment to wellbeing, one of UKG’s creative directors runs regular chair yoga and evening yoga sessions in the Studio.

significantly in the last few years. “Obviously it is not just what we are putting in our tea that signifies how lifestyles and values are changing, but how we communicate with others and what we want and need from greeting cards are changing too.”

Representing what Sandi says is “a significant launch” for UK Greetings, Kindred marks something of a step change for the leading UK publisher.

“We have put a lot of focus into elevating our core lines over the last few years, ensuring that our Carlton, Gibson and Camden Graphics ranges were exceeding the needs of consumers shopping for greeting cards in independent specialists, high street multiples and grocers, covering life events with designs to suit all generations in turn,” Sandi explains.

“We also undertook a big drive on our humour front, bolstering Hanson White’s strong position in the market by expanding the portfolio to include new looks and additional humorous slants.”

No one could deny UK Greetings’ prominent position in many retailers, but as Sandi explains, “We start very much with the consumer when we are developing ranges and we recognised that our portfolio, vast though it is, was not properly catering for those people who wanted a simpler, purer card that enabled them to communicate with PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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In Conversation With... UKG

friends and loved ones in a more intimate, personal way,” Sandi told PG. In pursuit of this, Sandi lifted the lid on inspiration and shared a rather unexpected brief given the publisher’s engrained greeting card heritage.

“We told all our designers, artists, universities with whom we work on student collaborations to forget the greeting card rulebook and to drop it on the floor,” revealed Sandi, wanting the creative ideas to come very much from the heart, for the artwork and editorial to have a looseness, capturing a freedom that is relevant and meaningful to today’s consumer.

“The type of consumer that will buy a Kindred card will not be one looking for a big foiled caption at the top of the card, they will not be looking for masses of finishes or inserts, but will want something that they can send to reinforce their friendships, to make connections in a current, personal way,” elaborates Sandi. “Also, we have to accept that the Kindred consumer may not shop in a traditional specialist card shop, but would be very happy to buy a card on impulse from a lifestyle store, bookshop or little boutique, which are the types of shops that are likely to also be drawn to stocking the range.”

Unfettered by any design constraints and preconceptions, UKG’s creative ‘tribe’ let their creativity flow with their resultant outpourings being a wealth of multifarious design styles, using different techniques and conversational editorial.

“It was wonderful to see the wealth of new ideas and styles that were created. And this is just the start,” assures Sandi.

Kindred is to debut at PG Live with 200+ designs across 11 different collections.

While this is no ‘model line’, the designs do cover ‘life events’ but are very different in tone to those found within UKG’s core Carlton, Gibson, Camden or Hanson White collections.

Another notable difference is that the designs very much speak for themselves, rather than being adorned by finishes galore.

“The quality of the artwork will be more than matched by the high-end board that we are using for Kindred which will add to the tactility of the cards,” assures Sandi.

Although so many of UKG’s other card ranges are designed specifically with age generation in mind, capturing the idiosyncrasies and expectations that are revealed through the publisher’s extensive consumer insights research programme, Kindred will cut across generational boundaries.

While the Kindred collection does have a youthfulness to it, it is more youthful in spirit, rather than being constrained by a specific age of the purchaser or recipient.

“Kindred is not aimed at a stereotypical group at a certain stage of their life,” stresses Sandi. “It is more about the lifestyle choices they have

Above and above right: Artists and designers at a Kindred character felting workshop, that was held in the studio.

Left: The editorial in Kindred has very much a different voice to anything in UKG’s core line, it is much looser and more personal.

Right: Scenes from a floral workshop which saw the artists release their creative inhibitions and come up with loose, heartfelt floral designs for Kindred.

Below left: Designer Emily Chaffer created this design for the Kindred range (below).

made, be it how they spend their free time, what they eat for lunch, how they relate to their friends etc,” she adds.

The designs will appeal to broad crosssection from a 70 year old who has been a yoga devotee for decades, to a 20 year old who is keen to go travelling with friends, a 30 year old bloke who is embracing healthier eating, to a 40 year old who loves her new book club chums.

As Sandi, most definitely one of the Kindred tribe herself, sums up: “The Kindred consumer is not about being cutting-edge, but about relishing their friendships, the true values of life and enjoying the connected feeling sending a card brings”.

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PG Live 2018

Good Reasons Here’s some trivia… Ten Good Reasons was the debut album by Australian pop star Jason Donovan (the biggest selling LP in the UK when it was released in 1989).

Now for some facts… With this being the 10th anniversary of PG Live, ‘Especially for You’, marketing manager Jacqui Parr, shares her ‘Ten Good Reasons’ why this year’s show (which takes place on June 5 and 6 at London’s Business Design Centre) will hit the high notes.

Above left: There are more than ‘Ten Good Reasons’ to visit PG Live this June.

Above right: Retailers meet up with each other at The Retas and Greats champagne reception which is held both days at the show.

Power Of The People “The key is in the name of the show, PG Live really is where the greeting card industry comes alive,” says Jacqui. “The buzz of banter is incredible,” she adds.

It is fitting that as greeting cards are a tangible form of social communication that those within the industry have a forum to interact -and PG Live has the right atmosphere for this to happen.

“It is great to see retailers giving feedback to publishers, agents catching up with their principals, overseas distributors investigating export opportunities

PG Live At A Glance When: Tuesday 5 June and Wednesday 6 June 2018 Opening Times: 9.30am to 6.00pm on Tues 5 June 9.30am to 4.30pm on Wed 6 June Where: Business Design Centre, Islington, London N1 0QH •To register for PG Live, visit the show website: www.progressivegreetingslive.com, email: info@progressivegreetingslive.com or call: 01635 297070.

Inset: The Business Design Centre readies to welcome the world of greeting cards through its doors on June 5-6.

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PG Live 2018

and suppliers responding to a myriad of questions that come up over the two days,” adds Jacqui.

The relaxed feel of the show provides the ideal opportunity for retailers to enjoy talking to the people behind the brand, whether they are the directors of leading companies down to the myriad of plucky newbies who are debuting at the show.

Below: PG Live is where business really does mix with pleasure.

WHSmith’s Claire Castle catching up with Woodmansterne’s Claire Behan at last year’s PG Live.

Masses Of Newness New designs are the lifeblood of the greeting card industry and there will be thousands and thousands of brand new spanking card designs making their debut at PG Live.

“PG Live has become firmly established in the ‘greeting card calendar’ as a great time to launch new ranges - providing retailers with loads of fresh new products to pep up their summer displays,” says Jacqui.

Above: Words ‘n’ Wishes has lots of new designs readying to launch at the show.

Right: One of the many new designs featuring the distinctive styling from Angela Chick.

Promotions Galore

Publisher Heaven From leading established players to brand new start-ups, the PG Live 2018 exhibitor line-up is a wonderful celebration of the huge diversity of this talented sector.

“From the tinies to the biggies, we have over 260+ exhibitors, each with something special to offer,” says Jacqui. “We have some leading names, such as Roger la Borde, Santoro and Flame Tree Publishing who are joining the fray this year, while over 120 brand new and emerging companies will be adding their own spice in the Springboard section.”

“If the fabulous products alone are not incentive enough to order, then there are lots of great promotions, competitions, discounts and special offers to tempt you,” promises Jacqui.

Adding to the fun, there is bound to be a lot of excitement as retailers produce their shiny Golden Tickets (worth £150), Silver Tickets (worth £75) and Sunshine Tickets (worth £75) for being winners and finalists in The Retas awards.

There will also be lots of great Greats Vouchers (worth £50 against an order placed) and Cardgains vouchers that members can spend with Cardgains suppliers at the show.

Above: Pippi & Me has a super cute promotion lined up for the show - retailers placing an order will be given a gold envelope inside which will be a treat - maybe a bottle of bubbles, a free print, or a felt character!

Below: The Hollies farm shop spent its Sunshine Ticket on the Toasted Crumpet stand at last year’s show.

Above: Gemma is an established company, but its Studio by Gemma new division will launch at PG Live with 88 designs.

Below: Running Cards will be making its show debut at PG Live.

Global Gathering It won’t just be in the aisles that will have an international flavour, peppered by distributors and retailers from all over the world, as this year there are some fabulous exhibitors from different parts of the globe.

From Putinki Oy from Finland (making their debut at the show as a publisher as well as a retailer and distributor), Sanrio Greetings who are hotfooting it over from Japan to show its inventive pop-ups, to Artige from Holland Above: Some of the products and Pabuku from Austria. “PG Live 2018 will be akin in Putinki’s new Pentik range. to the ‘United Nations’ of the greeting card world!” quips Jacqui.

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PG Live 2018

Place To Be “With its sunny airy feel and high curved ceiling, the Business Design Centre just doesn’t feel like an exhibition venue, and its colourful history adds to its appropriateness as ‘home’ to PG Live,” reminds Jacqui.

Nestled in vibrant Islington, surrounded by lovely shops, restaurants and bars, the BDC is easy to get to - a hop, skip and a jump from the Angel Underground station (on the Northern Line), minutes from either Euston or Kings Cross mainline stations, while Liverpool Street, Waterloo and the West End are just a short journey away.

Right: The buzz of business at PG Live.

Man Cannot Live By Cards Alone While greeting cards are the main focus of the show, they are joined by a feast of allied products. “We have an impressive array of giftwrappings from leading brands as well as pioneering balloon and party products, and a smattering of gifts,” assures Jacqui.

Right: Some of the latest products from Lesser & Pavey from the Mad Dots range that is produced under licence with Hearts Design.

DE 1

Cherries On Top “Yes, the exhibitor line-up is fab, the product array will be amazing, but it is the added extras that will make PG Live 2018 extra special,” believes Jacqui.

From the meeters and greeters attired in dresses made from exhibitors’ cards and wrappings to the keepsake bag (sponsored by Hallmark this year); the ever-popular tea trollies and coffee hot spots serving free cuppas in ‘proper cups’ (sponsored Fedrigoni); The Henry Cole Lounge (with free Wifi, kindly sponsored by Skylight Media) and a delicious complementary lunch (sponsored by Scribbler). PG Live 2018 will serve up a smorgasbord of extra treats!

Top: The meeters and greeters will be wearing ‘dresses’ made from exhibitors cards and wrap.

Above: Hallmark is sponsoring the keepsake bags this year with a special PG Live message on the rear too!

Point Of View PG Live brings the whole industry under one roof, and at the heart of it, is the Greeting Card Association (GCA).

Perfectly positioned at the entrance to the Gallery Hall (where the scrumptious lunch will be served), the GCA area will be fanfaring the latest look for this year’s Thinking of You Week as well as the Point of Sale it offers retailers for the Spring Seasons.

Sharon Little, ceo of the GCA and her assistant Raquel Lopez will be there in the mid part of the day encouraging feedback from retailers on how the Association can help them.

Party Time It being PG Live’s 10th anniversary means there has to be a party!

All exhibitors and visitors will be warmly invited to the Opening Night party (sponsored by GF Smith), that will take place in the Gallery Hall (where lunch is served) straight after the show (5.45pm-7.30pm) - and all the drinks will be free!

Below: Party time! Having come all the way from Sydney, Jenny Cummins of Macmillan Cards (far left) deserved her drink at last year’s Opening Night Party, but then so did the others! (Right-left) Miles Robinson (House of Cards), Becky Mayhew (Lucilla Lavender), Jim Gregory (agent), Lucilla Lavender and Nina Bialoguski (both of Lucilla Lavender).

Above: Part of the new Thinking of You Week branding that will be showcased in the GCA area.

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INNOVATIONS

PG Live

A selection of the many fabulous products that will be on show at PG Live (June 5-6) at London’s Business Design Centre.

Playing The Field Well known for its glitter wrap collections, Unique Paper has branched out in a different direction, launching Botanical, a premium printed 90gsm kraft range featuring traditional floral themes interspersed with geometric spots and stripes, in a modern pastel colour palette.

The collection includes both flat sheets and roll wrap with co-ordintating bags and accessories.

Unique Paper 01206 242483. www.theuniquepapercompany.co.uk Stand 220

No Bad Manners

Showing Its Pedigree

Redback’s new humour collection, One Step Beyond features artwork from some of the best comic illustrators from around the world.

'Made up' doughnuts, a unicorn who’s a bit of a party animal and a visit to Grandma are just some of the subjects tackled by the talented artists. Each 150mm square card has a soft touch finish and comes cellowrapped with a premium envelope.

Redback Cards 01752 830 482 www.redbackcards.com Stand 421

The Pedigree Collection is a whimsical range of greeting cards by fledgling publisher Foofster Designs. The collection, which incorporates 50 designs, features a mix of animal and human, all by 17 year-old Ophelia, with the company’s namesake, her whippet pet, appearing on many of the designs. The cards are 150 mm square, printed on soft-white textured board, blank inside and come with white envelopes.

Fooster Designs 01473 822360 www.foofsterdesign.com Stand 844

Taking The Biscuit New from Blue Eyed Sun is Biscuit, a handfinished Christmas card range based on original hand-painted artworks by Jo Corner.

Comprising 40 cute designs covering a wide selection of relations and loved ones captions, they all feature decoupage elements, are handfinished with jewels in the UK and come with a red envelope.

Blue Eyed Sun 01273 823003 www.blueeyedsun.co.uk Stand 524

Cantering Colour Trotting into view for the first time at PG Live are new open birthday designs in Deckled Edge’s Colour Block Pony collection. The new cards, which brings the range up to 23 designs, feature eye-popping glamorous dressage horses as well as a young girl leading her scruffy pony! The square (150mm square ) cards, printed in tactile thick FSC 350gsm Callisto board, are die-cut to the edge and come with a textured white envelope.

Deckled Edge 0800 771 0771 www.decklededge.co.uk Stand 85

Party Animals Lottie Murphy's vibrant and colourful new Animated Animals collection features fun, celebratory animals, ranging from a dancing polar bear to a disco owl. The 10 designs are perfect for birthdays, congratulations and engagement. Each card measures 127mm x 177mm, is printed in England on high quality FSC certified board and comes with a brown kraft envelope.

