Progressive Greetings March 2022

March

2022

HAVE A SUSTAINABLE CHRISTMAS! 100s OF PRODUCTS AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER NOW.

Glick PG Front Cover Ad_April 2022_AW.indd 1 FC_PG_March 2022.indd 1

23/02/2022 08:40 24/02/2022 13:43

APRIL ARRIVALS

SOFT, BEAUTIFUL FLORALS FROM

BOLD GEOMETRICS FROM

100s OF CHRISTMAS PRODUCTS AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER NOW

ORDER QUICKLY TO GUARANTEE YOUR CHOSEN DESIGNS All of our products are available to order online. Go to trade.glick.co.uk to register.

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

Glick PG Ad_April 2022_AW.indd 1 IFC_PG_March 2022.indd 1

@glickgiftwrap

23/02/2022 09:50 24/02/2022 13:44

3_5.qxp_Grid 26/02/2022 18:31 Page 1

From The Editor

ON THE CARDS When we are surrounded by scary situations, hardships and what are seen as insurmountable challenges, it is important to find solace in the things we love, are grateful for and feel fortunate to have around us.

A lot of these concern the people in our lives, both personal and business.

It was of course wonderful to hear the positive news from so many indies that indeed love had been in the air for Valentine’s Day. “We had our best Valentine’s sales yet,” Sally Matson of Red Card in Petworth told me.

“It was crazy, we were up 50% on 2019 level - our best Valentine’s Day yet by a long way,” said Sean Austin of Austin & Co in Malvern, who was even stacking up decent sales the day after. He puts the surge down to people’s enjoyment of reconnection. “We had lots more customers buying multiple cards, to give to other members of their family and friends,” he shared. (See news page 7) This ‘reconnection’ was hugely in evidence at the recent Spring Fair and Top Drawer shows. Witnessing the shared smiles and hearing the banter as retailers caught up with publishers and agents was so infectious, in a very positive way.

It was wonderful to see first hand the incredible array of new launches, the strides that have been made on the sustainable front by so many companies and, after a good Christmas for most, retailers were happy to place orders, to ensure that this freshness peps up their instore displays.

Of course things are not perfect, far from it. Within the industry, cost rises and shortages are continuing to batter us from all angles. Who would have thought that a severe paucity of one sided coated board (a crucial component in the greeting card industry) would be a real nightmare for printers and publishers or that getting hold of adhesive labels, used for card clasps would be a real worry. And then there is the tricky tightrope of deciding how much of the cost increases to pass on down the supply chain, being

@Prog_Greetings

Above: Some of the GCA Council at the Thinking of You Week feature at the recent Spring Fair.

Right: Top Drawer was an exhibition swansong for GF Smith’s Janet Stevens (second left) as she prepares to enjoy retirement in April. Seen here with colleague Mark Jessett (far right), Raspberry Blossom’s Mark Green and PG’s Jakki Brown.

‘fair’ to our business as well as mindful of our customers’ needs and expectations. Not easy. (See Viewpoints pages 22-25).

What we could do with is someone arriving through the air with a parrot-handled umbrella and a carpet bag full of tricks to make everything supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

Well, what do you know…something a bit like that is on the horizon as this year’s Retas greeting card retailing awards are taking on a Mary Poppins-esque theme.

So, ‘Spit spot’, if you are a retailer, recognise that what you have been doing over the last year deserves to be celebrated and enter. (There is an entry form included with this issue, but also available to download from the website www.theretasawards.co.uk). Enjoy reflecting on what you have done in your shop and tell us.Think of the joy it will bring your team and your community if you reach the finals. And if you are a publisher or agent, please nominate those retailers you think are ‘practically perfect in every way’!

Closing date for entries is not until April 14 so there is still a bit of time. Make the magic happen!

Above: Friends reunited for a meal during Spring Fair.

Right: The Retas entry form.

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

3

04_PG_March 2022.indd 1

24/02/2022 13:25

3_5.qxp_Grid 26/02/2022 18:30 Page 3

What’s Inside?

CONTENTS 27

41

49

7-17 News

34-37 Giftwrapping: Design trends Wrapping & Rolling

All the latest happenings and developments in the trade.

The latest design trends on giftwrappings.

18-19 Over The Counter Ranting And Raving

38-41 Giftwrapping: Sustainability The Green Scene

David Robertson, co-owner of JP Pozzi is balancing frustrations caused by politicians with positivity from the industry.

How the giftwrappings sector is upping its eco credentials.

43 New Products It’s A Wrap

20-21 Cardsharp The Price Is Not Right

New giftwappings launches.

PG columnist reflects on greeting card economics, both past and present.

44-47 Innovations Publishers’ new ranges and designs.

22-25 Viewpoints Weighing Up The Costs As inflation in the UK hits a 30 year high, those all along the industry supply chain reveal how they are dealing with the bombardment of cost rises.

26-27 In conversation with…Paperchase Building Bridges Paperchase’s new buying team share their refreshed product strategy.

28-31 International Perspectives United Nations Leading greeting card distributors and publishers in various countries report how trade has been in their corners of the world.

32-33 On location…with Mint Group In Mint Condition

48-51 Regional Accents Keeping It Local How the rise in popularity and broader availability of localised greeting cards has put retailers and publishers on the map.

57 Art Source Bright & Breezy Greeting card artist Georgia Breeze shares her story and her creative inspirations.

54-55 What’s Hot? A quad of retailers share their best selling ranges.

56-67 Sources of Supply

A visit to Museums & Galleries/Mint/RED’s impressive new Corby HQ.

Subscribe to Progressive Greetings from £60 (UK) to £90 (International).

You can organise this quickly and easily online at our secure site: www.max-subscriptions.net For assistance, please email subscriptions@max-publishing.co.uk

Jakki Brown

Warren Lomax

Tracey Arnaud

Tracey Bearton

Ian Hyder

Editor/Joint Owner

Joint Owner

Sales Manager

Features Editor

Joint Owner

jakkib@max-publishing.co.uk

warren@max-publishing.co.uk

traceya@max-publishing.co.uk

traceyb@max-publishing.co.uk

ianh@max-publishing.co.uk

Use your smartphone app to scan the QR code to visit our website.

Copyright© 2022. While every effort has been made to ensure the information in this magazine was correct at the time of publication, the publishers cannot accept legal liability for any errors or omissions, nor can they accept responsibility for the standing of advertisers nor any organisation mentioned in the text. Views of contributors do not necessarily reflect those of the publishers.

PG is the official magazine for the Greeting Card Association GCA: Amanda Fergusson 020 7619 9266 Email: hello@gca.cards www.greetingcardassociation.org.uk

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

5

kingfisher pg ad feb 2022.indd 1 06_PG_March 2022.indd 1

23/02/2022 15:21 24/02/2022 13:26

7_9_11_13_15_17.qxp_9/11/13/15/19/23/25 26/02/2022 17:05 Page 1

NEWS TOP STORY

Love Was In The Air Romance was not dead for indies Monday may not be the most romantic day of the week for Valentine’s Day to fall, but there was still plenty of love in the air for the first spring season event of the year.

While there were fears from specialists that people would be caught on the hop and a disproportionate amount of sales would be nabbed by the grocers, many were pleasantly surprised by how the event stacked up tradewise for them.

“Love was definitely in the air - we had our best Valentine’s sales yet,” exclaimed Sally Matson, owner of Red Card in Petworth. “We put our Valentine’s cards out earlier than usual and that boosted sales. We sold 75 cards on the actual day and also opened on Sunday 13 February as I knew it would be busy with those last minute sales - and it was!”

Another award-winning indie who felt the love is Sean Austin of Malvern’s Austin & Co. “We were up 50% on 2019 level, it was crazy - our best Valentine’s Day yet by a long way,” said Sean. “We put our displays out three weeks earlier than usual, which helped drive other sales too.

Saturday February 5 we had our biggest sales day yet on everyday cards. We opened on Sunday February 13 which was very worthwhile, and the actual day itself was equivalent to a peak Saturday and even the day after the event, I sold three Valentine’s cards in an hour!”

Above: This Rosie Made A Thing design was a top seller at Red Card.

Below: The Austin & Co window display, based on a Dandelion card design.

He puts the surge down to people’s enjoyment of reconnection. “We had lots more customers buying multiple cards, to give to other members of their family and friends,” shares Sean.

Putting her Valentine’s Day display out early also paid dividends for Anne Barber, owner of In Heaven at Home in Market Harborough: “Sales were great. After being closed for Valentine’s Day last year, we launched early this year and doubled our selection on previous years,” reveals Ann. Valentine’s Day also brought a warm glow to Postmark’s cheeks with Mark Janson-Smith, managing director of the Londonbased group, reporting: “Our Valentine’s card sales were strong, up just over 10% like-for-like on volume and value on 2020. As always, around 50% of our Valentines sales happened in the last four days.”

While all these retailers agree they have benefited from the shop local trends, others experienced more erratic sales patterns. Penmark’s Valentine’s Day trade ended 3% up overall but, as group md Mark Rees revealed: “There were variances within that. For example, we have a store near the Rolls Royce office that would typically do well at Valentine’s but traded down by 12% with so many still working from home. Our Henry & Co stores continue to be our strongest-performing stores.”

Above: A selection of Valentine’s cards stocked by In Heaven at Home.

Say It With Songs’ love story plays on in the media Say it with Songs, known for its concept that combines song lyrics on a greeting card with streamable music, gained public attention with its inventive marketing and publicity Valentine’s campaign, Real People, Real Love. This saw Say it with Songs take to the streets with a film crew to ask members of the public to reveal their favourite love song and the reasons why.

The personal comments and top picks (spanning a vast musical repertoire - from Led Zepplin’s Since I’ve Been Loving You to Edith Piaf’s La Vie En Rose and a lot in between)

reinforce the strong emotional connection we all have with music in its many guises, making it an ideal bedfellow for greeting cards.

In addition to sharing the resultant film widely on social media channels, Say it with Songs has also attracted the attention of the print media, with The Sun’s Fabulous, UK's most read women's magazine (with 2.2 million readers) including a ‘Day in the life’ of company founder Ellie Fitzgerald, in a recent edition.

The Say it with Songs ‘product medley’ has also hit some new notes, with the company having launched a range of gifts, homewares and fashion accessories that all feature well known music lyrics at Top Drawer.

Above: A still from the Real People, Real Love video.

Right: One of the new Say it with Songs’ gift products.

Paul Fineman steps down as ceo of IG Design Group Sudden changes at IG Design Group have seen Paul Fineman cite personal reasons for stepping down after 17 years with the business, the past 14 of which as group chief executive officer.

Paul left the company on 1 March with the company searching for a successor.

In the meantime, executive board director Lance Burn, who has been with the company for over 10 years, has taken on the role of group chief operating officer, leading the group on a day-to-day basis following on from his previous role as ceo of the group’s international division. In the USA Lance, in his role as interim group coo, is now leading the review of the Design Group Americas business, following the exit of Gideon Schlessinger, DGA chief executive officer.

Meanwhile non-executive chairman Steward Gilliland will also be taking a more active role with the support of the wider team.

Stewart commented: “There is no doubt that Paul's contribution to the group has been significant, diversifying the business and strengthening our omni-channel customer relationships. Paul led the transformation from International Greetings to the global, diversified business that Design Group is today, with revenues now approaching $1billion (£74million)."

Left: Paul Fineman has stepped down after 14 years as IG Design Group’s ceo.

IGDG has issued its second profit warning in three months.

FOR THE LATEST NEWS VISIT PGBUZZ.net PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

7

See things from a different perspective with Snapshot fun photography with a quirky twist by Helga Stentzel.

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

08_PG_March 2022.indd 1

25/02/2022 12:10

7_9_11_13_15_17.qxp_9/11/13/15/19/23/25 26/02/2022 17:06 Page 3

NEWS TOP STORY

Board Shortages And Soaring Costs

Right: If only it was an easy as making paper aeroplanes!

Industry wrestles with nightmarish supply issues A severe shortage of one side coated boards, widely used by greeting card publishers, as well as soaring costs, are causing havoc for publishers, printers and board suppliers.

As Tony Lorriman, managing director of Loxleys summed up about the board issue: “There is a global shortage of one side coated board which has led to insufficient volume to satisfy global demand, significantly higher prices and much longer lead times; there is a distinct lack of choice and the ability to ‘spot buy’ from merchant stock at short notice no longer exists as UK merchants are out of stock and cannot replenish.”

And it is a problem that is unlikely to go away anytime soon.

Mike Lammas, managing director of printer Herbert Walkers said: “I would love to have a crystal ball to be able to say when this problem will settle down but unfortunately, I don’t and I cannot yet see the light at the end of the tunnel,” he says.

Sharing his view, Adam Short, managing director of The Imaging Centre, which prints for well over 500 publishers via its IC Simplicity system, said: “It is very serious. Every month seems to bring a new problem on the supply front.

First it was the shortage of envelopes, then cardboard, then specialist boards and now single sided board. And on top of that board prices have increased 10-25% since last October with further rises being mooted. It is really bad and is only going to get worse.”

