Publisher Focus

Sustainable Greetings

‘Our world means the world to us’ is a bold statement that appears on one of a series of postcards, each one amplifying its strong sustainable mission, that UK Greetings has been including in its deliveries to the 15,000 retail rooftops it currently supplies with greeting cards.

PG took a trip to the publisher’s Dewsbury HQ to discover how it has been putting these words into action.

UK Greetings takes its responsibility seriously, not just as a major employer (the largest in its hometown of Dewsbury with another 2,000+ employed in its sales and merchandising team alone), but as a leading publisher, its actions impact on the industry as a whole as well as ultimately the behaviour of the card buying public. And sustainability is very much front and centre of this.

As ceo James Conn assured: “Every single decision we now make throughout the business is to make it as sustainable as possible, very much supporting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.”

The company’s wholehearted commitment to sustainability comes from the top, but now percolates throughout the whole business, from the big things - like the reshoring of so much of its production to the UK, and its complete revamp of its model line with environmental considerations top of mind - to the little ones, like changing all lighting to LED and incorporating paper ribbon into the Collage gift bag range.

It has been something of a step change, as it has necessitated a whole different way of thinking, which is no mean feat for a company the size of UKG.

“We are a big ship, but we knew we wanted and needed to change course. We are not fully there yet, but we are definitely getting there,” Chris Shaw, UKG’s head of sustainability summed up, alluding to the massive strides that have been made by the company over the last few years.

When president of the GCA five years ago, Ceri Stirland, UKG’s customer and channel director was a pioneer in the industry charge to urge the industry to go naked, something UKG had been heavily involved in when Sainsbury’s made the move in that direction. The word ‘sustainability’ was not even in common parlance then, and any mention of ‘circularity’ would have bemused the vast majority.

Back then, it did not fit well with UKG’s eco thrust that so much of its production had moved to outside the UK, especially as it is a massive £100+ million player involved in both branded and own brand supply, but the team knew it would not be an overnight switch over to bring production back to UK shores.

“We started working on reshoring our production back in 2019. Currently 50% of all our cards are now made in the UK, by the end of the year that will be up to 55% and by

Above left: One of the postcards that UKG is sending out to customers. Left: UKG’s senior management team (right-left) James Conn, ceo; Ceri Stirland, customer and channel director and Darren Cave, commercial director. Below: Eco alternatives now feature in UKG’s collections while still being special.

the end of next year it will be 65%,” explained Ceri.

As part of this, last month saw some state of the art new printing machinery being installed in its Dewsbury operation, joining the impressive roll wrap line, much to the delight of the UKG production team who are delighted to be back printing in-house.

But a real taste of what is to come on the UKG front will be unveiled in its brand new model line which launches in July. A backbone of many of its 2,500 independent retailer customers, this huge range, which spans over 4,000 greeting cards have been completely revamped, with each and every design created through a sustainability lens.

As Julian McGowan, UKG’s head of creative services explained, this was a massive undertaking.

“We usually refresh around 30% of the designs, but we set ourselves the huge task of totally overhauling the collection with sustainability as a major focus but also on wellbeing and diversity fronts,” summed up Julian.

This is being achieved in multifarious ways, from the substrates used to the greeting cards - ultimate presentation.

As Frances Billington, UKG creative director elaborated: “We still wanted to make sure that our cards will be special to the sender and the recipient. Yes, the focus has been on ensuring almost all cards are 100% recyclable, but that cannot be at the expense of perceived value for money and ensuring the designs are deemed as special for sender and recipient.”

This is achieved by some incredible paper engineering, special wooden keepsake elements and high quality finishes.

The days of the major greeting card publishers of the world just putting ink on paper have long gone. With so many issues, including sustainability, diversity and technological challenges, being simply a greeting card company is simply no longer enough. You need purpose and social responsibility, something that UK Greetings clearly recognises.

Insight back up

UK Greetings does not just put its finger in the air to feel the breeze of the public’s tastes, it has, over the last 11 years, spent an inordinate about of time and effort in tapping into how the public is feeling about greeting cards and what considerations are playing a part. As Lois Holcroft, UKG’s director of product management and insight highlighted: “Sustainability is now a major consideration for consumers on all their purchasing, something that is especially strong among 16-24 year olds. The good news is that the vast majority of the population think that greeting cards are already recyclable, as they are, so any action we take on this front to improve things is all for the good.”

Below: Some of the stats that help to inform the UKG insights team. Left: Frances Billington, UKG creative director in the Dewsbury studio. Below left: A new approach to packaging in a UKG Kindred children’s range.

Trust and Tested

Back in March, timed perfectly to coincide with the International Day Of Forests, UKG announced the renewal of its commitment to offset its entire annual paper consumption through the World Land Trust’s Carbon Balanced Paper Programme. As UKG’s head of sustainability Chris Shaw explained: “This partnership ensures that the carbon emissions used to produce the paper for every single one of our greeting cards is balanced through the protection of the world’s most biologically significant and threatened habitats acre by acre.” As one of the country’s leading publishers and manufacturers of greeting cards UKG has placed sustainability very high on the company’s agenda so each year offsets the emissions of over 16,500 tonnes of paper, ensuring the restoration of more than 1,000 acres - equivalent to 650 football pitches - of threatened forest habitat in Vietnam, Mexico, Ecuador and Guatemala. Here Chris shares a trio of other areas in which UKG has made progress…

Naked action: Through its ‘going naked’ campaign, UKG has removed over 250 tonnes of single use plastics, which has enabled the company to recycle any waste product by over 90%, which had previously gone for incineration.

Paper and board: “We now apply a three-layer approach to the paper and board that we use for our greeting cards. The first, and foundation layer is ensuring that we source our paper and board from sustainable, well-managed forests. This is the minimum standard for all.”

Sustainability brand guidelines: “Well over a year ago we stopped using plastic glitter on our new design releases. We continue to look for new exciting sustainable and ethical processes and finishes, but also push boundaries with our artisan techniques, such as beautiful foiling and embossing, while ensuring that we do not compromise the card’s recyclability or aesthetic integrity.”