Lottie Murphy 07716 304741 www.lottie-murphy.com Stand 828 PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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INNOVATIONS

PG Live

A selection of the many fabulous products that will be on show at PG Live (June 5-6) at London’s Business Design Centre.

Happy Ever After Friends from Tales is the latest quirky folk style new range from Kapelki Art. Rams playing violins and drums, Mother Pig wearing an eye-catching frock, a magpie and owl hosting a dinner, all feature in this imaginative fairytale collection.

Kapelki Art 07761778144 www.kapelkiart.com Stand 797

More Creature Comforts

For Keeps ZZ Designs is adding to its successful BaubleZZ range. The cards include a detachable laser-cut Perspex keepsake that are made in the company’s London workshop in London and adorned with glitter, felt, foil, paint and vinyl.

ZZ Designs 020 88822511 www.zzdesigns.com Stand 670

Pippi & Me is bringing lots of new Little Creatures card designs to PG Live. With the latest 22 additions, this Henries-award winning cute range now covers just about every occasions, from ‘Lovely Bridesmaid’ to ‘Congratulations Twins’ and everything inbetween!

Pippi & Me 01803 865557 www.Pippiandme.com Stand 154

Festive Flitter It will be a festive affair on the Wrendale Designs stand, with the brand new Christmas ranges taking pride of place. These include a launch of Sally Swannell’s new additions to her best-selling Christmas range. The cards each have a sparkly flittered finish and are supplied with a brown recycled envelope.

Wrendale Designs 01652 680253 www.wrendaledesigns.co.uk Stand 534

A Friendship Circle Louise Mulgrew Designs has added 14 new birthday designs to its best-selling Furry Friends range. Featuring loads of joyful animal illustrations in Louise’s signature pen and inky style, the new Furry Friends designs are happier, brighter and more flexible than ever.

The cards are individually cellowrapped with a brown kraft envelope.

Louise Mulgrew Designs +44 7810 304 414 www.louisemulgrew.com Stand 766

Hero Worship View by Rufus is launching its British Superheroes card range, which recognises that not all superheroes like to brag about their special skills or wear capes. However, to their smirking friends and families they are ‘heroic’.

The range comprises 155mm square cards, which come cellowrapped with a complementary coloured envelope.

View by Rufus 020 8972 9706 www.viewbyrufus.com Stand 666

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PG Live continues to be the BIG show of the year for the card trade.

We had a great day... sore feet and head on Wednesday, but worth it!

Mark & Leona Janson-Smith, Postmark, London

PG Live 2018 Tuesday 5 - Wednesday 6 June Business Design Centre, London +44 (0) 1635 297070 www.progressivegreetingslive.com @PGLiveLondon

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The Greatest Collection Of Greeting Cards In The World Celebrating ten years of showcasing design excellence, PG Live 2018 is proud to present the greatest collection of greeting cards in the world.

Register online now to receive your free copy of the PG Live 2018 Show Preview, a fantastic glimpse behind the scenes of this year’s anniversary show, with exclusive launches and show-only offers from over 260 publishers, artists and designers.

Be InspIred Book Your Tickets Now

www.progressivegreetingslive.com

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INNOVATIONS

PG Live

A selection of the many fabulous products that will be on show at PG Live (June 5-6) at London’s Business Design Centre.

Fine & Fabulous

Beautiful Botanicals

Dean Morris Cards is as cock-a-hoop to be launching loads of colourful new designs at PG Live, including many in the always popular Fabulous range. Featuring lots of cheeky humour, from nice to naughty and fantastic retro images, the range is always a best seller with new designs added every season, including Christmas which will also be on show at PG Live. All cards are cellobagged and come with a complementary envelope.

Dean Morris Cards 01902 560247 www.deanmorriscards.co.uk Stand 438

Talk To The Animals

Lucy Ledger is launching three new everyday and occasion ranges at PG Live, all of which focus on the publisher’s signature botanical and floral style. Among these is the new Alchemy collection, which comprises 150mm square cards featuring collages from historical botanical journals that are given a contemporary finish with mirror gold foiled text.

All cards come individually cellowrapped with a recycled rustic brown envelope.

Lucy Ledger 0114 438 7569 www.lucyledger.com Stand 806

Jemma Banks Design will be showcasing a variety of new additions to its popular Animal Chat range. The designs primarily cover birthdays, along with a selection of occasions!

The range is bursting with adorably cute characters and incorporates the publisher’s signature soft colour palette. Currently there are 22 designs, size 7” x 5” and include a brown kraft envelope.

Jemma Banks Design +44(0)7747033129 www.jemmabanksdesign.com Stand 781

A Stirring Brew The ever-growing Flying Teaspoons range has been added to with some fantastic designs, including the adorable ‘Hedgehugs’, a Retired Rat on a quest for some sun and a leaping Labradoodle featuring in the new Congratulations range. Using the very distinctive paper collage technique, the new cards, along with all the current best sellers, will be on show on stand with Free Delivery on any order made at the show.

Flying Teaspoons 07975940194 www.flyingteaspoons.com Stand 150

Road Runners

A Beautiful Collaboration

Less than a year old, Running Cards UK has 17 (and growing) different designs for those mad about running – or know someone who is.

We have congratulations cards for race distances from 5K through to the Marathon, as well as cards for birthdays, Christmas and even running injuries. The colourful cards are 145mm square with white envelopes.

Running Cards UK +44 (0)7876 206334 www.runningcardsuk.com Stand 677

Sarah Kelleher has added 12 cards to her new 'Jackie' range that is a collaboration with fine artist Jackie Crabtree. She has skillfully used Jackie's paintings as colourful backdrops to her hand painted lettering, creating a vibrant yet rustic style. All cards are C6, printed onto FSC stock and come with a ribbed brown envelope in cello to complement the look.

Sarah Kelleher 07768 123957 www.sarahkelleher.co.uk Stand 98 PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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INNOVATIONS

PG Live

A selection of the many fabulous products that will be on show at PG Live (June 5-6) at London’s Business Design Centre.

Popping Candy Launching at PG Live, ‘Offset’ is a brand new range from Nicole at Red Berry Cards. These simple typographic everyday cards pop with transparent overlapping bright colours.

Comprising of 16 designs, from ‘Bestie Birthday’ and ‘Total Legend’, to ‘Selfie Queen’ and ‘Happy Birthday’, these modern cards are 170mm x 120mm in size, printed on a crisp white board and cello wrapped with a brown kraft envelope.

Red Berry Cards www.redberrycards.co.uk Stand 115

Santoro’s Swing Cards are unique, award winning 3D paper pop-ups! With intricate moving components and beautifully illustrated artworks, they are premium, hand-finished gifts; perfect for any occasion. The latest launches include Underwater World, Birds & Clocks, and Racing Cars. Swing Cards come ready assembled (simply pop up!) and include a cream envelope.

Santoro 01709 518100 www.santoro-london.com Stand 337

A Painterly Explosion An explosion of colour has arrived at Judy Lumley Print. A range of 10 new contemporary wrapping paper designs, focusing on loose lively brush strokes, relaxed daubes of paint and energetic flicks of colour, all on beautiful 100gms matt paper, printed in the UK. So whether it is splats, splashes or splatters, these exciting abstract designs have just the look for every occasion and whoever the recipient.

Judy Lumley Print 01727 861102 www.JudyLumley.com Stand 153

Just o y a S w

by

You’re amazing!

Modern Twist Papagrazi is celebrating a number of different occasions with its stylish and sophisticated range of 15 De Stijl influenced designs with beautiful pops of vibrant colour in the bold text.

Size 100mm x 150mm, the cards are cellowrapped with a neon lime envelope.

Papagrazi 07775 833065 www.papagrazi.com Stand 84

Swing Time

Woodland Wildlife Clear Creations’ new Margot Collection of 12 155 x 155 mm designs are beautiful intricate designs in exquisite bold, vibrant colours featuring a range of wildlife, birds, animals and woodland creatures. All the cards a handfinished with beautiful Swarovski crystals, are made in the UK and come with a cello bag.

Clear Creations 020 8885 0009 www.clearcreations.co.uk Stand 114

Geek Chic Award-winning Pabuku presents its new distinctive designs within its Fabulous range, along with new quirky cards for M.E.N. (Marvelous Ecletic Nerds). The vintage, steampunk inspired artworks are designed for the curious, full of wit and topped with striking neon orange accents. Size 120mm x 169mm, the cards are sold wrapped with matching coloured envelopes. Cellos are made of renewable resources!

Pabuku - The Quirky Paperie UK distribution: 01235 848192 International: +43 664 88226655 www.pabuku.com Stand 123 PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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INNOVATIONS

PG Live

A selection of the many fabulous products that will be on show at PG Live (June 5-6) at London’s Business Design Centre.

Pearl Of A Range Wendy Jones-Blackett’s new Mother of Pearl range is a fun collection of 30 pop-up quirky cards. Using holographic board and featuring trend-driven captions (including 'strong women make waves’, ‘all the birthday feels’ and ‘best friend ever’), the cards are all hand-finished with clear holographic embellishments.

Wendy Jones-Blackett 0113 2888468 www.wendyjonesblackett.co.uk Stand 235

World Snapshots Building on its strong reputation for photographic cards, The Art Group is bolstering its offer with a vast array of new designs in a 6” x 6” format. These will include Travelogue, a stunning collection, which reveals the wonders of the world, while the Oceanic collection includes beautiful imagery from under the sea, with funny animals and beautiful florals also featuring in the line-up.

Paper Rose and The Art Group 0115 986 0115 www.paperrose.co.uk Stand 325

Wise Words Dandelion Stationery’s Words of Wisdom collection has been bolstered by over 20 new designs, including the odd mention of popular trends, such as Peaky Blinders. The collection which now spans 400 designs combines words, sentiments and splash of humour. Each card is printed onto luxury 300gsm FSC board, hand-finished with subtle sparkles. The cards (114mm x162mm) are cellowrapped and supplied with a rustic kraft envelope.

Dandelion Stationery 01332 695358 Dandelionstationery.co.uk Stand 517

Hare Raising Sarah Boddy is launching a new mini range of cards called The Hare-ington Smythe’s, which combines a few grey hares and wise words.

The range features eight hare-themed cards with humanised characters and a fun look at life. Size 150mm square, the cards are printed on luxurious card and supplied with a gunpowder grey envelope.

Sarah Boddy 01858 545881 www.sarahboddy.com Stand 798

Art Of The Matter Debuting at PG Live is Wright Fine Art’s inaugural 100 card designs. The launch includes four sets of four cards - ink drawings

by Adam Wright, entitled Winter Walk; Into the Woods; By the Stream and Woodland Dog Walk, illustrating intimate, transitory moments of family, leisure and nature. The cards are all 7” x 5” (Euro) size and blank inside.

Wright Fine Art 07484 132761 www.wright-fine-art-ltd.com Stand 792

A Big Smile Tache has combined its Smiley licence with its most successful and long-standing range in its collection – The Krafty Collection. It will also feature the wobbly-head feature from the publisher’s much-loved Famous Faces range.

Tache 01202 691435 www.tache.shop Stand 89

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INNOVATIONS

PG Live

A selection of the many fabulous products that will be on show at PG Live (June 5-6) at London’s Business Design Centre.

Como And Say Ciao Among the feast of newness from Sadler Jones Is the Como range, the designs of which feature floral illustrations in trendy pastel tones. The cards are printed on thick 350gsm board finished with champagne gold foil and accompanied by a luxury 130gsm white envelope.

Sadler Jones 07792230763 www. sadlerjones.com Stand 832

Adding Some Fizz Cheers All Round

Sherbert is the new colourful everyday range from Georgia Breeze featuring cute on-trend motifs, created from original handmade collages. The range comprises 16 designs, 120mm x 170mm in size, printed on high quality FSC-certified textured board, handfinished with a little sparkle and accompanied by a coordinating pastel envelope.

Georgia Breeze 07966 932059 www.georgiabreeze.co.uk Stand 99

Among the new collections that are to be launched at PG Live by Words ‘n’ Wishes is Hip Hip Hooray! There are 14 designs in this funky age range (covering milestone ages 1870). The cards incorporate an interesting z-fold as well as multi-coloured foil.

Words ’n’ Wishes 01942 233201 www.words-n-wishes.co.uk Stand 503

Locking Horns Inspired by Highland cattle, Gill Davies Art is introducing its Horns range, featuring beautiful artwork of these fine beasts. Sized 150mm square, the cards, come cellowrapped with grey envelopes. They are also blank inside so can be used for any occasion.

Gill Davies Art 07918024726 www.gilldaviesart.com Stand 840

Warm Days The Happy Days Collection feature the distinctive and colourful scenes by the Cumbrian based illustrator Amy Whelan.

Depicting fun, warm, humorous characters enjoying carefree days, the 44 designs cover birthdays, marriage, good luck, retirement, Christmas, Valentine’s and general occasions.

The cards are all 15cm square and come with a bright daffodil yellow envelope.

Amy Whelan Art 07791445060 www.amywhelanart.com Stand 742

VG Big Ticks Go La La’s latest range, ‘Tick All The Right Boxes’, is a collection of ten 120mm x 170mm everyday and occasions designs. This humorous collection comprises bright, brash, bold and brazen designs – some rude, some not - published on silk board and accompanied with white envelopes.

Go La La 01458 830913 www.golala.co.uk Stand 138 PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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W

ELSH

GREETINGS CARDS For all Occasions!

CALL 0161 641 0655 for a full catalogue

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GREETING CARDS, STATIONERY & JIGSAWS Stunning Social Stationery from FLAME TREE. See us at the PGLive, Stand 225

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INNOVATIONS

PG Live

A selection of the many fabulous products that will be on show at PG Live (June 5-6) at London’s Business Design Centre.

Art Show The contemporary artistry of Angela Nickeas features on NWH Greetings’ extensive Saffie range caters for male birthdays (12 designs), female birthdays (16 designs) as well as occasions and relations (14 designs). The collection spans two sizes - 150mm square and 195mm square) - with the cards printed on luxurious pearlescent board. They are available wrapped or unwrapped with brown kraft envelopes.