With Invercote 300gsm in very short supply (used by many of The Imaging

Centre’s publisher clients), the printer has managed to secure replacement board from Fedrigoni (Symbol Eco 50, made from 50% recycled material).

Chris Sandwell, sales and marketing director of independent board supplier EBB says demand is at unprecedented levels with paper manufacturers able to “sell the material twice over” which means that ultimately you have to “pay the price the manufacturer wants and accept the terms,” and even then, there is no guarantee of availability.

While printers’ Windles says that it has been able to cope with the one side coated board shortages, extended lead times and rising costs have had to be confronted.

“Historical data of ordering patterns no longer reflect how people are placing business today and therefore we have had to estimate possible growth in order to cover for every eventuality. Lead times on some materials extend beyond 12 weeks and therefore this has had to be carefully managed,” commented Michelle Mills, Windles’ business development and marketing manager.

The commonly held belief among all the industry’s dedicated printers is the heightened need for communication with publishers.

John Skeet, managing director of Skeet Print summed up “Treat your printer as a member of your production team as we often have solutions that you wouldn’t think of.”

(See Viewpoints pages 22-25) Top: The Imaging Centre’s Adam Short has at least found a solution for the printers’ publishing customers.

Above: John Skeet stresses how publishers, printers and paper companies working together will be vital.

Paperworld joined

by Ambiente German greeting card and stationery show Paperworld is moving under the umbrella of its sister event Ambiente for 2023 and being rebranded as organiser Messe Frankfurt rethinks its offer with the Home Of Consumer Goods motto.

Due to take place at the Frankfurt exhibition grounds, the trade fair trio of Ambiente, Creativeworld, and Christmasworld are to run consecutively for the first time over the first weekend in February - running from Friday to Tuesday, 3-7 February 2023, with Creativeworld starting a day later on 4 February.

This means Paperworld will clash with Spring Fair 2023 (something that happens every seven years). Spring Fair is slated for Sunday to Wednesday, 5-8 February 2023.

Messe Frankfurt has traditionally run Paperworld, Christmasworld and Creativeworld on the last weekend in January, with the international consumer goods trade fair Ambiente a fortnight later, but they were all cancelled in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and then all shows were called off in early January this year following fears over the omicron variant.

Paperworld is being split between Ambiente Working, for its business stationery offer, and Ambiente Giving, where there will be a newly designed range of products including stationery and school supplies, while the Paperworld product groups with matching themes are to move into Christmasworld and Creativeworld.

Above: Messe Frankfurt’s exhibition grounds will bring Paperworld together with Ambiente next February.

Danilo rewarded by Calendar Club Providing an outstanding level of service at a challenging time has earned Danilo the honour of winning Supplier Of The Year for Calendar Club.

“We all know how challenging the past couple of years have been for the retail sector. Against the backdrop of a global pandemic and a well-documented shipping crisis, the whole team at Danilo went above and beyond for us on a number of occasions, and the level of service we enjoyed was certainly worthy of recognition. The challenge for them will be to repeat this next year!” said Calendar Club buyer, Rob Dand.

Accepting the award, Danilo managing director Daniel Prince said: “We are truly delighted to have won this award for the first time – thanks to Calendar Club and our hardworking Danilo team.”

Calendar Club traded from 220 locations in UK and Ireland in the last calendar season, up from 180 stores in the previous year.

Above: First time win for Danilo as Calendar Club’s Supplier Of The Year.

FOR THE LATEST NEWS VISIT PGBUZZ.net PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

9

Wildlife Photographer of the Year is widely acknowledged as the most prestigious wildlife photography contest in the world. The purpose of the competition is to move hearts and minds, ultimately creating advocates for the planet.

The launch range of 31 award-winning images is available as high quality greetings cards on FSC certified board with optional ‘Zero Plastic’ ecoBandTM packaging.

Wildlife Photographer of the Year is owned by the Natural History Museum.

Home of the finest arts brands E: sales@mgml.co.uk Progressive_Greetings_FULLPage_Ad_Mar22.indd 1 10_PG_March 2022.indd 1

museumsgalleries.co.uk

Tel: 01373 462165 22/02/2022 17:25 25/02/2022 12:10

7_9_11_13_15_17.qxp_9/11/13/15/19/23/25 26/02/2022 17:06 Page 5

NEWS Card companies up for a GOTY

TOP STORY

Card Factory’s New Store Concept

Below: The refurbished Coventry store kicks off the New Future strategy.

Below middle: Card Factory has gone digital with the Coventry store trialling shopper engagement screens.

Coventry store trials customer experience improvements Card Factory has recently opened a new format model store, the UK’s largest specialist chain’s first major store format upgrade in over 20 years. The new retail concept, part of Card Factory’s ‘Opening Our New Future’ strategy, debuted it is Coventry city centre store on 5 February.

The new store format makes better use of store space, improves customer flow and navigation through the shop as well as a new approach to its greeting card and gift displays.

As part of the improved layout, all of the greeting cards have moved to the perimeter of the store in new racks, allowing complementary gifting categories to be merchandised mid-floor in close proximity and providing more range flexibility while still allowing ranges to be displayed together as required (eg seasonal or event related, such as wedding cards with wedding gifts); in addition, mid-floor breaks provide better store circulation for customers.

The reopening in Coventry is one of the first milestones in Card Factory’s Opening Our New Future growth strategy which was launched by Darcy WillsonRymer, ceo, who joined the business in March last year.

Darcy said: “The customer is at the heart of Card Factory’s Opening Our New Future strategy and, through the

rollout of the Model Store format, we are responding to the needs of our customers by significantly improving their in-store experience.

Importantly, the new format stores allow us to showcase our continually expanding ranges of complementary categories where we are already the leader in balloons and party.”

He believes that by offering “greater choice to our customers, we can build upon our historic leadership in cards to capture a larger addressable market and fulfil our vision of becoming the number one destination for all shoppers seeking to celebrate life’s special moments.”

To improve the customer experience, the new look includes locating the counter further back in the store as well as the use of low-level fixtures with new navigational signage and zoning creating clear sight-lines.

The Coventry store is one of two model stores that will also trial digital screens to increase in-store shopper engagement. Three screens will share a diverse range of content that will change throughout the day, from product and promotion messages through to brand-led messages, such as event reminders and information about Card Factory’s charity work with organisations like Macmillan Cancer Support.

Greeting card and giftwrap companies Love Country, Origamo, Rocket68, Say it with Songs, Shroot and Wrag Wrap are among those in the running for a Gift of the Year (GOTY) 2022 award.

Following a live judging day at Spring Fair, no less than 19 nominations from the greetings industry were announced as official finalists across the award categories in the Giftware Association’s GOTY awards.

The finalists in the Cards & Wrap category are Love Country (Plantable Seed Cards), Origamo (Florever 3D paper flower vases), Rocket68 (Wooden Postcard Collection), Say it with Songs (streamable music cards), Shroot (Greens & Greetings card and plant pot) and Wrag Wrap (Reversible Crackle Wrap).

In the Stationery category, the six products to reach the finals are From You To Me (Parenting Journals - Bump To Birthday and The Story Of Us), Lola Design (Wildlife Botanical fabric journal), Makers Cabinet (Ferrule pencil extender), Martha Brook

(Vegan Leather Embossed Journals), Vent For Change (Sucseed Notebook), and With Creative (Wooden Elephant Stapler).

Cardology’s Battersea Pop-Up Cards make the finalists, list in both Branded Gift and Pet Gift.

The winners will be announced at the very first ever UK Gift Awards event, to be held on Thursday 12 May at London’s Royal Lancaster Hotel. Marking a significant unified step forward for the UK gift industry, the awards event ceremony will bring together the GA’s Gift of the Year Awards and The Greats gift retailer awards (organised and owned by Max Publishing, publishers of Progressive Greetings magazine).

Above: Fingers crossed for May 12 (clockwise from top left) Love Country, Wrag Wrap, Origamo, Shroot, Say it with Songs, and Rocket68.

30,000 cards for Edna at 101 A 100th birthday is most definitely a ‘big one’, but having missed out on her centenary celebrations, ‘The Big Yin’, aka Sir Billy Connolly as well as the BBC and thousands of wellwishers made Edna Clayton’s 101st birthday very special, marked by receiving over 30,000 greeting cards from around the world.

The Glasgow native somewhat missed out on her centenary milestone last year. Due to an administrative glitch, which meant she didn’t receive a special birthday card from the Queen, so the manager at the care home where Edna now lives asked people in the local ‘Battlefield’ community to send this lovely lady some special cards.

And when BBC Scotland heard about the appeal - which went worldwide - and that Billy is Edna’s favourite comedian, they contacted the famous Scot who sent a personal video message for his centenarian fan.

She told the BBC on her big day (31January) she had no secret to looking so good at 101, but she got her hair cut short every week to “keep up to date, as far as I can”, and she said a “big thank you” to all the “beautiful, gorgeous people” who sent her a card.

Above: Edna and care home manager Alison look at one of her 30,000+ cards while (right) Edna watches Billy’s birthday message.

FOR THE LATEST NEWS VISIT PGBUZZ.net PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

11

12_PG_March 2022.indd 1

24/02/2022 13:27

7_9_11_13_15_17.qxp_9/11/13/15/19/23/25 26/02/2022 17:07 Page 7

NEWS TOP STORY

SPRING FAIR NIBS

The Art File’s Eco 25th Anniversary Cherry on the cake at recent Spring Fair for Nottingham publisher The Art File team is pulling out all the eco stops as the publisher does its bit for the planet - even taking into account the outer packaging for its range of products.

And the whole environmentally-friendly story was there to be discovered on its stand at Spring Fair, where the Nottingham-based publisher kicked off the celebrations for its 25th anniversary with hundreds of new designs.

The recent show was a return to its roots for The Art File as it was at Spring Fair back in 1997 that Ged and Karen Mace launched the company with the aim of writing five orders, a target they smashed 10 times over!

Now son James, The Art File’s sales and marketing manager, has been working with his parents to bring the company to the fore on the sustainability front, and it is featured in a special Spring Fair Behind The Brand video - “I wouldn’t even say it’s exciting,” James said. “It’s vital for all companies to do this so we can all do our bit to save our planet. We revamped a large part of our Christmas collection to become more sustainable and environmentally friendly both in 2020 and 2021. This included the introduction of new fully-recyclable packaging on our now three-times Henries-winning Christmas Luxury Boxes,” added James.

Left: James Mace with Spring Fair’s Alison Graham who presented The Art File with a cake at the show.

Below: Eco-packaging on The Art File’s Charity packs.

In addition to some new designs in store for 2022 in this format, the packaging has been revamped on its Trio Boxes, and 3D Form pop-up card boxes while the packaging of its charity pack cards has been revamped and they are now fully recyclable.

A fully recyclable Glassine band has been added which goes around the pack of six cards and envelopes to keep the product together, while a Respected Charities logo has also been added.

“The revamp of our charity pack packaging will mean that all The Art File’s Christmas boxed and packaged product will be plastic-free and, therefore, sustainable and environmentally-friendly.

“On the gift packaging side, our new bags will all be laminate-free, meaning the product will be able to be recycled fully alongside other paper products.

“One of the largest challenges during our continued sustainability campaign has been the cello that surrounds our popular roll wraps - we’re absolutely delighted to announce that, after much testing and trialling with key retailers, the roll wrap is now cello free!”

l Cardmore christened the launch of its licensed stationery ranges with Sarah Kelleher and Stephanie Dyment at the show. Greeting card publisher Sarah (right) was delighted to see her bold floral imagery translated onto a range of notebooks and journals. l Robert and Caroline Petrie of Kairds in Orkney were among those to be presented with their Cardgains Millionaire trophy by the buying group’s Jim Girvan (right), awarded to the buying group members who have placed £1 million of orders with Cardgains suppliers over the years. l Louise Tiler, founder of Louise Tiler Designs won the first prize in the Enveco draw of £300 of envelopes or notebooks (seen here with sales director John Jones). The two runners up, who each received £100 of envelopes or notebooks were Middlemouse Group and From Jude. l After 44 years in the greeting card industry, the ‘once met, never forgotten’ popular stalwart Riou Baxter received a great send off into retirement thanks to the Museums & Galleries team and was presented with a stylish decanter.

Below: Greeting cards are playing a part in supermarket giant’s plastic reduction.

Left: Tesco’s 4Rs sustainability strategy.

Tesco removes 1.5 billion plastic pieces Supermarket giant Tesco has now removed more than 1.5 billion pieces of plastic from its UK business since launching its packaging strategy following the four Rs - Remove, Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.

Greeting cards alone account for over 50million pieces of plastic within that total, notably by losing cellowrap. Naked cards very much order of the day on the new displays, which have been installed recently as a result of UK Greetings taking over as broker for the supermarket.

“We all have a responsibility to take care of our planet and removing unnecessary plastic is an important way that Tesco can reduce its environmental impact,” said Sarah Bradbury, Tesco quality director.