NWH Greetings 01704 544746 www.nwhgreetings.co.uk Stand 754

Tree-ing Is Believing ‘Send love & plant change’ is the ethos behind 1 Tree Cards, which is launching with five collections of cute and humorous designs, printed on 100% recycled board. The publisher has pledged to plant a tree for each card ordered, while every design includes a seed ‘token’ that can be planted with the resultant plants, helping to feed bees.

1 Tree Cards 07484 694 951 www.1treecards.com Stand 729

Mackintosh Magic Colcards is launching a range of stationery products celebrating 150 years of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, under licence from Glasgow Museums. The CRM 150 collection comprises 26 cards, eight wrapping papers and 12 notepads, the latter printed with the cover images on each page.

Colcards 01684 561070 www.colcards.co.uk Stand 239

Happy Father's Day Dad and Daddy!

A Tribal Calling The Diverse City range from Huetribe is on a mission to spread the message of the dire need of more inclusivity in the greeting card market. There are 21 designs in the range, printed on 300gsm, FSC grade board and sold with pastel cream envelopes in individually wrapped cello bags.

Huetribe 020 3946 3225 www.huetribe.com Stand 818

Dead Good How do you celebrate the mundane things in life, like a nice sandwich? Or bigger events (though not known on the card circuit), like the menopause? PG Live first-timers Deadpan is debuting with its Unoccasions range. The zingily-coloured designs, measuring 177mm x 126mm, come with brown envelopes.

Deadpan 07779 279847 www.deadpancards.com Stand 728

Paint It Chalky Little Paperie is expanding its Snapshot collection by 30 new designs. All painted in the range’s signature style using Annie Sloan chalk paint, the new additions include 10 farmyardinspired designs, 10 woodland animals and 10 new furry friends, which join the popular dog collection. The cards are 7” x 5”, printed on FSC-certified board and are packed with a kraft brown envelope.

Little Paperie 01335 343864 www.littlepaperie.com Stand 712 PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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INNOVATIONS

PG Live

A selection of the many fabulous products that will be on show at PG Live (June 5-6) at London’s Business Design Centre.

Wall To Wall Art Divine Savages is launching six new fabulous design-led art print cards. These beautifully illustrated cards feature designs from its award-winning debut wallpaper collection, including the bold, Geometric Aviary (featuring exotic and divine birds); jungle-inspired Faunacation and the glamorous Deco Martini.

Printed on textured matt FSC board, the 17.5cm x 12.5cm cards are sold wrapped with matching envelopes.

Divine Savages +447969589703 www.divinesavages.com Stand 730

Feast For The Eyes Laura Truby Designs wants to spread the joy of making and baking tasty treats with her deliciously designed Recipe greeting cards! The back of each card has the food/cocktail recipe to match the image on the front. The cards are wipe clean enabling them to be kept, re-used and enjoyed over and over! Everything is baked, styled, photographed (and eaten) by Laura.

Laura Truby Designs 07738168968 www.lauratruby.com Stand 732

Wordy Wise Away with Words is just one of the new ranges debuting from Always Sparkle. This design-led collection of 24 birthday and occasions designs features contemporary illustrations with quirky sentiments, which are then hand-finished with gold or silver embellishments to add a special sparkly finishing touch. The cards measure 105mm x 150mm and come individually cellowrapped with a stylish pale grey envelope.

Always Sparkle 07940726842 www.alwayssparkle.co.uk Stand 148

Playing The Field 2toTango’s new Flower Fields pop-up card range features buttercups and daisies, lavender, mixed wild flowers, poppies, roses and sunflowers. The 150m frameable, collectable square cards open up for that popup wow factor.

2toTango 020 8996 9971 www.2-to-tango.com Stand 426

Art Of The Matter Mermen, waving cats, submarines and birds all appear in Amanda Prouten Studio’s ten new ranges launching at PG Live this year. Each range of cards features contemporary watercolour illustrations and trend-led designs, covering occasions for men, women and children. The 5” x 7” cards come with a plain envelope and are provided unwrapped (unless specified) to help the environment.

Amanda Prouten Studio www.amandaproutenstudio.co.uk Stand 659

Extra Dimensions Flower In A Vase range of six 3D pop-up floral cards is just one element of the 140 new designs that Sanrio Greetings will be bringing over from Japan to show at PG Live for the first time. The cards are accompanied by a designed envelope to suit each card. The cards include a space on the back of the design for the messages.

Sanrio Greetings inquiry-card@sanrio.co.jp Stand 310 PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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Tomcat Cards ed, purrfectly puff yc nish f d

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Plain cards, but not that plain Cat portraits with a humourous twist

Caroline Gatehouse

Kim Haskins PG Live 2018 Stand 502

STEPH ANIE

Cats mostly, all wonderfully observed

Vicky Mount Harrogate Home and Gift 2018 Stand GS-25b

DYMEN T

PUBLISHER S OF BE AUTIFULLY FINISHED CARDS

S E E O U R N E W D E S I G N S AT P U L S E & P G L I V E

email stephanie@stephaniedyment.com call 01494 581775 www.stephaniedyment.com

STAND J40

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INNOVATIONS

PG Live

A selection of the many fabulous products that will be on show at PG Live (June 5-6) at London’s Business Design Centre.

Scratch To Reveal Draenog will be showing its new secret message scratch cards. These cards are perfect for sharing some exciting news, a surprise gift or even asking someone to be a bridesmaid! The sender simply writes their message on the front of the card and places the scratch panel sticker over the message to create their unique card! Each card comes with a scratch sticker and instructions for the sender and the recipient.

Draenog 07815 153582 www.draenog.com Stand 822

Seeing The Light

Bree Happy

Cath Tate Cards’ brand new Floodlight range comprises 14 new bright, sassy humorous designs covering birthday, friendship and everyday sends. The bold typographic cards are funny, vibrant and a little bit cheeky! Sized 170mm x 120mm, the cards are embossed and printed on high quality board and cellowrapped.

Cath Tate Cards.

0208 671 2166 www.trade.cathtatecards.com Stand 307

Rising To The Occasion

Yorkshire wildlife artist Bree Merryn will be showcasing her beautiful and fun range of canvas cuties. These mini versions of Bree's art are 15cm x 20cm. There are 58 designs in the range, each animal has its own name and personality. They are cello bagged and ready to hang.

Bree Merryn Art 07770428877 www.breemerryn.co.uk Stand 536

Jessica Hogarth’s brand new range features 16 designs covers a variety of occasions from wedding to teacher. The cards all feature Jess’ fun and colourful illustrations and hand-written text with the addition of a gold foil finish. The cards measure 120mm x 170mm and come with a coordinating envelope.

Jessica Hogarth 07786906648 www.jessicahogarth.com Stand 105

Wild At Heart Toasted Crumpet is going into the wild with its new range of 12 male cards. Wilderness combines masculine tones of midnight blue and greys with illustrations of wild British fauna to create this striking 'print-effect' range. Each card measures 10.5cm x 15cm, is blank inside and printed in Britain on a luxury textured FSC certified 300gsm board.

Each card is accompanied by a grey envelope and cellowrapped.

Toasted Crumpet 01372 635359 www.toastedcrumpet.co.uk Stand 804

Monochrome Magic Cherry Orchard’s newly launched Wotamug range of humour cards and mugs feature the occasional cheeky swear word coupled with good old-fashioned sentiment. This square text-based range’s monochrome palette is enhanced by black and white polka dot envelopes.

Cherry Orchard 01684 295500 www.wotamug.co.uk Stand 418 PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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HELSINKI

New to PG Li ve !

Co m e and se e us at S TA ND 244

Illustration by Mira Mallius Rush Design half page PG 2018.pdf

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R USH DESIGN

HAND FINISHED GREETING CARDS

PG LIVE 2018 Stand 166

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www.rushdesign.co.uk info@rushdesign.co.uk 01788 521745

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INNOVATIONS

PG Live

A selection of the many fabulous products that will be on show at PG Live (June 5-6) at London’s Business Design Centre.

Honesty Is The Best Policy

Making A Bee Line

Abacus’ new Brutally Honest range is like an elderly relative who is never afraid to say how it really is! Inspired by observations from modern life, this humorous text-based range features quirky and amusing captions, along with simple graphic icons. The 160mm square designs are created using a palette of bright clashing, printed on textured art board and finished with emboss.

Abacus Cards 01638 569050 www.abacuscards.co.uk Stand 300

Tomcat Cats’ latest range combines the artwork of Caroline Gatehouse and honeycombs – with cats and a tad of humour involved too. There are 14 cards in this new collection, to begin with anyway!

Tomcat Cards 01243 837300 www.tomcat.cards Stand 502

Vibrant Fashions Handmade Cards By Dayo’s summer collection is a celebration of colours and fashion trends, with an element of luxury. A champion of cultural diversity, Dayo’s card designs, which are 148mm x 210mm in size, feature a range of skin tones.

Handmade Cards By Dayo 07958934166 handmadecardsbydayo@gmail.com Stand 687

All Eyes On LOL

Bunch Of Five Paperlink is putting the final touches to five fabulous new ranges it has planned to launch at PG Live. The publisher assures these will be worth waiting for, joining its recent new ranges, Tallullah, a whimsical range full of sparkle and neon pops, and the Honolulu, with a tropical vibe.

Paperlink 020 7582 8244 www.paperlink.co.uk Stand 201

Danilo was quick to spot the huge popularity of the LOL Surprise doll collectable brand. Aimed at girls aged 6-8, the publisher’s licensed greeting card and gift bag range includes badged cards with a pink foil finish, pop-up and fold-out features as well as cards with fun-tomake LOL Surprise accessory sheets, plus a gift bag designed to the perfect size to accommodate a LOL Surprise toy.

Danilo 01992 702900 www.danilo.com Stand 513

For Comedic Effect Just a Laugh! is a new humorous collection from International Cards & Gifts. The bright comical hand-drawn sketches combine with witty one-liners, with embossed finishes and are available with full colour inserts in codes 75 and 60. Covering a variety of captions, the cards are accompanied by a coloured envelope.

International Cards & Gifts 01202 897494 www.icgcards.com Stand 303 PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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INNOVATIONS

PG Live

A selection of the many fabulous products that will be on show at PG Live (June 5-6) at London’s Business Design Centre.

Bot By Bot There’s a new bot on the block from Erlenmeyer. Little Robot features in his own range of six designs. He will debut alongside British artist Stephanie Gray’s other illustrations, which span from featuring cute meerkats to others designs that are romantic in nature, for weddings and other occasions. All cards are 120mm x 170mm and printed on premium quality 350gsm board.

Erlenmeyer 0800 688 9366 www.erlenmeyeruk.com Stand 758

Boggy Wonderland

Show Empathy Angela Chick has a huge selection of new designs launching at the show, which combine her distinctive contemporary illustrations with intuitive and very human text. Adding to last year’s bestsellers, Angela has created more empathetic designs, ‘just because’ and romantic-themed options as well as new occasions titles. Sized 127mm x 177mm, the cards are blank inside and come with a white envelope.

Angela Chick 07828432859 www.angelachick.com Stand 778

Boggy Made This is showcasing 24 new tongue-in-cheek designs covering a wide range of occasions. The designs combine direct witty words with endearing illustrations that poke fun at the receiver. The cards come with biodegradable clear packaging and 100% recycled brown paper envelopes.

Boggy Made This 07808058683 www.boggymadethis.com Stand 126

Ye Olde Wordy Medieval humour is the theme of the latest card launch from newcomer Williams Art Cards. Titled The Lesser Known Patron Saints, the collection features the likes of St Rudel (bakers and pastry makers) and St Ansted (air travellers) among the 50+ designs that include saints from all walks of life, from plumbers to doctors. Each card is in authentic medieval style with an antique gold frame, as you’d expect from a Cambridge-based artist.

Williams Art Cards www.WilliamsArt.Cards Stand 656

Coasting Along Going Wild Among Paperwhale Greeting Cards’ new distinctive paper-cut collage designs, includes Wild Animal Collection. Among these leafy new designs is a fun ‘Hip Hippo Hooray’ and ‘Go Large Birthday Elephant’ (pictured). The publisher is also showcasing new additions to its best-selling Pocket and Botanics Collections.

Paperwhale Greeting Cards 07960 812 279 www.paperwhale.co.uk Stand 756

Building on the success of its licensed National Trust card collection, Woodmansterne will be showcasing 12 designs that form a distinct Coast range. The National Trust cares for over 775 miles of UK coastlines, maintaining coastal footpaths, managing erosion and keeping beaches clean, this capsule range celebrates the coastal beauty and associated imagery – like a sandy-nosed Lab! Woodmansterne 01923 200600 www.woodmansterne.com Stand 211 and 317 PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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Fudge Ad PG June 18.pdf

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INNOVATIONS

PG Live

A selection of the many fabulous products that will be on show at PG Live (June 5-6) at London’s Business Design Centre.

A Special Touch Jamboree introduces a fresh contemporary look from Paper Salad. While sticking to the publisher’s quirky style this brand new range has been taken to a whole other textured level.

Alongside the neon brightness are colourful foils, deep embossing and contrasting textures.

Paper Salad 0161 427 0001 www.papersalad.co.uk jess@papersalad.co.uk Stand 207

Blooming Great

Small Is Beautiful

Hallmark will be present its latest innovation in product development - decorative flower bags.

Providing the perfect solution for giftwrap for those buying flowers as a gift (on stand 319).

Meanwhile on the card front, Hallmark Studio will be showcasing three separate looks -Studio, Studio Ink and Studio Gallery (on stand 527).

Hallmark 01274 252000 www.hallmark.co.uk Stands 319 and 527

Everybird will be launching a record number of cards at PG Live for the publisher. For starters there will be an additional 24 new designs joining its MINI collection, which has proved so popular since it launched at the start of the year. The new additions cover minor captions, including Step Mum, God Daughter and Son in Law, ages as well as some general sends, such as Fab Friend.

Earlybird www.earlybirddesigns.co.uk 01227765372 Stand 111

Monkeying Around Launching on both Penny Kennedy giftwrappings as well as on greeting cards from sister brand Ling Design, is Jack & Lily.

The cute and colourful Jack & Lily artwork will feature on a range of children’s giftwrap and gift bags under Penny Kennedy, while there will be co-ordinating card designs for boys and girls from Ling.

Ling Design and Penny Kennedy 01892 838 574 www.lingdesign.co.uk www.pennykennedy.co.uk Stand 204

Out In Print U Studio’s Monoprint range is a trend-driven, travel-inspired collection designed by Katy Welsh, featuring her signature collage style and a palette of sophisticated bright colours. The range comprises six everyday designs, each one conjuring up a different destination from around the world. The cards come with a lilac envelope and are individually cellowrapped.

U Studio Design 0117 944 5050 www.ustudio.design Stand 205

Name Of The Game With the trend for personalisation ever strong, Second Nature has extended its Make It Personal collection with You Name It. The range includes mini packs of personalised stick-on decorations covering 132 different names (60 male and 72 female). These complement the publisher’s existing alphabet and number packs, so that all spellings and names can be covered.

Second Nature 0208 960 0212 www.secondnature.co.uk Stand 117 PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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GREETING CARDS THAT MAKE YOU SMILE CAPTIVATING NEW DESIGNS NEW CARDS FOR MEN

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INNOVATIONS

PG Live

A selection of the many fabulous products that will be on show at PG Live (June 5-6) at London’s Business Design Centre.

Shake, Rattle And Home Stop the Clock’s brand new Milkshake range combines a fresh, summery colour palette, abstract patterning and bold captions. The 24 designs cover birthday, baby, new home, congrats, new job, thank you and get well soon captions. The 128mm x 176mm cards are printed on luxury board and come cellowrapped with a dusky pink envelope.

Stop the Clock Design 01457 763335 www.stoptheclockdesign.com Stand 221

A Six Pack

Fanning The Flame

Meraki will be launching three brand new ranges at PG Live, in fact they are so new, they were still at the printers when PG went to press! Also on show will be Unsavoury Thoughts, off the wall humour line drawings by Richard Levesley (pictured); Stitched, floral and animal designs inspired by embroidered patches) and the glam and flirty Just Peachy range.

Meraki 020 7820 2662 www.merakigreetingcards.co.uk Stand 668

Some 18 intricate new designs are joining Flame Tree’s range of foiled greeting cards, swelling the collection to 76 designs.

The new additions range from the timeless beauty of Hiroshige’s Twilight Hill to the colourful art of Aimee Stewart. The 170mm x 125mm cards are all blank inside, are accompanied by a gold envelope and come in a cello bag Flame Tree Publishing 0845 402 0422 www.flametreepublishing.com Stand 225

Capital Gains Among the visual treats from The Art File at the show will be London Calling. As the name suggests, this collection (of eight designs) features iconic London landmarks as well the capital’s most endearing birds, pigeons and doves. The cards come with fabulously patriotic Union Jack envelopes, embossed lines and hot foils.

The Art File 0115 8507490 www.theartfile.com Stand 200

Hip And Happening

Etched Not Sketched

Tigerlily has stepped out in trendy style with its Hip Edition’ collection introducing a stylish hip character cavalcade. The lifestyle range includes some great titles, such as ‘Work wife’ and ‘Gin buddies’ as well as others that are bound to resonate, such as,’Who needs boys when you have a bestie’ and ‘Happy Birthday doll!'

Tigerlily 07835893775 www.bytigerlily.co.uk Stand 787

Pigment has overhauled its popular ETCHED range to give it a fresh new look, covering birthdays, relations and occasions.

Printed on premium Italian board and with beautiful embossing and spot varnishes, the ETCHED designs are humorous in nature with the feel of an art card.

Pigment Productions 01423 520098 www.pigmentproductions.com Stand 313 PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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Gardenia

Botanical Fine Art Greeting Cards

UK Launch June 2018

Visit us on Stand 217 PG Live 2018

Vibrant and elegant greeting cards using only original watercolour paintings. Providing a freshly modern perspective on nature Our designs are unique, each with a colour envelope to ensure an exceptional product experience

Trade Deals on 075 7700 1145 www.zaquarella.co.uk

info@ zaquarella.com

t: 0116 230 4197 f: 01536 401 031

w: mint-publishing.co.uk

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INNOVATIONS

PG Live

A selection of the many fabulous products that will be on show at PG Live (June 5-6) at London’s Business Design Centre.

Caught On Camera Grassroots has PG Live in sharp focus, as it is introducing a brand new range of 24 blank cards featuring gorgeous photographic imagery and stunning artworks, printed with a high gloss finish. The square cards come wrapped with a quality envelope.

Grass Roots International 0151 541 0448 www.writefromtheheart.co.uk Stand 312

Mean What You Say

Czech Everything

Inspired by the way best friends talk to each other and the Oscar Wilde quote “True friends stab you in the front”, the 60 new designs from Mean Mail cover all manner of topics and occasions. Captions include ‘Stop showing off’, ‘I still think I’m right’ and ‘Unfortunately we’re related’. Printed on FSC certified or recycled stock, the cards come with an embossed co-ordinating envelope packaged in biodegradable cellos.

Mean Mail 07734930124 www.meanmail.co Stand 660

Making its PG Live debut, Czech publisher Giftisimo is looking to introduce all its new ranges. Among these is The Mosaic Collection, the 25 designs of which embody the sumptuous qualities of the company’s creative excellence.

Giftisimo +420 777 550 589 www.giftisimo.co.uk Stand 431

Speaking Out Imagine if you could say what you are really thinking without having to apply the filter which etiquette demands of us! Cardmix’s new Say It range does just that. The cards feature contemporary photographic images with honest (i.e. blunt!) captions in speech bubbles.

Cardmix 01923 200600 www.cardmix.co.uk Stands 211 and 317

Are You Shore?

New designs featuring seaside critters welcome new arrivals ‘to shore’ with inventive puns delivering a congratulatory message to the parents, are among the new ‘babies’ in Mister Peebles’s greeting card portfolio.

The A6 sized cards come with a recycled manilla envelope.

Mister Peebles 07736 857 493 www.misterpeebles.co.uk Stand 736

Some Best Friends Penguin Ink's Little Notes Puppies will be welcoming new pups to the litter at the show.

Lizzie Parker has designed four new cute puppies that will be added to an already popular range of letterpress puppy notecards.

These C7 cards are perfect for thank you and thinking of you notes.

Penguin Ink 07525 497122 www.penguinink.co.uk Stand 834 PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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F o i l e d G i f t Wr a p by

24 NEW DESIGNS

see all of our NEW designs at

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(E) SALES@REALANDEXCITINGDESIGNS.CO.UK (T) 01223 207 080 (F) 01536 401 031

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INNOVATIONS

PG Live

A selection of the many fabulous products that will be on show at PG Live (June 5-6) at London’s Business Design Centre.

Floral Feast Tapping into the perennial appeal of flowers, Zaquarella’s new range has a touch of romance and nostalgia. The botanical designs also features text relevant to the featured bloom.

Zaquarella 075 7700 1145 www.zaquarella.co.uk Stand 664

A Ton Of Newness The Cinnamon Aitch team has been busy – readying to launch over 100 new designs at PG Live. These include lots of additions to the Piccadilly, Claire Picard and Este Macleod ranges, as well as three brand new ranges.

These include Cobalt, a stylish men’s range; the cheerful and sparkly Painted Rainbows, while cheeky feathered friends debut in Quirky Birds.

Cinnamon Aitch 0121 773 6833 www.cinnamonaitch.co.uk Stand 231

Pressing Issues After the success of its male cards with ironpatches which launched at the start of the year, Hotchpotch has designed 12 brand new designs for the girls, under the Miami Vibes brand. Also new is a dreamy female card collection called Swan Lake (pictured). The designs include beautifully painted swans, feathers, peonies and protea flowers.

Hotchpotch 01243 792600 www.hotchpotchlondon.com Stand 122

Ear Ear It is always party time on the Mask-arade stand - and that was before the launch of its new Photo Party Props collection. These include Bugalugs - printed slide-on cardboard ears, Chinless Wonders - clip-on comedy mouthpieces, and Goggle Eyes - the wearable disguise for your eyes! Each comes in a pack of 10 designs, with five themed packs of Goggle Eyes and Chinless Wonders, and two themed packs of Bugalugs.

Mask-arade 01926 814292 www.mask-arade.com Stand 222

Happy Bunnies Sarah Ray’s new range, Hops & Dreams follows a couple of illustrated rabbits sharing special moments like having a baby, getting married and celebrating birthdays. Sarah's engaging and fun drawings are enhanced by a special gold foil finish. The A6 cards are printed onto FSC certified board and come with a recycled envelope.

Sarah Ray 07974705981 www.sarahray.co.uk www.sarahrayshop.co.uk Stand 764

I Should Coco In response to the groundswell of positive reaction to the Coco by Rachel Hare collection, Belly Button Design is dedicating is entire stand to this brand. As well as new occasions and age cards, a range of Coco gift bags and stationery is launching under its sibling Bubble brand.

Belly Button Design 0161 902 0200 www.bellybuttontradeshop.co.uk Stand 316 PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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The NEW BBC Earth greetings card and gift stationery range from Museums & Galleries features iconic imagery from the landmark series Blue Planet II, Planet Earth II and beyond.

This innovative and inspiring collection launches exclusively at PG Live – STAND 218.

sales@mgml.co.uk Tel: 01373 462165 www.museumsgalleries.co.uk The BBC Earth logo is a trademark of the BBC and is used under licence.

Blue Planet logo © BBC 2001. BBC logo ™ & © BBC 1996.

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Innovations A selection of Non-Exhibitors New Launches

Dreamy Days Artist Martine Brodelet’s delicate and dreamy watercolor illustrations with a quirky twist feature on Wishingwell’s six new collections, one of which is Little Stories (featured) which comprises 14 designs.

The cards are printed on 300 gsm and 350 gsm board and come with an ivory colored envelope and wrapped in a cellobag.

Wishingwell +32 (0)472230693 www.wishingwell.be

Word Play Yippea is fun and happy range from Bold and Bright that combines fruit, veg and puns! The range has doubled in size meaning there are now 60 cards in the range in total, covering everyday Birthdays as well as occasions.

Each 15cm square card comes supplied cello wrapped and with a brown kraft envelope.

Bold and Bright 07738 702067 www.boldandbright.co.uk

Hola Lula d ... e magic today Sprinkle some

Vegging Out With vegetarianism and veganism becoming popular life choices, Lagom Design is launching a collection featuring sweet little vegetable designs by new Lagom designer Susie Hammer.

These are certain to make you love your greens and cuddle your carrots!

Lagom Design 0333 123 0101 www.lagomdesign.co.uk

Foxy Lady How Funny new How Female! range comprises 10 new eye-catching designs that are bright, bold and on-trend for women. All the cards are 105mm x 150mm, blank inside, printed on premium 324gsm board and come cellowrapped with striking coloured envelopes.

A selection of the designs are also available as A4 prints.

How Funny 07961 093202 www.how-funny.co.uk

Lula is a beautiful, eye-catching new range from Rachel Ellen Designs that mixes bold contemporary artwork with sparkling silver holographic flitter and finely detailed gold foiling. The range comprises 18 149mm square designs covering general birthday and occasions with the cards being printed on luxury textured board.

Rachel Ellen Designs 0115 9700321 www.rachelellen.co.uk

Feline Good A new pride of cat portrait illustrations join Dawn Critchley Designs’ Portraits collection.

Combining both watercolours and ink drawings to give each cat its own character, the cards are printed on 350gsm linen textured card stock and accompanied by a brown ribbed envelope.

Dawn Critchley Designs 07772 395330 www.dawncritchleydesigns.co.uk

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Spotlight On Cute - News

Totally Smitten The beat of the cute card market remains strong, steady and sweet, with an irresistible stream of traditional, contemporary and quirky bears, pups and small lovable creatures tugging at the heartstrings.

PG spotlights the current news and fresh launches within the cute card market.

Boofle celebrates a dog-gone decade To celebrate his 10th anniversary, UKG’s cute ‘pupstar’ Boofle is being treated to some contemporary new looks. A gorgeous new colour palette, delicate laser die-cuts and gold foil combined with lots of new formats, quirky imagery and fabulous innovation all feature. The 37 new ‘pawsome’ designs include a Core range for the traditional Boofle customer, an upmarket Luxe range and a more fashion-conscious Studio Collection.

And for an extra wag of the tail, to mark Boofle’s decade each card design is printed with a signature button, while a special edition card has been created especially for the occasion.

To coincide with the new product launch, Boofle’s website has a fresh new look, heaps of social media activity, plus a brand new birthday animation this month to mark this momentous milestone.

Above: Lots of new card treats to celebrate Boofle’s milestone.

Taking the heart’s beat UK Greetings is looking deep into the big adorable eyes and taking the nation’s cute pulse with research on its current cute collections, including focus groups with consumers to gather their views. And Karen Skipper, UKG’s product insight director, and Lois Holcroft, senior product manager everyday, share some of the early findings: “It’s been an exciting piece of research and great to see that the market is still thriving. We’re early on in our research, but have seen that there is opportunity at both ends of the cute spectrum. There’s still room for growth with old favourites and cutes with real ‘ahh factor' - hitting the mark across all generations. However, we’re also seeing a real appetite for new and different approaches that give younger consumers the latest takes on cute and opens the genre up for more millennial peer to peer sends. We’ll be working our findings into our new cute development over the coming year.”

Hotdog!

The newest member to the Caroline Gardener team is pooch perfect! Frank the sausage dog is a gorgeous little pup and is causing a flurry of excitement in the CG office, as well inspiring some new products for AW18!

A woolly-ful 20 years It’s been 20 years since Penny Lindop launched her eponymous card company, after discovering that strategically adding little bits of wool to her delicately painted ink animal illustrations bought an adorable fluffy dimension to her now called Woolly Animals designs. To mark the occasion, Penny is producing four new limited edition prints and posting on her blog thoughts from retailers who have supported her over the years.