As well as removing cellowrapping on single greeting cards and plastic on its Christmas boxes, significant amounts of plastic have been taken out of punnets for fresh produce. Over the last 12 months, around 500m more pieces of unnecessary plastic have been identified and removed.

Back in December 2019, Tesco sent out a message to its greeting card publishers as it informed all suppliers the supermarket reserves the right to not stock items that use excessive or hard-to-recycle materials.

Tesco has recently struck up a new partnership with packaging manufacturer Berry Global to begin recycling soft plastic collected from customers and has implemented a rapid scale-up in the number of soft plastic collection points to over 900 stores. The collected material is turned into plastic pellets ready for manufacturing into bin liners.

FOR THE LATEST NEWS VISIT PGBUZZ.net PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

13

Great reasons to open an account with us...

Over 2000 brand new gifts

‘Little & Often’ ordering system

10,000+ lines to choose from

FREE next day delivery

Only £100 minimum order

Award winning customer service

Open your online account today at www.joedavies.co.uk

Pot Of Dreams

Equilibrium® Luxury Bamboo Socks

Thoughtful Words Tealights & Burners

Equilibrium® Love Knots

Tel: 0161 975 6300 2022 02 - Progressive Greetings FP.indd 1 14_PG_March 2022.indd 1

Email: sales@joedavies.co.uk

Wordstone Angels

www.joedavies.co.uk 23/02/2022 14:52:50 24/02/2022 13:28

7_9_11_13_15_17.qxp_9/11/13/15/19/23/25 26/02/2022 17:07 Page 9

NEWS Queen of Cards

TOP STORY

£317m Q4 spend on cards 74% of UK households bought greeting cards Oct-Dec 2021 The British public spent £317 million on greeting cards in the last three months of 2021, with almost three quarters (74%) of all UK households buying cards (everyday and Christmas) during that period, according to the latest findings from Kantar.

Having committed to tracking greeting card purchasing habits, the research company is building quite a picture of how the UK consumer is shopping for greeting cards in physical stores.

“Despite Q4 2021 showing a stronger year than in 2020, greeting cards sales are still catching up with 2019 sales in physical stores,” reveals Moneeba Baloch, consumer insights director of Kantar, whose remit includes the greeting card market. According to its findings, the 2021 Q4 card spend was 11% down in physical stores, compared to 2019 for the same period.

As far as the types of stores which scored on the greeting card front in the last Christmas run up, Kantar’s findings confirm that the supermarkets took the lion’s share, accounting for 43% of the greeting card spend for the 12 weeks up to 26 December 2021. Specialists (both multiples and indies) however were only 10% behind, clinching a third (33%) of all card sales.

Echoing the anecdotal evidence from many card indies, Kantar’s findings show that 46% of British consumers started shopping for Christmas cards

in October, but another 20% left it until December.

Drilling down into demographics, ‘middle families’, which Kantar defines as those where the youngest child is 5-9 years old, the household spend on greeting cards in Q4 was up 11% on 2020 levels, but 19% down when compared to 2019.

Moneeba highlights that in fact it is these ‘middle families’ which are “the key demographic that drove the decline in spend in Q4, despite the fact that they have stepped up since 2021.

“In Q4 2021 some 71% of middle families’ greeting card spend was in supermarkets, 45% was in celebrations stores [card and gift shops], 25% in bargain shops, 10% in stationery shops [such as WHSmith] with the remaining 10% being in department stores,” details Moneeba.

Top: The breakdown of where the physical store spend went on greeting cards (everyday and Christmas) in Q4 of 2021.

Above: Moneeba Baloch has recently joined the Kantar team from NPD (another major research company), taking on the responsibility for the greeting card market.

Tache’s tasty collaboration Well known for dishing up the unexpected with its card ranges, Tache’s brand-new Famous Foods card collection, based on a licensing agreement with Unilever, certainly whets the appetite.

The new card range features hand-finished designs based on classic household brands Marmite, Bovril, Pot Noodle, Colman’s Mustard and Wall’s ice cream.

As living proof of how good things can come out of tricky situations, the relationship between Tache and Unilever started when the mega-corporation contacted the publisher about one of the Poole-based card company’s designs that featured Marmite.

“It had proven a very popular design so when Unilever requested that we remove it from our portfolio we were initially disappointed, however, when we posed the question to them about a formal contractual agreement, we were over the moon when they agreed to the use of its brands with us developing an entire new range under licence,” explained Pennie Bryant, who co-owns Tache with her partner Frank Nicholls.

The licensing agreement includes the well-known UK brands of Marmite, Pot Noodle, Bovril, Colman’s Mustard and Wall’s Ice Cream with the Tache team working in collaboration with the Above: Tache’s Famous Foods range. respective Unilever’s brand team to develop each design.

Brits’ love for Her Majesty The Queen goes hand-in-hand with their affection for the humble greeting card - and plenty have already landed in Buckingham Palace to celebrate our longest-serving monarch’s 70th jubilee.

In an official photograph released to mark the Platinum Jubilee, Queen Elizabeth II is pictured with just a few of the greeting cards received from the United Kingdom and across the world for Accession Day (6 February), the anniversary of her accession to the throne following the death of her beloved father King George VI. In the accompanying official statement, signed Your Servant Elizabeth R, The Queen said: “As we mark this anniversary, it gives me pleasure to renew to you the pledge I gave in 1947 that my life will always be devoted to your service.”

Below: Her Majesty The Queen with some of the cards she has received recently.

Esther Young’s steers Creatorship Stepping away from the familiar is always a challenge and that’s just what Esther Young has done with the launch of her creative consultancy, Creatorship.

After 20 years in the industry, starting with Swan Mill/Swantex, Esther has walked away from her role as head of creative at IG Design Group to strike out on her own, and is now creative director and lead consultant of her own business.

“My mission is to inspire, mentor, and inform creators, producers, designers and manufacturers, through project collaborations and consultations.

Drawing on my industry and studio expertise and knowledge, to creatively and commercially influence, engage and succeed,” Esther told PG about the recent launch of Creatorship.

Below: Esther Young now has her own consultancy. (image: Marie Palbom Photography)

FOR THE LATEST NEWS VISIT PGBUZZ.net PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

15

Introducing

Improved Navigation & Filters

OUR A L L-N EW W EBSTOR E Refreshed. Revamped. Refined.

And ready to help you pick perfect

Fresh Look & Feel

products…with ease!

Cards, Bags, Wrap, Accessories & More!

Exciting NEW Products

www.trade.hallmark.co.uk For more information, contact us on: UK: 0800 902 0900 Email: customerqueriesUK@hallmark.com

16_PG_March 2022.indd 1

www.hallmark.co.uk hallmarkuki HallmarkUKandIreland HallmarkUKI

24/02/2022 13:28

7_9_11_13_15_17.qxp_9/11/13/15/19/23/25 26/02/2022 17:08 Page 11

NEWS TOP STORY

Preparing to slay Dragons Publishers receive top tips for dating event As PG went to press there were just a few places left for the imminent GCA Dragons Speed Dating event, which will see publishers pitch their ranges to retailers in a series of 10minute meetings.

With the 23 March event fast approaching, the GCA helped participating publishers prepare, at a preevent Zoom meeting. Led by GCA CEO Amanda Fergusson, GCA council members Carolyn Verderame from Caroline Gardner, Adriana Lovesy from Mrs Lovesy and PG’s Jakki Brown explained what to expect and how to get the most out of it.

Meanwhile, ‘Dragon’ Sally Matson, owner of Red Card, Petworth shared invaluable tips for what she will be looking for from pitching publishers.

“What am I looking for? I’m looking for something unique, that fits a gap in my shop, but works alongside other ranges,” says Sally, who went on to highlight how important provenance is, suggesting that details of the artist or the design should be included on the rear of the cards.

Her big tips to publishers are “to know your product and how it fits into the market…you need to know who you want to sell to…know your trading strategy, simple things like will you be doing first orders proforma, what is your minimum order quantity, what is your minimum for carriage paid delivery?”

She stressed the importance of publishers doing their research, making

Above: A screenshot of some of the preparation Zoom meeting attendees, with Sally Matson centre top.

sure the price points for their cards match similar products, but that they can still make some profit.

“Understand that you have costs don’t be desperate!” she urged. “Stay in touch, but don’t bombard us with free cards, watch us on Instagram and remember, we want to fill our shops with beautiful things,” says Sally.

The Dragons event, takes place on 23 March at London’s Business Design Centre, running from 12.45-5.30pm.

John Lewis’ new card buyer Claire Taylor will be one of those looking for publishers to add to its retail offer. Also making her debut as a Dragon is Tori Heath-Smith, Paperchase’s card buyer with other confirmed retail buyers participating including those from Fortnum & Mason, Cardzone, Sainsbury’s, Postmark, Red Card, Card Factory, Austin & Co Malvern, Diverse, Funky Pigeon, House Of Cards, Heirloom Teddington, Mooch Ealing and Presentation Cards & Gifts of Barrowford. l A recording of the preparation Zoom is being hosted on the GCA website.

DTP Southfield x Southfield Stationers merger There’s a new name on the bespoke card, gift and stationery front with the merger of Midlothianbased Southfield Stationers and Edinburgh printer Digital Typeline Publications to form DTP Southfield.

Bringing together the two skilled teams to create a 20-strong experienced workforce, DTP Southfield will be moving from the businesses’ current two locations to a 20,000 sq ft former Inveresk paper mill building in Musselburgh, with the assistance of East Lothian Council helping to facilitate future employment opportunities and other benefits to the local economy.

Heading up the new operation is DTP managing director Alun Joseph, who said: “I’m excited we have merged with a company we have known and trusted for many years. The Southfield name is well respected in the market and I look forward to taking it forward.”

Left: New beginnings for Alun Joseph and DTP Southfield in Musselburgh.

£37m raised to push Papier British online brand Papier has raised £36.8million ($50m) in its bid to expand its stationery and card reach into the States.

In its third funding round the online personalised stationery startup (which includes greeting cards in its portfolio) has raised the money to expand into the US and to continue growing offerings to include more paper-based products, as well as desk storage, pens and pencils, or anything else anything to support your writing, according to Taymoor Atighetchi, Papier’s ceo and founder.

“This is an incredibly exciting chapter for Papier,” Taymoor said. “With our office now open in the US, we are accelerating our mission to build a category defining global stationery brand.

“It’s a $200billion (£147bn) market and it doesn’t have a strong online brand, nothing that is category-defining the way you might have with other verticals. This funding is an important part of that plan. It pushes us globally and to the US.” Encouraging for the card and stationery sector as a whole, Papier reveals that millennials are its biggest demographic, accounting for 53% of its sales, with GenZ users its fastestgrowing segment.

Papier’s product portfolio includes greeting cards, notebooks, invitations, diaries and planners.

Above: Papier founder Taymoor Atighetchi.

The wonder of Woolies Brits miss Woolworths more than any other store, new research from ParcelHero has revealed, even though the budget retailer disappeared from High Streets 14 years ago. The home delivery expert’s survey discovered it’s Woolies - the market leading retailer of Christmas cards in the 90s - that is still close to people’s hearts.

The Athena card and poster chain also received a shout out. The multiple chain had an infamous demise in 1995 immediately post Christmas, when it was ring-fenced by its then owner Pentos; a bitter pill for many of the supplying publishers.

Who could forget that famous tennis girl poster from its publishing side?

Above: Woolworths evokes nostalgia among Brits.

Above: Athena is still fondly remembered.

FOR THE LATEST NEWS VISIT PGBUZZ.net PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

17

18-19.qxp_Grid 23/02/2022 12:13 Page 2

OVER THE

COUNTER

BY DAVID ROBERTSON OF JP POZZI, ELGIN AND BUCKIE.

Ranting And Raving

Even when my Dad was very ill, he would ask the same questions every time I saw him. Were we busy today? Were the papers on time? Who was working?

That shop was a huge part of his life. It was a validation that he had achieved something from very modest beginnings. The way he cared for those who worked with us, the many suppliers that became friends made it feel so important and so very real.

My father was a fiercely proud and fair man who never asked for anything and that was often to his disadvantage. He would never ask for discount as he believed people would be as fair to him as he was to them.

Yet with each passing day I get more and more frustrated at our politicians and the way they look on and treat family businesses and small retailers across the country.

‘Fair’ is not a word I would use.

I don’t want to get political here and I don’t want to say that one party is better than the other as I honestly don’t think that any of the politicians really understand the challenges we face as business owners.

The vast majority have never had to do what you or I do. They have never had to create their own wealth. They have never had to worry about having to generate the money to pay their staff wages, let alone themselves. They throw words around like ‘regeneration’, ‘urban space’ and ‘rebuilding’ without any true understanding of what that entails. Covid has accelerated some patterns of decline and we are in a period of rising inflation.

18

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

I am writing this on Valentine’s Day… The day for lovers, the day for romance, but I have a pregnant wife who doesn’t really feel like going out and is understandably tired, all the time!

Tomorrow is the third anniversary since my dad passed away. I think about him every day and often wonder what he would have made of these last few years.