“In 1995, after a painting session with my 5 year-old, I combined some scraps of dyed wool and some left over ink and my first woolly sheep picture was born. This led on to making cards at the kitchen table, and when I approached a local shop, who loved them, I gradually could see the glimmerings of a little business developing.

In 1998 I made a big decision to attend a trade show and officially launch Penny Lindop Designs. I was truly surprised and happy with the buyers’ reactions, however, I came home and realised there was a lot to learn. My previous life as an archaeologist had not prepared me for running a business; it was a world away from excavations and flint tools!

The business took off slowly and gently while I found my feet in this new world. Today I still work from home in a garden studio, however, there is now a little team who keep the wheels turning, enabling me to grow the business to a level I’m very happy with.”

Above: Some of those early customers have stayed loyal and supported Penny Lindop and her Woolly Animals cards and stationery over many years.

Cute NIBS l Stripey Cats is collaborating with Zippy

Bibs this year on a range of baby wear, from leggings to dribble bibs, which will feature some favourite Stripey Cats animals - tiger, monkey, koala, llama, lion and unicorn, to name a few! So watch this space!

Right: A sample of one of Zippy Bibs’ dribble bib designs that will be using Stripey Cats’ animal artwork.

l Another beautiful pup is a new addition to the Molly

Mae family. Rinty, a 12 week old Collie pup. He joined MM recently and has captured all of their hearts... watch this space as I’m sure his gorgeous little face will influence a range of cute cards.

Left: Adorable pup Rinty.

l Horace and Nim is proud to

announce its first picture book, The Lucky Lucky Leaf, published by Hubble and Hattie and in the shops this September. The Horace & Nim books cover themes like friendship, hope, kindness and the joys of playing outside.

There’s also a new Horace & Nim story in Friends Magazine this June called The Too Delicious Raspberries. It’s all go for Horace and Nim! Right: Horace and Nim’s first picture book, ‘The Lucky Lucky Leaf.

Left: Caroline Gardner’s inspiration, Frank.

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Cute New Launches

The Sweet Spot PG melts at some straight to the heart new cute card range launches. l U Studio Design’s Henries awardwinning 1000 Words range is filled with mischievous animals, like this red squirrel. One of its longest running collections (its 10th anniversary this year!), the collection features funny, heart-warming and hand-picked images by photographers from around the world. l Kate Moby's new Spring collection of Inky Animals include some feathered friends alongside woodland favourites, and maybe even a tropical number! As usual, Kate hand-carves bamboo that she grows in her garden into dip pens, and creates all her illustrations using ink. l Molly Mae has extended its popular Tuck Shop (left) range with 18 new 114mm x 162mm designs, including cute animal characters in relations titles and general birthday cards.

Molly Mae is also excited to introduce its new ‘And All That Jazz’ range, a luxurious range of cards with 22 155mm square designs to cover all occasions. The cards are beautifully embossed and foiled in lovely colours, hand-finished with pearlescent gems and with a new calligraphy style font. l Many of Jolly Awesome's designs have taken inspiration in the past from their pet Frenchie - Raffy, so it was inevitable that he would end up with his own super cute cartoon Baby Raffy range of cards of 30 A6 designs, including everyday and seasonal!

l Every one of the 18 109mm x 155mm cards

designed by Ekaterina Trukhan for Lagom Design is simply adorable. This is her first collection for Lagom, and her cuddly animal characters do not disappoint. Printed in full colour and elevated by gold foil details, all of your birthdays and Christmases are covered in this one collection. l Hype has been busy ramping up its passion

for kitty-cat cute by adding six more super-cute designs to its Pusheen range, bringing the grand total of cuteness to 48 designs. Each card is individually cellowrapped with a brown kraft envelope. l Horace & Nim is an expanding range of cute animal cards evoking a sense of gentler times. There are cards for all occasions, featuring Horace Mouse, Nim Hare and their animal friends. The cards are beautifully designed and illustrated by Chantal Bourgonje using, pen, ink and watercolours. These enchanting 150mm square cards are printed on responsibly sourced, high quality gloss varnished board, wrapped and with a crisp, white envelope. l Clear Creations’ design-led greeting

cards have a great selection of cute cards across three different ranges.

From the Elly Jane Collection, featuring sweet ducklings, rabbits, bunnies and birds, to its perfectly cute range Sally Stencil, featuring baby animals, and last but not least, the Marcy Lavender collection featuring quintessentially English illustrations such as bunting, ice-cream vans and tea cakes, all packaged in pretty polka dot envelopes. All cards are designed and made in the UK and hand-finished with Swarovski crystals. l Life's a hoot for these adorable little

l A Henries finalist last year in the

Best Cute Range category, Pippi & Me has lots of new super cute card designs! The publisher now has adorable cute cards for all occasions, from Good Luck, Love, Happy Birthdays to Hope You Feel Better Soon. All the cards are 125mm square, FSC card, most with white recycled envelopes, and individually wrapped.

owls! The Tweets are bringing feathery fun to a new range from The Great British Card Company. With quirky verses and charming illustrations from artist Alex Gunn, and with a variety of sizes and finishes across occasions and family captions, these cute little flappers are sure to bring a touch of magic to everyone’s special day!

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I always look forward to PG Live. The show is perfectly timed for us and is a great opportunity to catch up with existing publishers as well as check out new ones.

Claire Castle senior buyer of greeting cards, WHSMith

PG Live 2018 Tuesday 5 - Wednesday 6 June Business Design Centre, London +44 (0) 1635 297070 www.progressivegreetingslive.com @PGLiveLondon

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The Greatest Collection Of Greeting Cards In The World This year’s sold out line-up is the perfect way for PG Live to celebrate the last ten years of showcasing design excellence.

Register online now to receive your free copy of the PG Live 2018 Show Preview, featuring exclusive launches and show-only offers from over 260 publishers, artists and designers.

A whole host of attention-grabbing highlights will ensure that PG Live is the most exciting trade show you visit this year.

We’ll see you there!

Be InspIred Order your Show Preview now www.progressivegreetingslive.com

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Cute New Launches

l Citrus Bunn’s new collection of

beautiful and 'punderful' cards range from being ever so cute to downright cheeky. They match gorgeous watercolour illustration with snappy, cute and contemporary themes. These quirky and original 140mm square cards are printed onto lush Gesso board and matched with a complementing coloured envelope before being slipped into cellophane. l Cherry Orchard has added over 100

stunning new designs to its Kaleidoscope range, including occasions and relations and open cards. The designs include a selection of cute kittens, fluffy puppies and cuddly toys. Kaleidoscope is a long-standing range that offers value for money, with flitter finish, retailing at just 99p.

this time. The Christmas 2018 Figgy Fudge Pudding range will be Fudge’s fifth consecutive Christmas, so he’s proving he’s got legs! Not only has he got legs - he can also stand on his back ones quite easily. In fact, he can make birthday cakes and ride on swings to boot! Has Fudge ever been sweeter? l Stop the Clock

Design’s popular Wild at Heart Range comprises of 44 cute and quirky creature designs. Painted with watercolours, the characters wearing bold patterned jumpers are sure to raise a smile. The range covers birthday, new baby, kids ages, thank you, congrats and get well captions. The cards are A6 in size and come individually cellowrapped with a cool grey envelope. l Stripey Cats will be unveiling its

l This adorable 'Miss You' card featuring

a bear wearing a crop top, leg warmers and a crown, and holding a heart, is part of Alice Palace’s new Cutie Pie range, that will be launched shortly, covering the occasions of new baby, love, sorry, christening and sorry you're leaving. All the cards are printed on recycled board and measure 150mm square and come with a recycled white envelope and biodegradable bag. l Pink Pig's Cutie Crew range has

really taken off with stockists and customers - and the Piggy crew are now adding more designs to the range. It's simply cuteness overload, with gorgeous new swans, flamingos and llamas all featuring in the extended range. Made in the UK and printed on high quality FSC board, all the cards are 150mm square, cellowrapped and with an Eko Kraft envelope. l One of the new additions to Sarah Ray’s

Occasions range is this super cute Get Well design. Featuring Sarah’s appealing drawings, these kittens should make anyone feel better. Other cards in the range cover Get Well, Bon Voyage and Thank You, all with their own unique twist of cute or humour, adding to Sarah’s ever-growing range of delightfully quirky cards that measure A6 in size, and are supplied with a recycled fleck kraft envelope and a cello bag. l Jonny Javelin has added 54 new Fudge and Friends titles to the

range across four different price points and sizes. In a new format with rounded top corners, JJ has gone quite heavily into ‘occasions'

super cute Fruits n Friends range at PG Live. Pop by stand 94 to meet Winnie Watermelon, Patsy Pineapple, Saffi Strawberry and all their fruity friends! It’s sure to be a sweet treat! l UK Greetings are delighted to

announce the addition of the Classic Peter Rabbit license, bringing the charm of one of the oldest licensed characters in history by Beatrix Potter to its portfolio. This new range of 13 159 x 159mm designs makes a delightful addition to the Camden brand, with two complementary styles both filled with nostalgic charm – the first look showcases delicate foil line work and lettering; the second introduces the classic storybook artwork alongside bold foil captions. A beautiful soft colour palette is used throughout the range and a bespoke Peter Rabbit envelope and label is included. The range launches 6th July 2018. l Hallmark’s Po & Birdie range has recently been moved on but still maintains its winning sweet and warm verse sentiment. The adorable Hippo & his feathered friend have been brought up-to-date by using more current imagery such as a beautiful terrarium. l The Art File’s very

own sausage dog, Frank has been the inspiration behind The Call Me Frank Collection, an ever-growing range of greeting cards, stationery, gift bags and wrap. His cute, contemporary surface pattern designs mixed with light, pastel colours make this collection a must have for retailers and of course lovers of cuteness across the land!

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Trend Spot: Crafting

Artisan Thread

With the trend for, and a growing interest in, skillful crafting, Paper Rose and its sibling company The Art Group has ‘woven’ a number of talented crafters into a ‘patchwork quilt’ of greeting card ranges, with Felti Folks, the Born To Stitch crafters collection, Sew Happy, Tiddly Pom Poms and Amigos all knitting superbly well together.

Talented crafter herself, Paper Rose senior designer, Philippa Phipps ‘unbuttons’ what she feels is driving the crafting trend, how the publisher unearthed its wonderful artisans from all around the globe, and the mindfulness that she finds within her own creations.

From delicious works of clay confectionery cake art to crocheted cacti, whimsical felt animals and oh so cute pom pom personalities, Paper Rose and its sister company The Art Group’s crafty greeting card portfolio showcases the handiworks of dexterous artisans from all over the world. In addition to discovering the artists through online crafting communities and websites such as Etsy, others have also got in touch with the company having seen some of the earlier collections.

“New crafters find us, while we’ve also discovered that some of the artists we already work with are super-talented in that they can design and stitch too,” reveals Philippa Phipps, senior designer for Paper Rose.

The rise in the popularity and proficiency of crafting was celebrated on the publisher’s stand at the recent Spring Fair,

Above: Lolly love on a Fab Friends design from The Art Group’s Amigos range.

Right: Mabel Mouse was in the original line-up of the Born to Stitch range, and remains as popular as ever.

Below right: Buttons are back!

A Born to Stitch design.

Below: The amalgamated crafty card collection on The Art Group/Paper Rose’s stand at Spring Fair.

at which it brought together its craft-makers’ card collections - such as Tiddly Pom Poms, Felti Folk, Sew Happy, Amigos and Born To Stitch - celebrating different crafters’ styles, championed by some handmade 3D characters commission by Paper Rose to make their debut appearance at the show.

Paper Rose was quick to spot how the crafting trend was

sweeping across kitchen tables and small studios, especially as several of its in-house team of designers and freelance artists were keen crafters. This led to the launch of the Born to Stitch range a few years ago, showcasing four different crafting looks. “The stitched images, embroidered buttons and crocheted characters were an immediate success,” recalls Philippa. “The success of Born to Stitch, and the development and popularity of new artisan skills, means that we now have six ranges incorporating different crafts.”

Philippa truly believes the crafting trend “is a backlash to our fastpaced lives. It’s incredibly satisfying to create something from scratch and to give or receive a handmade gift is very special.” And social media has certainly helped this trend, with people sharing images of the items they make, be it for themselves, for presents, parties or weddings etc.

Philippa advises, “If you want to learn a new skill there is an abundance of ‘how to’ videos to help you along. It’s so positive to think of all the crafting communities out there, creating and sharing ideas with each other. Our card collections celebrate these skills and hopefully also may inspire some to give it a go themselves!”

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Trend Spot: Crafting

Mindfulness medicine

From creating ‘sweet’ personalities out of marshmallows to the heart-warming cute Paper Rose felted and knitted Feltipips range, senior designer Philippa Phipps is herself a talented crafter, finding a peace and calm in her crafty ways: “I’ve been crafting for as long as I remember, knitting a scarf for a teddy at age 5 as well as stitching dolls clothes from dishcloths! My mum made our clothes and so I always had access to lots of fabric scraps, colourful braids and ribbons.

Throughout my life I’ve made all manner of stitched, knitted, felted and embroidered presents. At Paper Rose I create all the accessories for our crocheted characters, from wedding outfits to bananas to sunglasses. I’ve had my own ranges, the latest of which is Feltifolk, a collection of little characters stitched from colourful felt fabric.

I usually sketch out my ideas first so that I have a guide and then snip out the fabric shapes to sew. I find stitching very calming. Even though I have deadlines to work to, the simple act of sitting down and stitching can make all around you slow down. I get so much pleasure from creating something from start to finish. It really should be available on the NHS!” Far right: Philippa Phipps has created many cute crafty creatures for The Art Group and Paper Rose.