How would he have coped with the separation and hardship of Covid, of keeping your distance, of the changes to his beloved business?

But we have to keep the faith and enjoy our love of those around us, in our personal and business lives, even if the politicians continue to irk.

Above: The Robertsons felt the love…David and his wife Nicola’s Valentine’s Day cards to each other.

Left: A young David (with an uncanny likeness to Ed Sheeran) with his dad.

Below: It is hard to replicate the personal service an indie offers instore via an online experience.

The stark reality is that the majority of our customers will be facing a squeeze on their disposable income and it will be even harder for us as retailers to win their spend.

No one wants to have the difficult conversations on minimum wage, living wage or whatever you want to call it. No one wants to really tackle rates, landlords, lack of investment in buildings or indeed the choking of footfall into the town centre. We have never sorted out car parking charges, the horrendous planning legislation that takes forever or the imbalance that allows some buildings to be allowed to rot while others are forced to spend fortunes on theirs.

There is also an issue fast incoming with old shopping centres in towns that need to be knocked down, but continue to limp

along, while beautiful new glass buildings are green-lit often on the edge of town.

I believe that we are in a transitional period between the old ways of retail and the new proposed mixed use of the high street.

In the latest round of bounce back funding in Scotland our Chancellor has allocated £3million for city centre funding for the whole country. Yes, for the whole country and I am pretty sure that towns and cities up and down the country could spend that on a single area easily.

We simply can’t wait around for others to fix it, but many of us are tired of trying.

We end up praying that our business will exist like some kind of little island on its own. That doesn’t work though as you need

18-19.qxp_Grid 23/02/2022 12:13 Page 3

OVER THE COUNTER

other good businesses around you to create a desire for the public to come to a location.

You also need to stay ahead of the curve. You need to be trying to think those three moves further ahead and be brave.

Yes brave. In retail just now, being safe and selling/doing the same thing means that you don’t stand out from the crowd and the one thing I see that makes smaller indie shops successful is the way that they try to be different.

As I have always maintained though, our one weapon is our service - how we look after and inform our customer.

Like others I have launched websites to try and bring our unique instore experience to a platform, but online we will never be able to compete on price or service with Ebay or Amazon.

I read with interest the headline in The Guardian on 11 February 2022: ‘Abolish the internet shopping in Belgium says leader of party in coalition’ with Paul Magnette, the Socialist leader describing e-commerce as ‘social and ecological degradation’.

Bit strong? Well, he argues that ridding Belgium of internet shopping would see its High Streets thrive and it would reduce the need for people to work nights in warehouses. He questions that we don’t

need to receive parcels within 24hrs. Why can’t we just go into a shop, buy a book and walk home with it?

Belgium was typical of most of the 27 EU states, with 75% of 16-74 year olds having made a purchase online. In Denmark the percentage was even higher - up at 91%! We should probably open shops in Bulgaria where only 33% of this age group bought online.

When you see the sharp rise in UK online shopping during the pandemic, going from 40% who were shopping more online at the start of Covid, but rising to a peak of 75% in February 2021, the speed of transition is truly scary.

Right: A Helen Richmond design which is of the time.

Below left: Sabivio’s Sabina Kovacheva on her stand at Spring fair.

Below right: Steve and Wendy Jones-Blackett (left-right) with colleague Jacqui Godlove and Pigment’s Steve Baker on the WJB stand at Spring Fair.

Bottom: Archie Archer with her dog Bolt beachcombing for sea tumbled glass pieces that she uses on her cards.

This change will naturally slow down and reverse a little, but the High Street has to wake up to this challenge.

I have visited different town centres recently and was encouraged with what I saw, despite some empty units. I then visited a farm shop just off a main arterial road and quite simply it was mobbed. Is this the future? Well, I would say that has been the case for a long time and that destination/free parking/coffee shop and retail mix is without doubt the one area of true growth I can see.

Now I know what you are thinking, that this is a negative column and negative thoughts get you nowhere.

Well, that is one way to look at it, but I am really just ‘keeping it real’. I am not by nature a quitter or a ‘Debbie Downer’.

Difficult times tend to bring the best out of people. When I look at our industry no-one has simply lain down to the issues. We have all changed, pivoted and taken our shot better than Lebron James in the NBA and will continue to do so.

I want to finish by mentioning three really interesting people that I met at the Spring Fair and one old friend who most definitely put a spring in my step and had me jumping for the hoop...

Sabina Kovacheva from Sabivio Design: I have looked at cards from Sabivio before but have never got round to actually stocking them.

Sympathy is our biggest seller and Sabina’s new range, Garden, has truly beautiful designs. Her other occasions designs also appealed and Sabina was so pleased to see us and for us to become stockists that her excitement was infectious.

Archie Archer from Sea Glass by Archie: I met Archie on the first day of the

show on her stand that was tucked away at the back of the hall.

I loved her energy and her belief in the brand, with her cards encompassing sea tumbled glass pieces (from a long gone Victorian factory) that she collects from beachcombing with Bolt her dog.

When I went back to place the order Archie was just as great. It was so refreshing to deal with someone so unjaded. And as a result of being at the show, she was tweaking her envelopes. It reminded me why I love the creative people behind our cards.

Helen Richmond of Helen Richmond Designs: I haven’t ordered these cards yet but I will. Helen’s beautiful illustrations of all kinds of sports tie in with trends such as paddleboarding, BMXing and wild swimming.

Her cards caught my attention and I loved the fact that with only 30 stockists in the UK they are still an undiscovered gem even though they had made it all the way to Japan to be sold in the Olympic store.

Wendy Jones-Blackett of Wendy Jones-Blacklett: I walked into the show with Wendy on the last day and as always she was so positive it was infectious. Her designs are always great and I love stocking them, but more importantly I enjoy my conversations with her and her husband Steve who I feel are real champions of our industry.

So yes, it is still challenging out there and I am perhaps more disillusioned with our leaders than ever before, but as long as there are people like Archie, Sabina, Helen and Wendy we should be all right. Their love and enthusiasm for cards and the people behind them and who receive them make this industry special. Repeat after me…

“Positive Thoughts”!!

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

19

20-21.qxp_Layout 1 23/02/2022 12:20 Page 2

cardsharp

The Price is

Not Right As Cardsharp is writing this, the announcement had just been made that official Covid restrictions have become a thing of the past in England. Yet, two months ago, it looked like we may have been heading for another lockdown.

How quickly we forget, reflected Cardsharp?

Now the nation’s chatter turns to the ‘cost of living crisis’ or inflation as Cardsharp’s generation knows it as. And for the first time in many a year, it is hitting the greeting card industry and hitting it hard.

Time gives you a sense of perspective.

When Cardsharp was a wee nipper in the 1970s, inflation frequently broke the 20% barrier, making our present predicted 6% seem quite puny in comparison. To keep in line the trade unions (then much more powerful and larger than they are today), demanded and in most cases achieved, wage increases in excess of inflation.

Even in the 1980s during the Thatcher era when inflation was supposedly tamed, it regularly ran at between 5%-10% per annum. This was just as the UK greeting card market was really starting to boom and demand was high. And how did the greeting card industry deal with this? Easy!

Both publishers and retailers pushed their prices up by around 10% every year. This meant increased profits for everyone and everyone along the supply chain was happy.

20

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

Right: The Price is Right TV game show (upon which this board game was based), hosted by Leslie Crowther first aired in 1984 which saw contestants guess how much items cost.

Below left: With inflation in the UK at its 30 year high, the cost of living and how many people are going to cope is a real concern.

Below right: During Maggie Thatcher’s era, even though inflation had reduced, it was often still running between 5%-10%.

Because of some strange historical anomaly, the price hike was always announced by two publishers - Paper House (then under Peter Reichwald’s leadership) on the direct to retail side and Photo Productions (now defunct) on the wholesale side. Whatever they did, everyone just followed suit. No one was quite sure why, but they just did.

Something to do with them having the dominant price coding that retailers and wholesalers tended to use.

The consistent and constant annual price increase of greeting cards did not stop the public lapping them up, until the late 1980s when you started to hear moans from some of the general public about the price of cards “£1.50 for a folded bit of card!”

Cardsharp sensed even then that things might change.

Today, soccer fans watching Manchester United live on television, will be familiar when the camera focuses on their legendary ex-manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, sitting up in the director’s box. It is usually at a time of United’s maximum discomfort, and the commentator usually asks the rhetorical question, what would Sir Alex have done in this situation? And invariably sitting close by on his right-hand side, is a familiar face.

This man is Ron Wood, the ultimate Man Utd nut, and the person who arguably single-handledly changed the pricing of greeting cards on the high street.

Ron was a young greeting card wholesaler, who had clocked the huge improvement in the quality of wholesale publishers’ greeting cards, in particular those of the holy trinity of Simon Elvin, Kingsley Cards, and Hambledon Studios. With the financial assistance of a couple of his Man U. footballing mates, in particular its then captain Bryan Robson, he set about building a national chain of card

20-21.qxp_Layout 1 23/02/2022 12:20 Page 3

Left: Oh for the heydays of the ‘small publisher boom’, led by Andrew Brownsword (far left, seen with Forever Friends creator Deborah Jones) when a 10% annual price hike was deemed acceptable.

Below: Some cost expectations of multiples will squeeze all the juice out of publishers until there are just pips left.

Below left: While Card Factory is still positioned as a value retailer, its prices have had to increase of late to reflect the surging cost increases.

Bottom: Birthdays’ founder Ron Wood (centre) with former footballer Bryan Robson (far left).

shops called Birthdays that not only seriously undercut other specialist outlets, but from very attractive stores. Wholesale publisher cards, hitherto seen mainly on market stalls and newsagents were suddenly on the high street, offering a lower price alternative to the likes of Clinton Cards and WH Smith. Those who thought greeting cards were too expensive could and would shop there.

Cardsharp remembers that Ron eventually sold Birthdays for £85 million, meaning he could afford the best seat next to Sir Alex at Old Trafford for the rest of his life. Subsequently, Birthdays declined rapidly, eventually being acquired by Clintons, who eventually dispensed with this lower price model that could cannibalise its higher priced sales at its main Clintons chain.

But the genie was out of the bottle.

Various other budget priced chains emerged in the late 1990s and early noughties, none of which survived the test of time. That was until Card Factory, founded by anther ex-wholesaler, Dean Hoyle, who hit upon his vertically integrated model, where he published, manufactured and retailed virtually all the cards themselves. He took all the margin and could therefore really go to town in keeping prices low.

Cardsharp thinks the success and presence of so many Card Factory outlets had a dampening effect on direct to retail greeting card price increases. You couldn’t just bung another 10% on prices willy-nilly every year.

But another thing was happening in the economy at large was having an even larger effect on greeting card price increases. By the late 1990s inflation had largely been tamed, 2% became the norm,

sometimes even less. And with the Bank of England now independent of the government and with a mandate to keep inflation low, other than a brief blip when the £pound dropped in value dramatically in 2010, it all but disappeared until last year.

But to many greeting card publishers, this low level of inflation was not a bonus. Both retailers and publishers found it impossible to put up prices. In the good old days, there was almost an unholy alliance where retailers upped prices and so did publishers so everyone could make a bit more profit every year. With multiple retailers unable to raise prices to increase their margin, they started to work backwards and demand better terms…and better terms and then even better terms!

Have you ever wondered why there are no double-tiered football pitch stands in the greeting card hall at Spring Fair anymore and why the greeting card section is a fraction of its former size? The answer is obvious, reflects Cardsharp.

The major retailers have squeezed the pips out of the

publishers, who have been unable to increase their trade prices.

Now considers Cardsharp, publishers face a new scenario. The huge cost increases last year, across raw materials, container prices, energy prices and employee costs have given them an inflationary nightmare. This would not be so damaging if it were not for the fact that most of the retailers are burying their heads in the sand saying they won’t accept significant price rises from suppliers. Yet they under their own inflationary pressure, they are trying to inch theirs up. Recently one major grocer implemented a 25% retail price increase to its shoppers, but insisted that suppliers not only maintain their trade prices, but made suppliers re-price and repackage all deliveries.

And you can see the results. IG Design Group, the sector’s major AIM listed plc, has seen its profits and share price plummet, as it could not pass on its cost increases to its big grocer and retail customers. More and more publishers are reassessing their commitment to the resurgent independent sector, as making money from the majors and grocers becomes ever more difficult. One major direct to retail publisher has bitten the bullet and announced a significant trade price increase. It needs a few more to follow its lead.

Card Factory has even responded and some of its prices now, particularly for quality humour cards are not far below its high street competitors. If the UK greeting card industry is to continue to lead the world in design and creativity, it needs healthy profits from publishers to enable investment and this can only be done by trade prices rising.

So, to conclude, Cardsharp thinks publishers in the present inflationary environment need to be strong. Put your prices up. Be bold! And explain and justify. And don’t let the retailers put their pain on you!

Easier said than done, but the alternative is a lot worse.

5PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

21

22-25.qxp_Grid 24/02/2022 14:01 Page 2

VIEWPOINTS

Inset: Publishers, suppliers and retailers are all weighing up how to best deal with the cost rises.