Right: The charming Feltipips range from Paper Rose was created by Philippa

The yarn arm

Australian Erinna (aka LittleAquaGirl) from Bubbles & Bongo, uses the Japanese art of amigurumi to create characters for the Born to Stitch range: Erinna is a frustrated illustrator. This means that while she wishes she could create wonderful cartoons with pen and paper, there is a disconnect between her desires and her talent for it. Enter amigurumi, which is the Japanese art of creating stuffed yarn creations either by knitting or crochet. The latter of which is what Erinna prefers. Amigurumi has provided Erinna the perfect outlet for creating characters she sees in her head. Instead of putting pen to paper, the combination of a crochet hook and yarn is something that has been much kinder to her.

Erinna started her crochet journey in 2015 after a game of golf - perhaps not the usual venue for thinking about crafting, while chasing a little white ball around. A playing partner in her group had a gorgeous giraffe club head cover that was created using amigurumi techniques. A quick Google search later, and Erinna was hooked (no pun intended).

Learning though YouTube tutorials, resources like Craftsy and using published patterns, Erinna gradually picked up the basic skills for amigurumi. She eventually plucked up the courage to start designing her own patterns under her creative alter ego, LittleAquaGirl, and hasn’t looked back since. She now sells her patterns through her Etsy shop that she runs with her mum, who also creates magical amigurumi dolls and animals, with Erinna producing patterns. Erinna also sells her patterns through the online community AmigurumiPatterns and has had these published in books and Simply Crochet magazine.

She is now in the midst of the challenging but thoroughly enjoyable task of preparing her very first book of patterns with AmigurumiPatterns!

What Erinna loves about amigurumi is that with just a few basic stitches, anyone can create a beautiful doll that often makes the most perfect gift, as there is nothing more special than a present handmade with love. She never thought that her passion for a craft would lead her to where she is, including having her imagination portrayed on greeting cards through her collaboration with Paper Rose’s greeting cards!

Above: Erinna (aka LittleAquaGirl) from Bubbles & Bongo, is a master of the Japanese art of amigurumi, creating characters for Paper Rose’s Born to Stitch range.

A stitch in time

Eleri Fowler is the creator of Sew Happy, a contemporary hand-embroidered card range, and gorgeous pom pom range, Tiddly Pom Poms: “As far back as I remember I’ve been arts and crafts mad! Top of my Christmas list every year was some sort of arty DIY kit, and my prized possession was my Crayola caddy. My Nanna (a total whizz with the knitting needles) taught me to knit and sew at an early age, which I still remember vividly (my first project being making a sewing bag to keep all of my new crafty bits in).

Ever since then I’ve loved anything ‘stitchy’ and throughout my teen and university years I’d customise outfits and make my own jewellery and accessories.

These days I’m lucky enough to say that crafting is not only my ultimate favourite hobby, but it’s also my job as well! (I don’t think 8 year-old me would have believed it if she’d been told). My craft kit has grown somewhat since the early days and definitely does not fit into a little sewing bag any more! On my travels, one of my favourite things to do is to collect gorgeous little goodies, fabrics, buttons and trinkets to add to my collection.

To me, crafting is relaxing, creative, inspiring, and just brilliant fun! The sense of achievement you get from making something rather than buying it in a shop is really rewarding. There is so much variety to crafting and always so many new skills to learn - I just really hope I’ll get to pass on the tricks of the trade to my own children and grandchildren one day."

Left and above: Paper Rose’s Sew Happy hand-embroidered range (right) and the Tiddly Pom Poms range were both created by Eleri Fowler.

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

Flying By Numbers Jeremy Corner, owner of greeting card publisher Blue Eyed Sun, on watching your numbers.

We all have key numbers in our businesses (often referred to as KPI’s - Key Performance Indicators) that we need to track on a regular basis. They’re kind of like the dials you’d use to fly an airplane. To help fly your business safely you need to measure and understand your customers, your products, your financials, your employees and your suppliers.

The dials are essential but they are not the whole deal. If we spend all of our time looking at them and not paying attention to what’s around us we can still crash. The information they provide is there to inform the decisions that pre-empt our actions. If we are only focussed on data and aren’t taking action we will also come unstuck.

Alternatively, if we don’t look at the dials and the environment, and simply rely on our intuition or feelings, we can be prone to making rash decisions. Actions taken without considering relevant information can also lead to injury. Before we take off, you need to understand what gives your business lift.

Leveraging numbers The numbers within the numbers are also important. You can have an overview of total sales from your customers, but if you don’t know that 80% of your sales come from 20% of your customers you could waste a lot of your time targeting the wrong customers in your marketing.

Above: Be in total control of your ‘airplane’ - Tom Cruise in Top Gun. Left: Knowing your financial numbers can give your business that lift.

Right: The Pareto Principle states that roughly 80% of effects come from 20% of causes.

The 80/20 rule was first noted by the Italian economist Vilfedo Pareto at the University of Lausanne in 1896. Also known as the Pareto Principle, it states that roughly 80% of effects come from 20% of causes.

It’s not a completely fool-proof system, but it can give useful insights into your business.

You can use it on almost anything in your life to help you focus on taking action on the things that matter most and to minimise time spent on the things that matter the least.

Imagine, for example, that 70% of your profits come from 30% of your customers.

Although it’s not an 80/20 split it still adheres to Pareto’s Principle. Do you know if this is the case in your business? Do you know who these customers are? How do you categorise them?

Let’s say your customers break down into three categories: 10% are raving fans (who love you and buy regularly), 20% normal customers (who buy occasionally) and 70% prospects (that haven’t purchased yet). How do you allocate your resources to these three categories of customer? Most

businesses allocate 70% of their time and money to acquiring new customers (the prospects), 20% to their normal customers and 10% to their raving fans.

When you look at your numbers you invariably realise that the bulk of your profits come from your raving fans. They are also the ones most likely to refer you to others.

Acting on the Pareto numbers within the numbers can then help you to take action

on staying closer to your raving fans and allocating your resources more efficiently towards them (for example: 70% to your fans, 20% to your customers and 10% to prospects). Understanding the 80/20 rule can take your business to new heights.

Customer numbers It’s important to know your customers well, how many you have, how may you lose PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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JEREMY’S JOURNAL each year and how many you gain. Which are the most profitable and who are your raving fans? What patterns do they share will help you figure out how best to please them and target others like them? How many prospects do you find each year and how many do you convert into customers? How likely is it that your customers will refer your business to others (aka Net Promoter Scores)?

All of this data falls into areas largely within your control. It’s useful to track because it can help you take actions like invest in marketing or product development to reduce customer churn. It’ll also help you to pay close attention to those customers that are most important to your business. Numbers outside of your control can also help.

For example, how large is the total card market (currently £1.75 billion at retail) and what is the size of your market share? If there’s room to grow and the market’s growing then you might also decide to act by investing your resources accordingly.

Products and service You need to know which products are most profitable and which are most popular in your business. It’s surprising how many business owners don’t know their best sellers. They even allow top products to run out of stock because they are enticed by the next shiny new thing. That’s like letting your plane run out of fuel when you are flying high.

How well do you service your customers? How fast do you turn around your orders? Do you track this each week?

How successfully do you fulfil orders (are there shortages)? How many quality issues do you have each month? How many complaints? How many compliments? If you don’t track these numbers you will suffer over time as your disgruntled customers leave or complain about your business instead of referring it to others.

With products, remember to cut your poor performers too. Stay well stocked on best sellers and clear slow moving stock

Left: Your employees are your ‘inflight crew’.

Below left: The greetings industry is worth £1.75 billion at retail. Celebrate with a Laura Skilbeck birthday design.

Below right: For a smooth flight in your beautiful business ‘plane’ stay calm and know your financial numbers.

Suppliers

quickly. Know your numbers and own those mistakes as soon as you can.

Financials It’s obviously important to know your cost of sales, profit margins, overheads and turnover. It’s worth tracking sales orders received each month and sales invoiced (orders shipped) to see what’s ahead.

What’s most important though is tracking cash flow. Loss of profit will slowly cause your plane to descend over time. Not having enough cash in your business is like turning the engines off mid air.

You need a cash flow forecast that acts as your map and then it needs to be checked against what actually happens each month. The map is not the territory.

Knowing your monthly overheads and seasonal variables will help with managing these numbers.

Knowing financial data that is outside of your control is also useful. For example, high levels of inflation means that even as consumers spend more, they can afford fewer goods. When inflation is low we might see volumes of sales go up and the volumes may fall when inflation is high. Tracking the climate around you helps you stay grounded when times are tough.

What about your suppliers? Who performs well and who doesn’t?

Can you track their reliability and sales performance? Do you have good communication with them to highlight issues and praise them on good performance?

If you use sales agents, tracking sales orders received and sales orders shipped is vital to avoid missing important customer orders and to make sure the market reality (sales) meets your expectations (targets).

Numbers are only useful if you use them to inform your decision-making and take action based on those decisions. If sales aren’t going well, you know the numbers and you don’t do something about it you will suffer even more later.

Remember that you can’t cover every detail when making a decision. If you think about it you can never take enough data into consideration. So it’s important to decide on the key metrics that you need.

What are the vital dials are on your dashboard? What information will cause you to crash if you don’t keep an eye on it and take appropriate action? Remember that you can only act on things that are within your control. We can steer the ship and adjust the sails, but we can’t control the weather.

Employee numbers How likely are your employees to recommend your business as a good place to work? How many days do you lose to absence? What’s productivity like within your company? How much do you spend on training and personal development with your team members? Who are the weakest links on your team? Are you helping them to improve or terminating their services so that you can replace them with a stronger member of your team? A team of inflight crew are only as strong as their weakest link. They all need to be aware of what the customers want (a safe and comfortable flight) and all work together to provide it.

This is important to remember so that you can avoid anxiety about the numbers. A good pilot doesn’t stress about the dials and numbers before her. She stays calm and uses them to take action no matter what the circumstances.

Read more on Jeremy’s blog at www.blueeyedsun.co.uk/blog Watch The Greeting Card Project weekly videos at www.YouTube.com/TheGreetingCardProject PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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Publisher In Focus

A Second It was kept firmly under wraps until a few weeks ago, but when it was announced on PG Buzz.net that Gemma International was launching another strand to its business through the new Studio by Gemma brands, the news spread like wildfire, going top of the popularity chart on the busy newsfeed.

As the brand readies to launch at PG Live, PG caught up with managing director Amanda Parkin to find out what the children’s publishing company is playing at.

“This is very much something we have wanted to do for a while, it is wonderful that it is receiving such a positive reaction even before its official launch at PG Live,” Amanda Parkin, managing director of Gemma International commented about the imminent debut of Studio

by Gemma.

The new sibling brand is being positioned very much as a standalone entity, its portfolio developed specifically for independents, premium gift shops and upmarket non-specialists.

“We are looking to build on our long heritage in licensed products but with a curated offer for retailers who may not currently have considered our main Gemma line,” reveals Amanda.

Indeed, there is no question of Gemma’s pedigree in the licensed children’s card market, the company was indeed a trailblazer on that front, evolving as it did from Amanda’s parents’ toy shop business many decades ago out of frustration of seeing the 130

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

Top left: The publisher’s stand at PG Live will be dedicated to Studio by Gemma.

Above: All Studio by Gemma products will be dispatched from the company’s HQ in Andover, Hampshire.

Above left: Amanda Parkin, md of Gemma, has led the charge on Studio by Gemma.

Left: Guess How Much I Love You? designs echo the tasteful feel of the soon to launch brand.

Below: Moomins is a new signing for the company.

popularity of toys, such as My Little Pony (the first time round!), but there not being any greeting cards to match it.

Many years have passed, many new children’s characters have galloped in and out of popularity, but Gemma has

continued to supply high street retailers and grocers alike. Spotting the growth of value retailers, and recognising that they would sign licensing deals direct with the brand owners, to pre-empt this Gemma developed its own value range to cater for its customers with a distinct range.

Now with Studio by Gemma it is going in the other direction, up the retailing strata.

There is no denying that Studio

by Gemma represents a significant stage in the publisher’s evolution as well as recognition of how the retail landscape, the licensing arena and consumer tastes are evolving too.

“There are certainly far fewer independent toy shops around than when Gemma started, but there is a growing new breed of gift and lifestyle shops,” Amanda points out. And while hitherto the latter would have been unlikely to consider stocking

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Publisher In Focus

licensed products, now, especially with the more literary licensed properties, or with the vision to give established brands a different design treatment and production execution, interest is being ignited.

And Studio by Gemma plays straight into this as evidenced by its designs based on the revered Guess How Much I Love You? book and the Moomins, both of which are new signings for the company.

“We have also taken properties that we have worked with previously in our main Gemma collection but given them a different twist,” explains Amanda, citing the vintage look it has adopted for Thomas the Tank Engine, which harks back to the Reverend W Awdry books, an on trend botanical look from the Natural History Museum for adults, as well as a pared back sophisticated look for Peppa Pig. “The Studio by Gemma portfolio has a very different look. All the cards are printed in the UK on premium board, featuring subtle finishes,” explains Amanda.

While the Gemma International portfolio is represented and supplied by Is It Art, the Studio by Gemma collection is to be carried by a separate team of agents, and dispatched from Gemma’s headquarters in Andover, Hampshire. Well-known London agents, Jo Bannister and Joanna McFarlane were among the first to come on board.

“By having the agents on board and looking after the picking and packing, we

The big reveal The company’s entire stand at PG Live next month (June 5 and 6) is to be dedicated to Studio by Gemma, showcasing the inaugural collection.

“We are launching with 88 greeting card designs, but more in the pipeline to follow,” assured Amanda. “The stand design will be somewhat different to our usual approach, to reflect that positioning of the brand,” she teased.

All created by Gemma’s in-house studio, the initial greeting card collection has a strength in nursery designs, but goes right through to adult relations and occasions. can cater for retailers’ every need. They can choose if they want the cards wrapped or unwrapped and we can give assurances that orders will go out within 48 hours of receiving them,” stresses Amanda.

Another big change from the norm, which is likely to go down very well with retailers, is that Studio by Gemma cards can be ordered in threes, rather than the industry norm of sixes.