Weighing Up

The Costs Daniel Prince managing director of Danilo

“Danilo, along with many others within the industry, has experienced a number of cost rises over the last year. This includes shipping container costs which have gone up by 550% since 2020, paper costs which have increased between 10-20% and additional material costs rising by 5%.

The impact of this has been that we have had to review our cost prices and having investigated different approaches, evaluated that that the best route has been via small percentage cost rises on certain products. We have tried to keep these rises to a minimum, have made considerable effort to inform our customers as soon as possible and have asked retailers to support an increase.”

Resilience factor: “From a consumer perspective, I feel that the category is quite resilient, as shown by the continual purchase of cards over the past few years, even during lockdowns. However, consumers are coming under increased pressure from rising living costs and with cards and wrap often regarded as discretionary items, further category price rises are likely to result in reduced volume and spend this year.”

Timeframe: “The hope has been that things would have settled down by the end of last year, but now it looks increasingly apparent that these raised costs will continue for a while yet.”

Above: Daniel Prince is braced for cost rises to hang around for a while.

Left: Shipping container costs have risen over 500% over the last two years.

At a time when UK inflation hits a 30 year high, sparking real concerns over those already living on bread line, cost rises (and raw material shortages) are hitting the greeting card industry from all angles.

PG canvassed opinions from those all along the supply chain - printer, envelope company, publishers, agent and retailer - as to how they are feeling about the price rises and when they predict the situation abating.

Independent sales agent Richard Pass of STL agency (who represents Alljoy, Dandelion Stationery, Giftwrap UK, Redback Cards, Two Little Monkeys) in North of England “Virtually all my agencies have had to announce a price increase, fortunately this is industrywide and as such it hasn’t impacted negatively on the business.

Card and gift companies are all facing a triple whammy increases in costs of raw materials, cost of shipping plus cost of production so it was inevitable that the prices would increase. They may need to increase again this year. Thankfully all the retailers are experienced in their business and understand this. The beauty of the card industry is that it isn’t really a price conscious market and the consumer seems to have accepted the price increases. The reality is that this industry is very strong, especially in the independent sector and what may have been seen as a negative has been embraced Above: Richard Pass believes the sector can live with retail price increases.

22

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

22-25.qxp_Grid 24/02/2022 14:01 Page 3

VIEWPOINTS as a positive. Simply put, if everyone makes the same percentage margin, a price increase means a better cash return for everyone.”

Surcharge v price rises? “I have two agencies that have approached this differently to a straight price rise. Alljoy Design elected to increase carriage paid order values, but it is still only £150. This ensured they didn’t have to impose a price increase. Whereas Flame Tree Publishing has maintained its RRP on journals etc while reducing the discounts offered on spinner deals. This means the RRP is at the magic £9.99 for its A5 journals. It has had to increase the calendar RRP but this is still very competitive in the market.”

Resilience factor: “This is a sector that can live with price increases relatively easily, of course every product has a price ceiling but over the last few years we have seen a remarkable growth in the £5.00+ greeting card. Giftwrap will also fair well although it may be that the 2m role is slowly replaced with a 1.5m version. New technology, as evidenced in Giftwrap UK’s exciting products in its Christmas launch bring benefits. Equally, companies like Redback Cards, Two Little Monkeys and Dandelion Stationery are working very hard to help the retailer, bringing in cellofree options, producing in the UK and launching new ranges. Overall, I am very positive about the future.”

Timeframe: “I think we are in this situation for the long haul, without question. Having said that it’s a very positive place to be. Consumers are continuing to shop local, the domestic tourist market is very buoyant and the international tourist will begin to come back. 2022 will be an interesting year, but we should all look forward to better and better business as time goes on.”

Seth Woodmansterne managing director of Woodmansterne Publications “In reality, independent greeting card publishers who also supply some of the larger retail chains get only one chance to review their prices each year. By November 2021, it was obvious to us that year-on-year costs were escalating at rates unseen this century. We at Woodmansterne bit the bullet then and published our February 2022 price list with a modest average increase of 6.5%.

However, when you add together board increases of 16-20% (ignoring paper shortages and delays), the massive fuel hikes and transportation levies, UK manual labour shortages from Covid and Brexit pushing wage inflation, uncapped commercial energy bills (up 25-100% depending on your luck)…6.5% looks modest indeed and now hardly scratches the surface!”

Timeframe: “Sadly, it doesn’t look like things are going to calm down very soon as global supply chains take time to adjust, both on supply shortages and costs (and a war with Russia is the last thing we need)! Watching those incredible pilots land planes at Heathrow during Storm Eunice, we’ll just have to hope we too can navigate these unpredictable winds!”

Above: Seth Woodmansterne on the recent BBC Inside the Factory programme.

Left: Jerry Dyer’s Big Jet TV was a big draw during the recent big stoms.

Above: A 3D card from Alljoy, one of the companies represented by Richard, increased its carriage paid amount to help absorb some cost increases.

Sally Matson

Left: Red Card’s Sally Matson, a fair-minded champion, with some of the localised cards she stocks.

owner of Red Card, Petworth “Such challenging times. The cost rises have been filtering through from suppliers more frequently since the start of the year. We have received many emails along the lines of ‘we will hold the current prices until the end of February but…’We are not able to absorb all of these increases and I think they will have a real impact on all businesses.

With the cost of living rising and more importantly the media saturating the news with it there is a risk that we, the independent sector, are perceived as expensive and not for times of personal austerity. To counter this we must offer the best in customer service and convenience and work hard to ensure we give the best value for money we can while still maintaining the margins we need to keep our businesses running. The way the luxury consumer responds to the current situation will be key to our survival and success.

I also think that these price rises have come at a time when the British ‘luxury’ consumer is becoming far more discerning about the provenance of products. I am being asked more and more if items are ‘Made in China’ and am now curating the shop stock much more carefully and selectively on this basis. I think there will always be certain items that come from China (especially seasonal decorations), but now, with the tenfold increase in the cost of getting a container from the Far East to the UK, there are real alternatives with more price parity closer to home.”

Reacting to the price rises: “As a retailer, we are not able to pass all the increases on to our customers, as there are sensitive price thresholds of which we must be mindful. A perfect example is a product I was pricing this week which now works out at £3.05 retail,

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

23

22-25.qxp_Grid 24/02/2022 14:01 Page 4

VIEWPOINTS but was previously £2.95. I currently need to hold that product at £2.95. Where I feel that the price rise is reasonable and doesn’t go over these sensitive price points, then I am passing on the increase. There needs to be careful consideration of price rises between the wholesaler, the retailer and the consumer, and there needs to be a meeting in the middle ground. We are all going to have to take a hit to some extent.

I find it particularly challenging when the larger card companies are selling products to supermarkets at far less than the cost they sell to the smaller independent retailers, meaning I find myself in a position where a card that I sell for £2.70 is available at Sainsbury’s for £2.00. In some circumstances there may be a difference in the quality of the paper stock used, but that is irrelevant, as the customer perception is that the small independents are much more expensive than the supermarkets, and this myth is perpetuated by this behaviour - the customer Above: Sally feels that something needs to be done thinks we are more expensive across the board. If the large card companies continue to sell in on the price parity front with the supermarkets. this way, they will end up only being stocked in supermarkets, as with the rising costs we are all facing, we will not be able to stock their brands alongside comparable product that is cheaper and more unique.”

Mitigating measures: “Our loyalty card scheme is helping to mitigate the impact of some of these price rises - when a customer has bought ten cards they get the 11th free, which is a 10% discount and encourages loyalty.

As a business Red Card has started to become much more involved in the local Petworth community and I think this is one of the many things that will help to see us through the challenging year ahead. In a small town that has a mix of affluent customers and those at the other end of the scale, I feel that if we support our community as much as we can, they will feel they have a reason to support us.”

Trade price rises v surcharges: “Surcharges are dishonest and frustrating. If you have a wholesale price on a product it is a reasonable expectation that the listed price plus VAT is what we will pay - to then add a surcharge is not right and I won’t deal with companies who do this. I don’t add a surcharge to my customers - the price on the price label is what they pay.”

Timeframe and resilience: “Given the price rises we have seen since January, I think that this will be a year of price rises. Hopefully by the end of the year it will have settled a little, but honestly, given what we have seen happen in the world over the last two years, who knows?!

Retailers and consumers (and no doubt wholesalers) will be forced to use companies that provide best value and best customer service and this means that inevitably there will be companies in every part of the equation that don’t survive.”

Becky Dobson managing director of Glick “I am writing this while on a plane during Storm Dudley with people screaming in fear all around me. Talk about dealing with headwinds. Thinking about record inflation is an effective distraction!

Having held our prices for year after year, like many other companies we are being hit from all angles with cost increases - from shipping to energy, board to transport. Added to this is the rise in minimum wage and the Plastic Tax coming into effect on April 1.”

Surcharge v price rise: “Hoping it would be a short-lived, we imposed a shipping surcharge last July, but removed it in December.

We have increased our prices on our products, but in some instances the increase is less than the surcharge was.”

Timeframe and resilience: “We all need an amazing crystal ball, but we are not expecting matters to stabilise this year and costs are still very volatile.

You just have to be ready for the next swerve and take comfort in the fact that our sector is much more resilient than others.

Birthdays, births, weddings etc will be happening and people will be sending cards and giving gifts.”

Above: Glick’s Becky Dobson with one of the company’s many Henries trophies.

Left: Glick has ditched the surcharge in favour of small trade price increases on its products.

24

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

Frances Bodiam managing director of Flame Tree Publishing “The overall message has to be to adapt and change to embrace the challenges that you are confronted with!

Flame Tree Publishing has been making beautiful fine art greeting cards, calendars and notebooks for nearly 30 years and over that time we have changed our offer in accordance with market forces and commercial reality. A successful business must be able to take the lessons of the last two years and find ways to get better and stronger.

The biggest impact during 2020/21 was the four times increase in shipping costs. It wasn’t just cost increases that caused problems, there was a huge shortage of containers, lorries and warehouse space so not only were we paying higher prices to ship, we Above: Flame Tree’s Frances Bodiam (right) with colleague Christine Delaborde at the Spring Fair.

22-25.qxp_Grid 24/02/2022 14:01 Page 5

VIEWPOINTS suffered delays of sometimes months for crucial stock including calendars and diaries and jigsaw puzzles.

To mitigate against all of this we’re having to plan much earlier and allow much more in terms of leadtimes for printing and shipping than we ever have before. It’s tough but good discipline!

We were forced to increase the prices of our jigsaw puzzles a little and actually have found that all other jigsaw manufacturers have had to increase their retail pricing too so that we are now in line with the wider marketplace.”

Resilience factor: “I well remember the days in the early 1990s when Jan 1 saw an automatic 10% increase in prices every year! We have not increased our retail prices for greeting cards or notebook ranges for many years but I think that in an image-led industry like ours, retail customers and consumers are buying what they love, or what will suit their environment - it’s not as if they can get the same product cheaper from another manufacturer/publisher.”

Timeframe: “The general consensus from shipping companies seems to be that prices will gradually come down a bit, but will not go back to prepandemic levels. We’re being told that containers will become more available this year, although we haven’t seen evidence of that yet.”

John Jones sales director of Enveco, which provides many publishers with envelopes and notebooks “In the 25 years of working in this industry I have never seen such substantial and constant price increases, circumstances have created the ‘perfect storm’, starting with Brexit and the additional associated costs, Covidrelated delays, the global bounce back after lockdowns, the demand for paper and board-related packaging as replacements for previously used plastics and now the surging energy costs.

With the scale of increases being experienced it has been impossible not to increase our selling prices. We are investing in higher levels of paper stock and placing orders a lot earlier to ensure continuity of supply, but there is no getting away from it, everything we use in our manufacturing process now costs a lot more than it did two years ago!”

Timeframe and resilience: “I can’t see this situation changing in the next six months or possibly even until the end of the year. I think everyone within the trade will have to try and work with higher unit costs than previously experienced.

We are a very resilient industry that is more than capable of adapting to the fast changing circumstances put in front of us, key for this year for manufacturers and publishers will be communication, planning, planning and a bit more planning!”

Above: Enveco’s John Jones on the company’s stand at the recent Spring Fair.

Above: One of Flame Tree’s new sustainable jigsaws.

Tony Lorriman managing director of Loxleys, specialist greeting card printer “I have been in the print industry for almost 30 years and I have never known a period of sustained cost increases like we are currently experiencing, it is literally one thing after another! Every raw material and consumable item we purchase, even pallets, not to mention energy and distribution have significantly increased in cost over the past six months with some items increasing several times either in the form of a traditional price increase or the in vogue ‘temporary’ surcharge, or in some cases both.

The cost increases we are seeing are driven by macro issues occurring on a global scale, so although we always work with our supply partners to mitigate and minimise cost increases, the severity of the current situation means rising product costs are inevitable. This leaves us treading a very fine line between mitigating cost increases and ensuring continuity of supply.”