“We really want to encourage retailers to buy across the range. By supplying in threes we give the incentive to do so,” recognises Amanda.

While clearly buoyed up by the excitement of the imminent launch at PG Live, Amanda is already thinking ahead to the future development of the brand.

“As soon as the news broke on PG Buzz we were contacted by lots of brand owners who clearly understand what we want to do. We already have lots more designs in the pipeline, as well as plans to extend the brand into gift packaging and seasonal products. Our studio is going to be busy!” sums up Amanda.

Far left: An on-trend design style from the Natural History Museum.

Left: A vintage look to the Thomas designs.

Below: Gemma’s in-house design studio have fully embraced the opportunities of designing the Studio by Gemma line.

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TO APPEAR REGULARLY IN THE

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

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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

Benedicte Caillat I was born in France in a large happy family where girls are the norm (I have three sisters, three nieces, and two daughters). During a cold and rainy Easter holiday, aged nine, I was introduced to watercolour, and I haven’t put my brushes down since. After school teachers gave up on me in regular fields, so I decided art was the way to go! I embarked on a Degree of History of Art, followed by a Fine Arts school qualification.

I moved to London in 2001 and lived there for 14 years, where I worked in various industries - from retail to art galleries and children’s publishing. Then, eight years ago I decided to finally make the big jump and embarked on a fulltime career as a painter and illustrator, supported by my fanclub (my two daughters and my cat!).

I create watercolour illustrations for cards, editorial, stationery, packaging, and more. I also love painting in mixed media on larger scales (this is mostly abstract art). I love (in random order): colours, large cities, vintage papers, abstract art, cooking, black and white movies, traveling, pop and classical music, illustrated travel books, brush strokes on raw canvas and the Mediterranean.

I now live in France where, on top of my regular illustrator’s job, I teach art. I regularly go back to my London to visit my friends and enjoy the buzzing life of the city. l Email: bcaillat@yahoo.co.uk l Web: www.benedictecaillat.com

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

133

ART SOURCE

TO APPEAR REGULARLY IN THE

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

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

CARD manager

Ready-made WEBSHOP

for Customer and Salesforce Orders

Salesforce MOBILE Ordering

using iPhone, iPad, Tablet, etc. incl. Consignment and Van Sales Email us at enquiries@exponential.co.uk or visit our website at www.card-manager.com

UK- 01924 950500 / USA- (617) 8618-517 / Australia- (0432) 846546 Exponential Limited Suite 37 Charles Roberts House Charles Street Horbury Wakefield West Yorkshire WF4 5FH

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Art Source

Bryony Clarkson

I’m Bryony, an English illustrator, living in the beautiful city of Oxford. I studied textiles at Loughborough College of Art before studying for an MA in Embroidery Design at the Royal College of Art in London. I worked for many years as an embroidery designer for both fashion and interiors, as well as a design lecturer at various UK art colleges, notably Chelsea College of Art and High Wycombe, where I headed up the Surface Design Degree Course.

Drawing has always been part of my world.

In the last few years, it has come to the fore as my primary medium. I love to work with paper collage, which is a similar process to working with fabric appliqué. My love is creating for children and my portfolio is a beautiful world of quirky creatures.

When I’m not in the studio, I love to read, run and cook.

Travel inspires my work and the next destinations on my list are Japan and Sweden. In fact, if I wasn’t an illustrator (which IS my dream job by the way), I would love to be a travel writer.

I work from a tiny studio overlooking my garden, where you will find me working away with Crumble, my much-loved Wheaten Terrier, asleep on my feet.

Represented by Hannah Curtis at Bright Art Licensing. l Tel: 0207 3269140 l Web: www.brightgroupinternational.com

Liz Chaderton I am a watercolourist and live in a small village in Berkshire. My inspiration comes from the animals and plants I encounter in the fields and hedgerows, growing in the cottage garden, or living on my (regretfully imaginary) smallholding.

My aim is for my paintings to help you really see the animals and flora we so often overlook - it’s all about finding the extraordinary in the everyday. By doing so, I hope to nurture a more caring attitude to the wider environment.

I want my pictures to make you smile, so the starting point for each is something that catches my attention and engages my emotions - a cow’s nose, a pig’s ear, maybe the cat’s whiskers... from there I try to capture the essence of the subject, rather than the detail, believing that what is left out is just as important as what is put in. My paintings leave space for your imagination to wander, so are not usually set in a particular time and place.

I also love to teach, to share my enthusiasm for watercolour and share what skills I have gained over the years.

I have been fortunate to have travelled widely and when I’m not painting I tend to my chickens and attempt to keep the weeds at bay on my vegetable patch... and thankfully I’m never very far away from the next piece of inspiration!!

Art collections can be viewed at Image Source - Art Licensing l Email: enquiry@image-source.co.uk l Web: www.image-source.co.uk

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

Annie and Tim Gould, owners of Objectables, Folkestone, Kent A small shop, in a regenerated seaside town, with a tourists and loyal locals customer base.

Category

Name of Publisher

Product/Name Range

Comments

Cute

Sarah Ray

Across The Board

Humour

KissMeKwik

KMK

Rosie Made A Thing

Gin & Frolics

Tess Cards

Evil Cats

Really Good

Corrina Rothwell

Veronica Dearly

General

Art

Art House Meath

Across The Board

Contemporary

Dicky Bird

General

Children’s

Objectables

General

We really love Sarah’s illustrations, which are sweet and quirky but not saccharine.

We’ve just started offering KMK but it’s very popular and flying off the shelves.

The designs are very clever and Rosie hits that sweet spot where her funny observations on everyday life appeal to a wide age group of card buyers.

The designs show vintage cat images with the punchline highlighting the evil of felines, such as ‘Get well soon… or this cat will eat your corpse.’

Now licensed on cards to Really Good, we like her and her artwork.

Fun and funny word cards that are a little bit different. We particularly like her feminist designs.

We love the company’s stuff and what it does for charity. Its ‘Joanna Lumley’ card just sells out!

Simple but strong graphics with a funny sense to the designs, so they fit in with what we offer, which is mainly humour.

Our own range of rude kids’ cards have been smashing it in the shop!

Although not all, there are a lot of poo and bum words and when kids see them they just lose it with laughter.

Above: An Evil Cats design from Tess Cards.

Right: Objectables is also a card publisher of funny cards. This is one of its rude kids’ designs.

Pauline Larkin and Kay Rayner, co-owners of The Card Shop, Norwich, Norfolk A small shop, on the city outskirts, with a regular customer base.

Category

Name of Publisher

Product/Name Range

Comments

Cute

Jonny Javelin

Fudge & Friends

Carte Blanche

Me To You

Humour

UKG

Traces Of Nuts and Giggles

Traditional

Simon Elvin

Across The Board

Right: New additions have been added to the Fudge & Friends range from Jonny Javelin.

IC&G

Across The Board

Handmade/ Hand-Finished

Noel Tatt

Decoupage

Children’s

Second Nature Danilo, Gemma, UKG and Hallmark Simon Elvin

Champagne Licensed Ages

A new, bright range to us that is selling really well!

Tatty Teddy was a best seller from the start.

Cheeky but inoffensive humour that keeps the customers laughing.

Suits the older generation with cost and design.

Continuously updated designs and titles that are constant top sellers.

The open birthday designs continue to sell above any other range.

A higher priced card for a special occasion.

People still want and are willing to pay a bit more for the licensed characters on the cards.

Good quality paper at a reasonable price.

Giftwrap

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Flatwrap and rollwrap

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Savita Marsh, co-owner of Northwood Cards & Gifts, Northwood, London A medium shop, in a city suburb, with a loyal locals customer base.

Category

Name of Publisher

Product/Name Range

Comments

Humour

Pigment

Nutty Neon

Woodmansterne Rosie Made A Thing

Quentin Blake Gin & Frolics

Green Pebble

General

Paperbird

General

Paperlink

Honolulu

Nigel Quiney

Carnival

Nigel Quiney

Ltd edition Pizazz

Traditional

Belly Button IC&G

CoCo by Rachel Hare Across The Board

Children’s

Nigel Quiney Janie Wilson

Male Pizazz Animal Magic

Five Dollar Shake

General

Swole Panda Lily Flame

Bamboo Socks Spa Candles

Fun and enticing bright cards with fresh humour that’s working well. Also the refreshed Happy Jackson is proving popular as always. The publisher’s Etched range is also a top seller!

Always a favourite with our customers!

The ‘Proseccosize’ design is our favourite!

It’s still making us ladies laugh!

A beautiful collection raising the profiles of top practicing artists.

It’s a lovely range of various art styles and themes, which can suit any occasion.

A range of fun art cards which can make you smile. They’re quirky and a bit different but very appealing. Our customers love them.

Beautiful designs with vibrant colour.

Perfect timing for the sunny days we’ve had this week!

We introduced these before Christmas and sold out. Now they’re back in stock and selling well again. It has bold hot colours and beautiful imagery and are a great priced card.

We need to mention our favourite card in the shop at the moment, the publisher’s unicorn design! Beautiful!

One of our favourites. Deep vibrant colours with a magical feel.

Always a winner with our customers. The collection covers every occasion and all those tricky titles!

Still a winner for the males for us!

Bright colourful and simple, a lovely children’s range… and fab for adults too!

Cards for that special occasion or person. The latest Secret Garden range is stunning as always from. Again, spot the magical unicorn!

A great stylish pick up gift for those difficult to buy for men.

Sensual, Vitalise and Relax - a gorgeous gift for the girls.

Art

Above: Cards to make you smile, a design from Paperbird.

Right: A gorgeous CoCo by Rachel Hare design from Belly Button Designs.

Contemporary

Handmade/ Hand-Finished Ancillary

Anne Barber, owner of In Heaven at Home, Market Harborough A lifestyle home accessories store, in a market town, with a loyal locals and visitors customer base.

Category

Name of Publisher

Product/Name Range

Comments

Everyday

Ian Blake

Cute

The Proper Mail Company The Proper Mail Company Penny Lindop

Humour

All The Best Cards

General

Right: A little piece of ‘card art’ from Katy Dynes.

Simon Drew CardMix Field Cottage Cards Oh Squirrel Sarah Kelleher Sue Fenlon Art Catherine Pain

Across The Board Off the Leash by Rupert Fawcett Across The Board General Pom-Poms Watercolours Animal Age Cards

Katy Dynes

General

Black and white cards sent with care and kindness.

Making every occasion special with gorgeous gems.

Adorable little woollen animals in drawn scenes with a touch of fluffy sheep’s wool.

Young and fresh ideas of original plays on words.

Clever and witty and very popular!

Cartoons featuring the amusing things dogs say.

Nature and animals photographed by a vet.

Glitter typography designs that are such fun and a bit cheeky.

Fun and colourful, the pom poms look real!

Simply stunning watercolour prints.

Hand-drawn pictures featuring animals and characters – perfect for children age 1 to 7.

Each is card is hand-drawn and therefore a little unique piece of art.

Soul Soul

Metallics Secret Garden

Photography Contemporary Art Children’s Handmade/ Hand-Finished Giftwrap Ancillary

Charlotte Mason Woolley Animals

Something for every occasion and great quality cards.

A lovely modern range of make up bags, compact mirror and manicure set.

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PRODUCT DIRECTORY

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To appear in the Product Directories contact

Warren Lomax

020 7700 6740

PG Live

Stand 160

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

Tracey Arnaud

07957 212 062

Springboard extra

č,č -+1

or email traceya@max-publishing.co.uk

01565 830 546 | bexyboo.co.uk @BexyBooLtd

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+-*87 83 79-8 %00 3''%7-327 =)%6 3* &-68, +6))8-2+ '%6(7 )0)+%28 '328)1436%6= %2( 6)863 +-*8;%6) %'')7736-)7

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Abacus Cards Limited t: 01638 569050 e: info@abacuscards.co.uk w: www.abacuscards.co.uk

To appear in the Product Directories simply contact

Warren Lomax on:

020 7700 6740

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

Tracey Arnaud on:

07957 212 062

or email on traceya@max-publishing.co.uk

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BexyBooLtd

@BexyBooLtd

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PRODUCT DIRECTORY

Publishers of quality blank greeting cards

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Caspari Ltd Linden House, John Dane Player Court

Order Online

East Street, Safffrron W Waalden Essex, CB10 1LR Teel: 01799 513010 T Faax: 01799 513101 F Email: inffoo@caspari.co.uk ww ww w.CaspariOnline.com

www.bugart.co.uk

Products: Everyday cards - birthday,

Tel: 0115 929 4776 enquiries@bugart.co.uk

blank & occasions, charity Christmas cards, gifftt wrap, bags, tissue, ribbon, hankies, napkins, paper plate, candles, placemats, crackers,invitations, placecards, notecards,diaries, address books, journals, advent calendars and bridge gifftts.

Method of Sale: Direct to Retail

made with great imagination

@thecuriousinksmith

01892 838 574

sales@thecuriousinksmith.co.uk

www.cathtatecards.com

To appear in the Product Directories contact

Witty, gritty, switched on humour.

Cards and gifts with a real difference.

Unit 1, 45 Morrish Road London SW2 4EE Tel: 0208 671 2166 Fax: 0208 678 1119 info@cathtatecards.com

Warren Lomax

020 7700 6740 or email warren@max-publishing.co.uk or contact

Tracey Arnaud

07957 212 062

or email traceya@max-publishing.co.uk

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PRODUCT DIRECTORY

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The UK No. 1 in Licensed Greetings etings Overr 30 licenses nses including: including D Disney, y, Peppa Peppa Pig Pig, He Kitty Hello Kitty,, Mr Men a d Angry and A Birdss t: +44 +44 (0)1264 388400 e: enquiries@gemma-international.co.uk nati ona w: gemma-international.co.uk

CARDS â&#x20AC;˘ WRAP â&#x20AC;˘ PARTY â&#x20AC;˘ GIFTS

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

STAND 85 PGLIVE ON THE VILLAGE GREEN

www.decklededge.co.uk janna@decklededge.co.uk

Eye catching, luxurious Gift Wraps, Gift Tags, Gift Bags, Roll Wrap, Tissue Papers & Ribbons for all occasions

TM

GRASS ROOTS

INTERNATIONAL

G RASS R OOTS INTERNATIONAL A U.K owned Greeting Cards Publisher.