Timeframe: “I sincerely hope the cost pressures we are experiencing settle down quickly and we can return to a period of stability, however in reality I feel this is unlikely given the current global supply shortages, surging energy costs and the imminent minimum wage increase.

Things show no sign of abating. In the last couple of weeks we have been informed at very short notice of yet more increases.”

Above: Loxleys’ Tony Lorriman.

Left: From the cost of paper pulp through to cardboard, price increases have gone through the roof.

Fiona Pitt head of commercial of Hallmark UK and Ireland “Hallmark, like many other businesses has seen a notable increase in costs over the last six months.

Many of our key input costs, including raw materials and freight have been particularly hard hit, but we are also seeing cost pressure from many other areas, too. We’re working hard to mitigate the increases; looking for efficiencies in almost every corner of the supply chain, but some cost price increases to customers have become inevitable.”

Resilience factor and timeframe: “We expect to see inflated costs in the market at least until the latter part of 2022, but we do believe that the market is resilient and innovative enough to come out stronger and fitter on the other side!”

Above: Fiona Pitt expects the cost rises to continue until later in 2022.

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

25

26-27.qxp_Grid 25/02/2022 12:04 Page 2

In Conversation with... Paperchase

Building Bridges This time last year Paperchase had just been bought from administrators in a pre-pack deal which left many greeting card publishers who had supplied the hitherto ‘darling of design-led cards and stationery’ understandably smarting over their unpaid invoices.

So, a year on PG was more than happy to meet the new buying team, gain an understanding of the refreshed retailing and product strategy as well as how bridges are being rebuilt.

“The last year has been tricky one for so many,” acknowledges Carlo Marinelli, Paperchase’s senior card and wrap buyer, who joined the retailer a couple of years ago, initially on the merchandising side before moving across into buying. “It was horrible when Paperchase went into administration, knowing that it caused financial difficulties for suppliers,” Carlo admits. “I would like to think that 2022 will bring more stability generally, that the return to the High Street will continue and that we can continue to foster better relationships with suppliers.”

While Carlo was no stranger to retailing when he joined the Paperchase team, his previous 20 years had been spent in footwear merchandising for Topman.

Above: Paperchase’s new store in Braehead.

Right: Paperchase’s (left-right) Carlo Marinelli, Tori Heath-Smith (and her dog Elton…on ‘bring your dog to work day’) and Laura Clarke, holding the retailer’s bestselling everyday card, a Daschund design in the HQ in Clerkenwell, London.

Inset: The retailer’s ‘eco’ card offering includes designs from card publishers as well as its own produced seed cards.

26

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

However, he has clearly taken the new buying remit in his stride.

Likewise, Tori Heath-Smith, who took on the role as card buyer for Paperchase at the end of 2020 was also a pair of fresh eyes on the retailer’s buying remit, joining after six years spent in womenswear buying roles.

“I really enjoy being involved in greeting cards as they respond to the trends in a similar way to womenswear,” says Tori.

“My remit at Paperchase includes ensuring we continue to drive innovation and a strong product selection.”

And completing the new Paperchase card buying team is Laura Clarke, who joined

from Moonpig recently where she had been involved on the gifting side and Sophie Maslen, buying admin assistant, who joined six months ago from the fashion world.

On the store front, while a slimmed down version of its former self, Paperchase still has a sizeable presence on the high street and in consumer perception. It now trades from some 126 stores (including concessions) and is on the hunt for

26-27.qxp_Grid 25/02/2022 12:04 Page 3

In Conversation with... Paperchase

additional retail sites, not just in the right locations, but of an appropriate unit size.

Having closed all of its massive flagship stores - notably in London, Manchester and Glasgow - while Carlos confirms that store openings have been and are on the agenda, these will be of a more modest stature than Paperchase’s historic statement emporiums.

“It is now more about profitability than size,” explains Carlo about the stores Paperchase is opening, citing the two new branches in Glasgow (Buchanan Street and Braemare) and Manchester’s Arndale as evidence of this.

On the greeting card front, the last few weeks has seen the inaugural full blown curated selection from Tori make its way into the stores.

In something of a departure from historic practice, this has seen Paperchase’s own brand cards integrated with branded greeting card publishers’ designs.

“It is all about creating a better flow instore and making it easier for the buying public,” says Tori. While the balance between own brand and standalone publishers’ cards has swung in favour of own brand, Tori is keen to assure that card publishing brands have an enduring role to play in its line-up.

“It’s all about offering our customer a selection of greeting cards that is not available elsewhere. While our own brand card designs form an important part of this, either developed by us or in conjunction with established card publishers, such as The Art File and Top right: The best-selling Valentine’s ‘card’ this year for Paperchase was its £10 record player design.

Above: Tori with a Paperchase ‘talking’ telephone card.

Right: Some of the Mother’s Day selection from Paperchase.

UKG, these are augmented by what external publishers can add - be it Pigment with its upmarket Fox & Butler cards, Stop the Clock for kids’ cards or Stormy Knight for its Bloom seed card range,” elaborated Tori.

The aforementioned Bloom range takes its place within Paperchase’s fast growing (pardon the pun) eco card range, many of which are printed on board embedded with wildflower seeds.

“On the strength of the customer reaction to our seed everyday selection we are now looking to extend into seasonal designs and onto giftwrap,” revealed Tori.

“This is just part of our commitment to growing our sustainable offer. We moved away from cellowrapping the majority of our cards over a year ago and swopped the foam pads we use in cards to those made from paper pulp, something customers would not notice, but that we feel is important,” says Tori.

However, juxtaposed with the more worthy sustainable stance, the other thrust that is chiming well with Paperchase customers is the retailer’s innovative own brand greeting card concepts, be it a telephone design that can relay a personalised message or a piano keyboard design that lets you ‘play’ the happy birthday tune.

Any fears that Tori had about how the costs of including such innovative elements into the cards would outprice them for the buying public have been allayed by the sales figures.

“It is all about them being deemed value for money. Our best selling Valentine’s Day design was our retro record player design that sold for £10 each. I would like to see this as encouraging for the greeting card industry in general,” offers Tori. “From our experience as long as you are delivering

what people want, you can push up your retail prices and even for our everyday Innovation cards we are sensing no resistance to a £4.50£5.00 price point.”

While Paperchase is currently only sourcing from around 15 greeting card publishers, Carlo, Tori and Laura, would very much like to leave the door open for the future.

They fully understand some of the reticence towards dealing with Paperchase given the retailer’s recent history, but Carlo assures that “the business is in a healthy positive position” and that he would love to see the retailer restored to its ‘darling’ status under his watch!

Up close and personal What do you most like about the greeting card industry?

Tori: “The sheer creativity and all that is involved in bringing the products to the consumer.”

Carlo: “The idea that cards bring joy and support between people.”

Laura: “That they are a ‘real’ tangible communication, one of the last bastions of handwriting.”

Share something people wouldn’t know about you?

Tori: “I used to be a professional ice skater and was a British champion when I was 15 years old.”

Carlo: “Much to my wife’s annoyance, my shoe collection is vast – comprising over 200 pairs.”

Laura: “During lockdown I did a Diploma in Interior Design.”

What is your guilty pleasure?

Tori: “The Kardashians.”

Carlo: “Chocolate Hobnobs.”

Laura: “Watching trashy TV, like Celebs go Dating.”

What would be your perfect Saturday?

Tori: “Dog walk, pub lunch, watch a movie at home.”

Carlo: “A trip to a theme park with my wife and the kids.”

Laura: “A lie-in, a few drinks with friends, a takeaway and trashy TV.” What did you want to be when you ‘grew up’?

Tori: “I have always wanted to be a detective.”

Carlo: “I’d have loved to be an author.”

Laura: “I have always loved animals, so I would have loved to have been a vet.”

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

27

28-31.qxp_Grid 23/02/2022 12:28 Page 2

International Perspectives

United Nations As travel restrictions ease, following on from last month’s edition, PG continues its globetrotting mission, by checking in with some of the leading greeting card distributors and publishers in various countries to find out how trade has been in their corners of the world.

Canada: Liz Lunse, owner of North+South Distributors The year that was: “The Canadian card market has been positive, despite all the challenges for retailers. As in many parts of the world, uncertainty was often in the minds of buyers and 2021 was slow to get going. It blossomed however into a strong year in the third and fourth quarter.

Even without Covid, January and February can be slow months in most of Canada, due to cold weather. To warm things up we ran a sale to help stimulate the market and give our customers a boost.”

Challenges and positives: “Showing ranges to buyers over the last year was more challenging than usual, as we had to avoid periods where restrictions applied.

Being a large country, this varies from one Province to another. We overcame this by sending personalised mini sample ranges to many of our customers.

From our own business perspective, the cost of shipping and other cost increases challenged us to work yet more

cost effectively and to accept that margins are going to be squeezed. Mostly, we absorbed cost increases, and held off as long as possible before introducing any price increases to our customers.

Speaking to customers frequently on the phone has proved an important part of the last two years, helping in any way we could, so the biggest positive is that relationships were strengthened. Sending a personal note, a little gift, a sale offering, a free pack of cards…all kinds of little things are appreciated when times are tough. As it has been difficult for sales agents to always get to see customers, I am happy to report that more and more of our customers order via our website which has meant the agents have still received their commissions.”

Left: Liz Lunse on her recent birthday.

Right: North+South’s top selling and longest running card is the Pinot Grigio card from Paperlink’s Rhubarb Pie range.

Below: A supportive card from Caroline Gardner, which North+South distributes in Canada.

Card buying habits: “We used to supply large cards for offices - that business has shrunk!

Humorous cards have been strong throughout the last two years while sadly sympathy cards remain a very strong category. Sales of Thinking of You and Thank You cards seem to have moved more towards Love & Friendship themes.”

Hopes for 2022: “We have a positive outlook, regardless of a slow start and believe it will be a great year! We hope that everyone gets through the year with good health, lots of fun and time to rest.

We are working towards a reduction in the number of cards we offer cellowrapped. First up are Caroline Gardner and Rosie Made a Thing, two of our most popular publishers.”

Australia: Sara and Mark Kagan, directors of Scarpa Imports The year that was: “Trade in our sector in 2021 was shocking, mainly because most of our retail clients were closed nationwide for about three months. There has been a lot of pent-up demand though from October until now.”

Challenges and positives: “Covid, International freight (costs and reliability), local distribution (when we finally reopened there were insufficient capable operators who could pick up and deliver on time), difficulty finding good experienced staff as a percentage were either sick or isolating, have been the main challenges.

Positives have to be, the pent-up demand for cards once we reopened. That, and the fact that we are still trading after 38 years!!”

Card buying habits: “We’ve seen a lot more happy and health-related cards being sent.”

Hopes and dreams for 2022: “To continue trading successfully with no further lockdowns.”

Left: Sara Kagan in Scarpa’s warehouse

28

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

28-31.qxp_Grid 23/02/2022 12:28 Page 3

International Perspectives

Germany: Marius Szanto, managing director of Anka Verlag The year that was: “My sales in 2021 were 15% more than in 2020, but still 35% less than in 2019. Having said that, I had a good Christmas 2021!

I have talked to others in the market and most said that they had enjoyed a very good Christmas run, the rest of the year was, in most cases, difficult.”

Challenges and positives: “Germany is a Federal Republic of 16 states with differing rules per state and this has never been more apparent than during the Corona crisis with the conflicting rules leading to confusion and uncertainty on the part of the public and retailers. It is primarily the uncertainty which has caused retailers to be hesitant to buy stock in a situation where conditions could change almost by the hour.

The companies which have really profited from this pandemic are those selling online, not just Amazon. However, selling cards online is not easy as customers like to browse and physically examine a card, all of which is difficult when the numbers allowed into a shop have been limited and on top of that you have had to show proof of having been vaccinated as well as an Identification Card with photograph to validate the vaccination certificate and, of course, wear a mask. This often resulted in long queues outside shops making the whole process rather embarrassing for the retailers.

Above: Marius Szanto with Ellen Kummer, While Frankfurt’s Paperworld was cancelled, the Trendset fair in Munich went ahead in January, and owner of Ihre Drogerie im Einkaufsland, given the circumstances was quite well attended. It took place held under strict Corona conditions. in Marktheidenfeld-Altfeld in Bavaria.

The general feeling of exhibitors was mixed, some were reasonably happy with the result of the show, many were not. There a high number of empty stands, booked but not set up or manned by the respective companies.”

Hopes for 2022: “Corona is not going away; it is here to stay and we have to learn to live with it as we do with many other infectious diseases.

2022 has started well for me and so hope that the uncertainty will settle down. It is hoped that once a very large section of the population has been vaccinated and/or infected with Corona most of the restrictions will be lifted and normalcy will return, possibly by Easter.”

Ireland: Alan MacNamee, Garlanna, managing director of Garlanna Cards The year that was: “The greeting card market in Ireland has been excellent, with retailers showing growth on growth.

It has really been an amazing year, thankfully!”

Challenges and positives: “Like everyone we have experienced Covid-related issues, be it supply chain issues, shipping delays. Paper shortages, the rise in cost of paper due to this and also longer lead times have all affected us, but all challenges that can be overcome.

On the positive front, Garlanna’s brand awareness has grown, both online and in the marketplace. Our team has expanded over the last year, having taken on some talented new designers as well as expanding our sales fleet.

Garlanna is now the supplier for Ireland’s National Post Office (AnPost), which has long been a dream for our company.”

Card buying habits: “The public are looking for sustainable products which ties in with us having removed the plastic wrapping from our greeting cards and where possible are now using recycled board for our cards.

We have published a lot of new contemporary designs which have been very popular. ‘A hug in an envelope’ is our tagline and this is something that people have been doing. People are sending more open ‘just to say’ cards so we have designed ranges to give our customer plenty of choice for these sends.”

Hopes for 2022: “Our dream is a very simple one - for continued success and growth for Garlanna as we have experienced over the past year.”

Japan: Kayoko Kubo, general manager of Toy Symphony The year that was: “I am pleased to report that the card market in Japan fared better in the last year than the year previous.

We experienced strong Christmas trade while sales of children’s cards also grew, meaning we havce been able to increase our imports of these types of cards.

We are now looking forward to further expanding our product portfolio with new designs.”

Below: Kayoko Kubo (left) with Toy Symphony’s founder Hiroshi Kawamura (second right) with Louise Tiler and Woodmansterne’s Lee Keeper at Spring Fair 2020.

Above: Alan MacNamee.

Left: One of the many contemporary cards from Garlanna.

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

29

28-31.qxp_Grid 23/02/2022 12:28 Page 4

International Perspectives

Canada: Tory Wright, president of Paper E.Clips The year that was: “As we had a series of lockdowns and Covid challenges for retailers in general, we do feel that this has affected our retailers, but we have been very surprised by how robust sales have been and our Christmas trade was great.”

Challenges and positives: “Managing Covid protocols has meant that for another year we have been wearing masks in the office and observing social distancing. It has made for an awkward working life. As for the positives, we have had the time to examine all our business processes and I think we are running tighter than we ever have before. We have also heavily invested in our social media presence and that has kept us engaged with our customers.”

Card buying habits: “I feel that ‘mean’ humour left the room for a bit. We all needed bit of encouragement and we continue to see an uptick in cards with good contemporary illustration and art cards.”

Your company developments: “We have worked hard in the last year on our own range, called Halfpenny Postage which launched into the USA with Faire. We are very pleased with the results so far and look forward to being able to work with more Canadian designers and artists to expand this collection.”

Hopes for 2022: “My big hope is that we can all shed the Covid protocols. It would be so nice to approach friends, family, staff and strangers with less apprehension.”

Coming to PG Live in June? “We would like to come. Hopefully the timing of the show will mean that Covid restrictions will be lighter and the barriers for travel will be much less.”

Above: Tory Wright.

Left: As well as distributing several UK publisher’s ranges, Paper E.Clips now publishes its own designs under the Halfpenny Postage brand.

The States: Eli Nelson, owner of The Nelson Line The year that was: “Wow…it's been a strange and tough two years.

Business-wise 2021 was a big comeback for us over the disaster that was 2020, but just looking at the numbers doesn't begin to tell the story. The pandemic jitters are still everywhere, alongside the political/ideological divisiveness that now characterises everyday life in the United States.

While I am happy to report that many of our customers have made it through, a significant number have either closed or are still operating at a low ebb - museum stores come to mind here - which is no surprise given the tremendous drop in travel and tourism. Of course, our sales agents have suffered tremendously and have had to totally reinvent their sales methods and strategies: very few in-person appointments have made them rely more heavily on arm's length presentations with printed material, making use of electronic communication, etc. Like us and our customers they are entrepreneurs and survivors: we have all had to reinvent ourselves.”

Above: Eli, art director (and Eli’s wife) Elizabeth and Trixie.

Challenges and positives: “Major challenges? Here are the top three: Above: A classic from the New Yorker range from Nelson Line.

1. supply chain 2. Supply Chain 3. SUPPLY CHAIN Every aspect - shipping and receiving goods, sourcing materials (paper, envelopes, POP displays... you name it), all supply chain related costs have jumped dramatically and in the case of the UK our historical shipping timelines have increased by a factor of at least four, forcing us to totally revamp our purchasing strategies. Because Nelson Line is also a publisher, trading and sourcing in the Far East as well as an importer/distributor, we are dealing with these issues in every facet of our business. Although we hope that these issues will begin to moderate in 2022, they haven't as yet. We have had to impose price increases for our trade accounts, but I made the decision not to price in all the added costs we have absorbed in the hope that as the year progresses some of these costs would start to fall. Not a traditional business strategy but there you have it: all of us have to think differently now.”

Now for the positives: “All of us greeting card folks are in the communication business and because people want to be in touch and stay in touch, but getting together in person is difficult, sending cards has become more important for many people who simply didn't consider them before the world changed two years ago. And what do people want to share when times are tough? A good laugh always helps - our humour assortments have been exceptionally strong during this time. Our online business in general has increased dramatically, both with trade accounts and end customers.”

Hopes and dreams for 2022: “My hope for this year is that we internalise all these changes, good and bad, and just get on with life. Time is our most precious resource and we cannot afford to squander it.”

30

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

28-31.qxp_Grid 23/02/2022 12:28 Page 5

International Perspectives

Germany: Peter Giovanazzi, director of Papeteria Verlag

Above: Peter Giovanazzi in exhibition mode!

The year that was: “Overall 2021 was not that bad for the ranges we distribute from UK and Italy as well as our own published collection of high quality giftwrap.”

Challenges and positives: “The major challenge, of course, has been the pandemic. In the first few months of 2021 until mid March we had a lockdown in Germany. All of our 2020 trade fairs (Munich, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Leipzig) were cancelled, our agents could not generate orders and the shops were closed. So, we did about just 25% of our normal turnover in this period. At the end of spring, the situation improved, became normal again from June onwards and Christmas business was fantastic.

In the periods of lockdown we did less work and calmed down a bit, read books and did excursions and walks in the countryside.”

Card buying habits: “There was a transition phase from lockdown to ‘Click & Collect’ and in this period we saw a big demand for greeting cards and even writing paper sets.”

Hopes and dreams for 2022: “Paperworld and Ambiente Frankfurt were cancelled again in 2022!

I'm so sick of it and I hope that this pandemic will come to an end soon so that we can enjoy a summer again without these facemasks. I hope to come over to the UK again and visit my suppliers and friends.”

Coming to PG Live in June? “I will try to come over to PG Live (my initials = one of my favourite fairs) as I have done many times.”

The States: Nicky Burton, director of Calypso Cards The year that was: “Once businesses started opening up again early in 2021 greeting card sales picked up and stayed up.

Holiday (Christmas) cards sales were way up.”

Challenges and positives: “The biggest challenge is international shipping delays and costs. With so few flights from the UK, costs have soared over the last two years, and even boat shipments rose to above the cost of air shipments pre-pandemic, while the Suez Canal fiasco only added to delays. In addition, paper is in short supply which is pushing up prices and making envelopes scarce.

As to the positives, in addition to increased sales and reduced expenses with less travel and trade shows, the pandemic has forced us to consider our priorities and has made us more efficient.”

Hopes and dreams for 2022: “That this might be the year we put the worst of the pandemic behind us and that we can travel to meet our customers again! We are looking forward to exhibiting at *Noted in San Francisco at the end of April”.

Above: Cards by Maureen Flynn, a new artist for Calypso in its Carte collection.

Below: Nicky Burton in Calypso’s office in Newport, Rhode Island.

The States: Steve Gimbelman, president and ceo of Designer Greetings The year that was: “Fortunately, we are focused heavily on the grocery and drugstore sectors.

These stores remained open in 2021 and thrived so we feel lucky to have a large presence in these two channels of distribution.”

Challenges and positives: “Container rate increases continue to impact our bottom line, as it is now 4-6 times more expensive to bring in our product and on top of that there is still a shortage of containers.

On the positive front, our employees all returned to work throughout the pandemic. As a family-owned-and-operated business, we value our employees’ loyalty. We also expanded our product line last year to include a full line of stationery products.”

Card buying habits: “In the last few years, embellishments, such as tip-on attachments, seem more important than ever to the consumer. The consumer demands are for higher-end, handmade cards combined with the right sentiment.”

Your company developments: “We are in the middle of another large acquisition and are also will be ‘breaking ground’ in the spring with additional space, which will total more than 200,000 sqft. being added to our current property in Edison, New Jersey.”

Above: Steve Gimbelman.

Right: A Palm Press design from the Designer Greetings group.

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

31

32-33.qxp_Grid 26/02/2022 17:16 Page 2

On Location... with Mint Group

In Mint

Condition

Above left: (right-left) Alan and Debbie Williams, Sophie Bylina and Tom Williams in the new showroom.

Above: M&G’s licensing agreement with the V&A spans a variety of products, from greeting cards to glass paperweights.

Left: The new Wildlife Photographer of the Year range from Museums & Galleries, which features the company’s Eco-band.

Below left: One of the six impressive vehicles that are used for picking orders in the new 43,000 sq headquarters and warehouse in Corby.

Below: A design from Real & Exciting Design’s new Voila range.

When Debbie Williams took on what was intended to be a temporary book-keeping job with a little known card company at the start of the noughties, little did she know that it would lead to picking up the keys to a 43,000 sq ft premises that is now home to one of the UK’s leading independentlyowned greeting card publishing groups.

It all started in 2006 with Debbie and her husband Alan (then still a farmer) buying Mint, then in 2014 came the acquisition of Museums & Galleries, followed a year later with Real & Exciting Designs joining the fold.

These acquisitions saw the group take on more and more space, expanding into six units on a Kettering trading estate, but the 28,000 sq ft capacity was just not enough to accommodate the inherent growth, and so a move was on the cards. With a perfect solution sourced for a move into a new home in nearby Corby, all was looking good, then the pandemic struck!

“We did start moving in back in July 2020, but had to work from two sites for a while to allow for social 32

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

It would take more than a pandemic to deter the Mint Group from fulfilling its dream of relocating to a state of the art headquarters and central warehouse.

Now fully ensconced in its 43,000 sq ft new home, PG hotfooted it to Corby to catch up with the family-run business which comprises Museums & Galleries, Mint Publishing and Real & Exciting Designs.

distancing,” explains Debbie. “In the first year we despatched Christmas from here in Corby and everyday from our old premises. It wasn’t easy, but it had to be done,” adds Alan.

Adding to the complexities, general manager (and Debbie’s son) Tom Williams was determined to install state of the art highline picking lines to accommodate the group’s 4,500 skus across its brands, which has seen some hefty investment in impressive kit, including six ‘wave’ machines which pickers can manoeuvre with great agility as well as a grid system for a top end forklift to move palettes.

And on top of this, Museums & Galleries studio

32-33.qxp_Grid 26/02/2022 17:16 Page 3

On Location... with Mint Group

Retiring Riou The recent Spring Fair saw the Mint Group mark Riou Baxter’s retirement, who together with his business partner Mike Broad has helped drive the group’s sales for many years through their Why Management business.

“Riou and Mike brought us the expertise of this industry and the confidence to supply multiples as well as independents. I remember the early days when WHSmith buyer Claire Castle came onto our stand at Spring Fair and I could hardly speak,” recalls Debbie. “We will forever be grateful to Riou for the part he played in our growth and we are delighted to still be working with Mike on an ongoing basis,” she added.

Below: A gathering on the Museums & Galleries stand to mark (centre back) Riou’s retirement.

down in Frome in Somerset (headed up by group creative director Ben Dorney) was also being doubled in size.

Ah yes, and then there has been the considerable expansion of the group’s product portfolio, plus significant progress on the sustainable front.

It’s been a journey alright, but neither Debbie nor Alan are ones to blow their own trumpets, they just get on with it and do what needs doing, be it up a ladder painting their stand at PG Live in June or packing Christmas orders after an outbreak of Covid in the new warehouse.

“It is just great to be in here now, all in one unit - and what’s more we have central heating!” says Sophie Bylina, administration and relationship manager, recalling the somewhat chillier conditions of the former premises.

The extra space has also resulted in an airy showroom being created to showcase the group’s portfolio. It is only when you see it altogether that you get a real feel for how broad the product offering is across its Above middle: As with all of the company’s Christmas collection, the Macmillan range is zero plastic, not even using any glue.

Above right: The Snapshot range from Mint features the innovative photographic art of Helga Stentzel.

Right: Mint’s new look Knit & Purl designs (the group’s best selling range, based on ‘characters’ hand knitted by Debbie) now features detailed embossing.

different components and indeed how each element has been strengthened.

Licences remain key to Museums & Galleries, but it is the sheer variety of these signings which is so impressive, from established heritage brands, such as V&A

and Natural History Museum through to contemporary designers, such as Helen Ahporinsiri and Catherine Rowe - with the most recent signing of Wildlife Photographer of the Year bringing some prestigious wildlife photographers into the fold.