Our everyday ranges for all occasions and relations include traditional, contemporary, cute, humour and photographic designs. We also have a full range of Christmas and Spring Seasons.

All products are designed and printed in the U.K on the finest quality board.

BRANDS â&#x20AC;&#x153;Write from the Heartâ&#x20AC;? brand includes; Corsage, Sentiments, Champagne, Celebrations and Jelly Beans.

To appear in the Product Directories simply contact

Warren Lomax on:

M ETHOD OF SALE Direct to Retail

G RASS R OOTS INTERNATIONAL

Welsh and English cards

020 7700 6740

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

Units 4 - 4A Valentines Buildin g Ra cec our se Bus in ess Par k Aintr ee, Liver poo l, L9 5 AL Tel: 0151 52 3 9600 Fax : 015 1 523 494 9 e-m ail: s ales@ writefr om th ehear t.co.uk

from the

Market leaders in Humour, Art, Photographic, Occasions and Relations cards offering

Tracey Arnaud

a full planning service with

07957 212 062

development opportunities.

merchandising and retail

on:

or email on traceya@max-publishing.co.uk

visit us at

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WISHES

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

Ch C hin nese ese HE IS

*GCF 1HĆ&#x201A;EG +353 (0)404 20528 Email info@garlanna.com www.garlanna.com

THE

WAY

THE AND TRUTH

LIFE

THE

Beautiful greeting cards from contemporary British artwork

www.greatbritishcards.co.uk 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 4HY 4 4H HY

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PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

www.dryredpress.com T +44 (0) 1273 241210 E info@dryredpress.com

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

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PRODUCT DIRECTORY

AR RT TISTS CARDS glebecottage.co.uk 01626 369269 Esta ab blished 1993

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CHARITY GREETING CARDS One of the UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;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

PHOTOGRAPHY glebecottage.co.uk 01626 369269

60 years

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

Huge selection with immediate deliveryy.. 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

www.lottie-murphy.com lottie@lottie-murphy.com 07716 304741

PG LIVE - STAND 828 AGENTS WANTED

Estaab blished 1993 PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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LING DESIGN

www.lingdesign.co.uk

01892 838 574

information@lingdesign.co.uk

Silk Screened Retro, Pop & Classic Cards Inspired by Music and 1960â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s American Advertising.For all Vinyl & Rock nâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Roll lovers

L E T U S TA K E YOU BAC K

For further details please get in touch.

info@vincentmcevoy.com

+44 (0)7779 578340

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LING DESIGN The UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading privately owned publisher of Greetings Cards and Stationery. ...The home for and

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 enquiries@lingdesign.co.uk www.lingdesign.co.uk

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, Pizazz Jewell, Pizazz for Men, What a Picture, Time Out, Bon Bon, Marshmallow Cloudesley House â&#x20AC;¢ Shire Hill â&#x20AC;¢ Saffron Walden â&#x20AC;¢ CB11 3FB T: 01799 520200 F: 01799 520100 www.nigelquiney.com

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TRADE WEBSITE:

Ä&#x2039;

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Ä&#x2039; 01780 763 368

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PRODUCT DIRECTORY

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

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.

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

@ @paperlinkcards

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 Exquisite Design, Beautiful Cardss Key brands include Marzipan, Portobello, Mosaic, Daisy Patch, Aquarupella and Designers Guild, plus many more.

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

LING DESIGN

Tel: +44 (0)115 986 0115 Email: info@paperrose.co.uk www.paperrose.co.uk www.artgroupcards.co.uk PaperRoseCards TheArtGroupCards The_Art_Group Our Brands: Laughter with Animals, Sporting Fun The Funny Side of Life.

Method of sale: Direct to Retail 14-20 Eldon Way, Paddock Wood, Kent TN12 6BE Tel: 01892 838574 enquiries@lingdesign.co.uk www.lingdesign.co.uk

LUXURY GIFT PACKAGING 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.

ICONIC LICENCED BRANDS

01892 838 574 www.pennykennedy.co.uk

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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PRODUCT DIRECTORY

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Products: Greetings Cards, Gift Wrap, Gift Bags, Social Stationery, Mugs and Glasses, Partyware

Brands: Card Essentials Designer Collection Greetings Impressions Inspirations In Touch ,VDEHO·V *DUGHQ Planet Happy With You In Mind

Method of sale: Wholesale Distributors

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

Sensations International Ltd 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.

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

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

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

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

PG LIVE STAND ª 684

greeting cards & contempoRary gifts www.redbackcards.com e: info@redbackcards.com t: 01803 712793

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PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

T: 07767 896807 info@stationerytraffic.co.uk stationerytraffic.co.uk

&DUGV &DOHHQQGDUV &R & RDVWHUV 1RWHEER RRNV

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

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PRODUCT DIRECTORY

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We offffer a COMPREHE

range of hig Greeting Ca ALL Occasions, AS

and

easons.

Sale: Direct to R

il: inffo o@words-n eb: www w..words-n

DIRECT TO RETAIL & EXPORT

view by rufus designed in thames ditton

sniff out our wide range of greetings card

Market Leaders in

Verse

& entimen

an extensive range of superior quality,

jimm my y chews

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

topdog@view by rufus.com 020 8972 9706

viewbyrufus.com

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

Art Cards eA Botanical Fine

Tel: 01942 233201

Vibrant and nd elegant gree greeting cards A freshly fr modern perspective on nature

Call Now 075 7700 1145 www.zaquarella.co.uk info@ zaquarella.com

register fo for a trade account: www w..viewrufus i f .com/b2b /b2b

Method of Sale: Direct to Retail Orders can be placed on our trader site

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

+44(0)1243 792600

To appear in the Product Directories simply contact

Warren Lomax on:

020 7700 6740

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

Tracey Arnaud on:

Top-notch British Greeting Cards for Thoughts that Count

01923 200600 | www.woodmansterne.co.uk

07957 212 062

or email on traceya@max-publishing.co.uk PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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magnus RUPERT

TRADING

EUROPEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S LEADING GREETINGS CARDS, PARTY PRODUCTS, GIFTS, CANDLES, TOYS, STATIONERY AND FLORIST SUNDRIES DISTRIBUTION CENTRE 75000 SQ FT BESCOT CRESCENT, WALSALL, WEST MIDLANDS. WS1 4NG 01922-646666 www.greetingshouse.co.uk info@greetingshouse.co.uk MON,WED,FRI 8.00am-4.45pm TUES,THURS 8.00am-7.45pm SAT,SUN 8.00am-1.45pm

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BAGS

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BAGS

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

BAGS

Manuffacturers of high quality fllexible packaging 30 YEARS EXPERIENCE - QUA UALITTY Y SERVICE EXTENSIVE STOCK RANGE - QUICK DE ELIVERY ASSURED

- HEADER BAGS - WA WALLET BAGS - ZIPPER BAGS - FLEXOGRAPHIC, HOTFOIL & THEERMAL PRINTING www.transrappackagin ng.co.uk sales@transrap.co o.uk

V VIP

CALL US TODA AY

TREA AT A TMENT

01773 5378 810

HIGH CLARITY L TY Y BA AGS FOR R GREETING G ET T NG CARD DS, CALEND EN N ARS ARS AND AND D ARTW TWORK WORK

ENVELOPES

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

CALL CA CAL C LL US ST TO ODAY OD

0122 1228 228 2 28 8 56 5605 60 052 26 6 www.fful ulcrumfilms. ulcrrum mfillm ms s co.uk uk

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

100% Recycled Paper Av Available

PAPER A

Stock & Bespoke Cello Bags p Peel & Stick Envelopes Bespoke Service on Request

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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PRINTERS

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

PRINTERS

PJ Print

(London)

The Capitals only specialist Greetings card printer

HOME OF THE LASER CUT GREETING CARD We are proud to be recognised as the specialist UK and global manufacturer for the greeting card industry for over 40 years

PJ Print (London) The Capitals only Greetings card printer

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

E-mail: sales@pj-print.co.uk The Print Works

To discuss how we could To d work with you, contact Simon King 0115 928 77 7 66 sales@sherwoodgroupuk.com www w..sherwoodgroupuk.com

Colville Road, Acton, London W38BL tel 020 8993 5160 www.pj-print.co.uk Hadden Court, Glaisdale Parkw Parkway, way, Glaisdale Drive West, Nottingham, NG8 4GP

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Introducing a joint venture from

Following new investments in our digital printing facility we can help you with shortt run prints, rapid stock replenishmeent, market testing, design sampling and promotional produccts.

Our expert digital printing, finishing and packing facilities allow us to provide • high quality • fast turnaround • competitive pricing

Our specialist services includ de: Digital and personalised greeting caards Short-run print Flitter, foil, emboss, die-cut finishess Bespoke gifts including mugs, coasters, notepads and much moree Promotional items Marketing literature Exhibition graphics /stands Stationery Brochures... and many more Pick, pack and distribution

If you would like to discover how we could help you, please contact our saless team:

0114 250 1150 •

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

07974 133735 • sales@digitalhubukk.com

DISPLAY AND SPINNERS 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.

For production enquiries, estimates etc., please contact our UK Agent:

Rob Pearson 07710 132 232 rob@solutions-polska.com FSC accredited (BV-COC-002485). Audited member of SMETA. Printing to ISO12674-2 standard.

To appear in the Classified pages simply contact

Warren Lomax 020 7700 6740 or email on warren@max-publishing.co.uk PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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WAREHOUSING & DISTRIBUTION

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

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

Same day order turna around Accurate fulfilment Value added only as you sell the product

THE SPECIALIST GREE ETINGS CARD PRINTE ER

Exclusively Greeting Cards Dedicated Account Managers

Litho Print

Die-cutting

Digital Print

Flittering

Foiling

Packing

Embossing

Distribution

With an excellent reputation we work as an integral part of yourr team bringing QYGL QSVI XLER JYPǻPQIRX 4YV GSWXMRK WXVYGXYVI MW WMQTPI ERH XVERWTEVIRX ;I ; I GEVV] SYX EPP EWTIGXW SJ LERH ǻRMWLMRK ERH EWWIQFP] ERH TVSZMHI [LEXIZIV EHHMXMSREP WIVZMGIW ]SY RIIH 4YV WIPIGX XIEQ SJ SYX[SVOIVW GEVIJYPP] LERH [VET ER] WM^I SV JSVQEX SJ GEVHW YVKIRXP] 4ZIVRMKLX ;I ; I GEVI EFSYX ]SYV TVSHYGX EW QYGL EW ]SY HS &XXIRXMSR XS HIXEMP 6( .WWYIW ERH .8 WYTTSVXIH F] E GSQTVILIRWMZI TETIV XVEMP JS T JSV EPP WXSGO QSZIQIRXW EVI SYV

Tel:0127 e 4 4531828 Email: info@herbertw o alkers.co.uk

www.herbertwalkers.co.u uk

LEPPQEVOW 4YV GER HS ETTVSEGL QIERWW [I EVI LETT] XS WSPZI ]SYV TVSFPIQW 4YXWSYVGMRK ]SYV [EVILSYWMRK STIVEXMSR VIPIEWIW ]SYV XMQI XS CREA AT TE/MARKET/SELL/ MANAGE/ /GROW THE BUSINESS =SYV FYWMRIWW MW SYV FYWMRIWW T =S TPIEWI ZMWMX Z SYV [IF WMXI ERH WII [LEX SYV GYWXSQIVW WE] XLIR XS ǻRH SYX S QSVI GEPP Ly Lynda Raymond ERH TIVLETW [I GER EVVERKI XS QIIX ERH HMWGYWW ]SYV RIIHW . EQ WYVI XLEX [I GER G LIPT

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APPOINTMENTS

+Something Classy + EXCLUSIVE GIFTWRAP

Established sales agents required, nationwide Something Classy imports exclusive giftwrap, guaranteeing that we can offer our customers something different.

Our collection includes high quality paper, metallic, and holographic designs, with complementary gift dressings.

Extensive stock holdings, and UK & European suppliers, enable us to offer next working day delivery on the majority of our collection.

Successful candidates will be introducing an exciting collection of gift wrap and accessories to the market.

Candidates with contacts in the stationery and gift trades, not currently carrying giftwrap, may be offered the unique opportunity to join us. Early application is advised to secure your established territory.

We offer competitive rates of commission, always paid promptly, and offer full commission for repeat and direct orders.

Interested? Email your CV to sales@somethingclassy.co.uk, or call Ian Raybould on 01543 480914

www.somethingclassy.co.uk We look forward to impressing you

FABU A ULOUS OPPORTUNITY!

Are you looking to upgrade your product po folio with fast

Leading verse and sentiment publisher Wo Words ‘n’ Wishes are looking ffoor 2 established agents to join our already successful sales distribution team of 24 as;

DEVELOPMENT AGENTS

PROFESSIO ONAL SALES AGENTS REQUIRED COUNT TRYWIDE Y

cardovation@ ca @btconnect.com m TEL: 0195 54 260728 BON BON Pu ublications Ltd CAMBR RIDGE UK

Nor th We West South (Hampshire/Surrey/East/West Sussex) We are progressive within the independent retail sectorr,, We our prro oduct portffoolio consists of over 800 quality designs, unique ‘P Peersonalised’ cards, specialist Quitting Hollywood humour and captioned chocolate gift bars.

We offffer good rates of commission with incentive bonuses.

We Thereffo ore if you feel that being able to offfferr a ‘traditional verse and sentiment’ would enhance your own portffoolio, then please contact Alison T Trraynor ffoor more details.

alison@words-n-wishes co uk or 01942 233201

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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lour! o c new ll A art ! w ne All

Unveiling

the

BRAND NEW collection at PG LIVE Stand 313!

FOR A FREE SAMPLE PACK PHONE SALLY ON 01423 520098 WWW.PIGMENTPRODUCTIONS.COM

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