While the recently refreshed Mint’s Knit & Purl remains the group’s best selling range (featuring characters that have been handknitted by Debbie), this has been joined by some new inmates, most notably Snapshot, which features the quirky art photography by Helga Stentzel who ‘makes’ dogs out of toast and turns teabags and washing machines into animated objects to humorous effect.

Living up to its name, Real & Exciting Designs continues to evolve, with Voila being the latest creation by the hugely talented Sarah Curedale (co-founder of the brand) to hit the racks.

When pressed as to how it feels to now have a ‘new home’ for the group as well as all the exciting new products that have just been launched, the ever modest Debbie deflected the praise onto others.

“We just feel so proud of our team, how they have adapted to the evolution of the business as well as to our retail customers, both multiples and independents. We would not be where we are today without them,” said Debbie turning to Alan. “I tell you something, I am never going back to being a farmer, this is much more fun!” he admits.

Sustainable push A commitment to sustainability has very much been a part of Mint Group’s ethos for several years, as evidenced by the launch of its pioneering eco-Band patented solution back in 2018, to hold its card and envelopes together, doing away with the need for cellowrapping.

“While we are proud of our ecoBand and are talking to several publishers who are interested in adopting it too, we always wanted to do more on the sustainable front and this remains a major focus throughout the business,” explains Debbie.

The Museums & Galleries’ stand at the recent Spring Fair brought this focus to life across its everyday and Christmas cards, calendars, notecards and wrappings with the ‘Zero Plastic’ messaging on the packaging relaying the product’s environmental credentials right through to the consumer.

“We have re-engineered all of our Christmas boxes and packs to be Zero Plastic, not using any glue or featuring any flitter,” relays Sophie.

On the giftwrappings front, Debbie adds that “at Spring Fair we showcased prototypes of our plastic-free rollwrap and tissue packs that will be phased in from the summer.”

On the production front, all the group’s cards, including the Christmas boxes are made in the UK, as is all the social stationery and flatwrap.

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

33

34-35_37.qxp_Grid 24/02/2022 12:58 Page 2

Giftwrapping: Design Trends

Wrapping & Rolling From exotic animals to the beauty of British nature, fruity flavours and bold geometrics, giftwrappings companies are abundant with newness.

PG shares some of the latest design treats and trends.

Right: The glory of green on a Stephanie Dyment collection from Glick.

Ben Dorney, creative director, Museums & Galleries...

Andrew Maddock, md of Deva Designs and designer Reuben Duffy...

Tropical Trend: “Being confined to our homes longer than we could ever have anticipated we are ready to re-emerge, with our new tropical animal design reflecting this. We have now started printing on the reverse side of our wraps which adds perceived value as well as a surprise for the recipient.”

Home Comforts: “After an unsettling couple of years, trends are more focused on wellbeing, health and sustainability, and it’s what makes them happy and comforting. We have therefore created natural fabric based designs in calming neutral tones. The flat wrap sheets are double-sided and the bags are printed inside and out, adding an organic, snug feel. New sizes are ideal for candles, diffusers or homely gifts.”

Foosball: “Foosball has been in our range for an amazing five years and sold 140,000 sheets, so we felt it was time to re-invent this classic, making it bolder and brighter with more impact.”

Above: The new look Foosball football wrap from Deva Designs.

34

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

Building on success: “So far this year we've tried to build on proven successes within our wider ranges, in particular, some whose themes will mirror more general trends: Japanese art (in our case, a stunning Red Cranes designs from V&A), Wild Hares (in the floral collage style of Wild Press by Helen Ahpornsiri) and a Bee repeat (by designer Catherine Rowe) are three examples. In addition, we've added to our Guess How Much I Love You range with a new wrap in both everyday and Christmas.”

Larger range: “Our wrap range is much bigger than it used to be, and for key prints is co-ordinated across giftwrap, tissue paper, rollwrap and gift bags (and often related stationery or cards) so retailers can really buy into a successful design and run with it.”

Below: Among Museum & Galleries’ new wrap designs is Red Cranes from the V&A.

34-35_37.qxp_Grid 24/02/2022 12:58 Page 3

Giftwrapping: Design Trends

Becky Dobson, md of Glick…

Nature’s wonders: “Nature-inspired floral and fauna are prominent themes that feature in our newly launched Louise Mulgrew collection.

“Meanwhile, green in various shades are also very much in evidence as we continue to bring the outdoors in.”

Bold Brights: “Geometrics are still, and will probably always be, popular in paper products.

Paper Salad never fails to disappoint in this trend, using neon print, geometric patterns and embossing.”

Above: Exotic fauna and flora feature in this Louise Mugrew collection from Glick.

Left: Bold bright geometrics from Paper Salad from Glick.

James Mace, sales & marketing manager, The Art File...

Jo Clarke, founder, Toasted Crumpet...

Botanical inspiration: “We find the botanical look of our designs continues to work beautifully on our flat giftwrap offerings. We are also excited to have extended our botanically inspired giftwrap designs onto gift bags, rollwrap and gift boxes through our collaboration with Penny Kennedy.”

Bold designs: “For 2022, we have introduced new designs across many formats - wraps, tissue, gift bags and tags - with our most significant new gift packaging release this year from our flat wraps. These awardwinning gift wraps, which are printed in the UK - some with reverse print, foil, and metallic gold ink - are all produced on high quality uncoated material. They are already full of theatre, originality and colour with our nine brand new designs bolder than ever. In addition, we also have an inspiring selection of brand new Christmas 2022 giftwrap, bags and accessories.”

Below: Some of the latest flat wrap designs from The Art File.

Other hits: “Additional favourites, where we see continued growth, include our Robin & Eucalyptus and Christmas Dogs designs on our rollwrap, bags and boxes with Penny Kennedy.”

Above: Toasted Crumpet’s In Full Bloom reflects botanicals.

Right: A licensing collaboration with Penny Kennedy saw the Toasted Crumpet collection make its debut at Spring Fair.

Dipika Shah, founder, Globe Enterprise...

Bold patterns: “For us, 2022 is all about offering handmade paper products, to include gift bags and gift boxes, that will celebrate a return to some kind of normality in our lives, featuring bright colours and bold patterns.

“Our most popular print is the latest iteration in the floral range.

The simple yet striking print comes in coral, turquoise, purple, lime green and hot pink.”

Right: Bold, colourful, patterned rollwrap from Globe Enterprise.

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

35

36_PG_March 2022.indd 1

24/02/2022 13:24

34-35_37.qxp_Grid 24/02/2022 12:59 Page 5

Giftwrapping: Design Trends

Rachel Hare, creative director and boss lady, Belly Button...

In the bag: “We have found great success with our different styles and sizes of bags and now offer small, medium, portrait, tote, mug and bottle. A large selection of these are available across most designs, and with our bottle bags we have specific designs that reflect the contents. Our Bleu Beer, Bleu Gin and Elle Champagne bags feature bottles while some collections feature related designs such as lemons and ‘ice & a slice’ in Mobius, and a striking pink Botanics gin bottle in Wild Thing. Fruit is a big trend for this year, especially strawberries, cherries and lemons.”

Right: Belly Button bottle bags like Bleu Beer and Blue Gin feature specific designs that reflect the contents.

Lorna Syson, founder, Lorna Syson...

Squeak squeak: “We’ve brought out two new designs specifically based on guinea pigs to keep up with the demand - the guinea pig ‘love’ and the guinea pig ‘superhero’ wrap.”

Fern: “We also have fern wrap which is hitting on the trend of biophilic design, a concept to increase connectivity to the natural environment. Featuring mainly leaves and greenery over florals, our fern wrap is ideal for this trend.”

Below: Guinea pigs are squeaking on giftwrap for Laura Syson.

Carolyn Verderame, sales director, Caroline Gardner...

Bold and colourful: “For SS22 our giftwrap launch includes three new rollwraps, two new flat wraps and several new designs in our gift bags. Our new rollwrap designs are inspired by some of our bestselling card ranges including fun, bold florals for birthdays inspired by our Funtastic card range; colourful balloons drawing from motifs in the All About Print ranges, and the bold, colourful Lovely News, which now adorn rollwrap, three gift bag sizes and two flat wrap designs. We have also incorporated our classic CG falling heart in a teal and purple flat wrap, while the CG open heart design has been re-imagined into a multi-coloured combination and translated onto our best selling gift bags sizes, all finished with gold foil detailing overall, the SS22 range is bold and colourful with designs for all occasions.”

Below: New for kids from Caroline Gardner.

Nicky Rajska, co-founder, Wrag Wrap...

Botanics: “We feel that botanical prints, with an abstract feel, remain suited to many occasions of gift giving and are longlasting and timeless too.

“Meanwhile prints with a futuristic feel, as well as those that offer optical illusions will sustain interest.

“Our wraps are longlasting and reusable therefore so our prints must be.”

Left: Dramatic styling from Wrag Wraps reusuable fabric wraps.

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

37

38-39_41_GF.qxp_Grid 24/02/2022 12:53 Page 2

Giftwrapping: Sustainability

The Green Scene With giftwrapping suppliers fully embracing the sustainability challenge, PG takes a look at how those in the sector are upping their eco credentials.

Onshoring benefits “We have significantly upped our commitment to sustainability within our giftwrappings collections over the last year,” assures David Byk, ceo of Swan Mill (which includes Penny Kennedy, GBCC and Ling).

“This has included onshoring production of Penny Kennedy’s rollwrap back to the UK, giving retailers the option of having it packaged plastic-free as well as removing all plastic from its gift tags packs.

“To further ease recycling we have also removed the laminate coating on many of our boxes and bags,” adds David.

Left: The new outers proclaims that Penny Kennedy rollwrap is now made in the UK rather than in the Far East as previously.

Above: The Unique Paper Company’s stand at the recent Spring Fair clearly demonstrated its major commitment to sustainable production.

Flitter free “As well as making our entire range 100% flitter free, we have also introduced a new Eco 100% recyclable gift bag range for January 2022,” confirms UKG’s Harriet Ineson, brand product manager - 3D department. “Featuring paper tag strings, print-only patterns and DC handles, consumers can be kind to the planet while still making occasions feel extra-special.”

Adds Harriet: “Additionally, we have removed all plastic packaging from our two sheet two tag packaged wraps and replaced it with a stylish, 100% recyclable paper alternative.”

Below: UKG’s new recyclable Eco gift bag range.

Taxing issues “The imminent plastic tax, which comes into effect on April 1, gave us an extra push in the sustainable direction where we were already heading,” explains Becky Dobson, md of Glick.

A whole suite of sustainable improvements from the wrappings specialist include a move to using unlaminated white and kraft board for its giftbags, meaning they can be easily recycled once the ribbons are removed/reused. Going a stage further, the company’s latest range of bags in its Paper Salad range includes some bags with paper handles, meaning means the bag can be recycled in its entirety.

“In addition, all our accessories and tissue papers are migrating to brown kraft board packaging, and where cello is required, we’re ensuring it’s produced using recycled materials,” explains Becky. “Meanwhile, the shrinkwrap around our rollwraps will now be made from recycled materials.

These are important steps and needed to be done, despite the inherent extra costs they incur,” adds Becky.

Right: Glick’s packaged tissue now comes in plastic-free packaging.

38

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

Upping the ante “Deva Designs has been an eco-friendly company from the very beginning,” states designer Reuben Duffy. “Every year we strive to improve on our environmental position as a business, constantly sourcing new techniques and processes, as well as suppliers. We have introduced ribbons made from PET bottles which are 100% recyclable. We also have new curling ribbon which is made from 100%

38-39_41_GF.qxp_Grid 24/02/2022 12:53 Page 3

Giftwrapping: Sustainability

A packaging push

cotton and is biodegradable. All Deva gift bags are made from FSC approved materials and designed to be recycled - we have even removed the plastic euro hook in favour of a cardboard one. Plus, all of our flat wrap is not only fully recyclable, but also printed in the UK, drastically reducing our carbon footprint.”

Commenting on rollwrap, Deva’s managing director Andrew Maddock adds: “To shrinkwrap or not to shrinkwrap? That is the question. We have gone down the biodegradable shrinkwrap route to protect the roll, so no wasted damaged stock and the wrapping will biodegrade. Also, the paper and card are all FSC, so it’s from managed forests. This year we’re moving production of some rolls into Europe from China, again to further reduce our footprint, which is clearly marked on the label.”

Above: Sustainable, recyclable, biodegradable shrinkwrap from Deva Designs.

“As a publisher representing high profile brands with their own environmental aims and requirements, M&G has been driving to more sustainable production methods for a number of years,” states Museum & Galleries’ creative director Ben Dorney.

“Our 2022 launch has seen our biggest company-wide push on more sustainable packaging options to date.

This program - which started with our innovative paper ecoBand wraps for single cards in 2018 - is developing across our entire range of products, but on gift packaging specifically. It means that all new tissue paper and rollwrap designs and future reprints will be sold in plastic-free packaging.

“All our paper products are already printed on FSC-accredited board,” continues Ben, “with all cards, notecards and giftwrap printed in the UK. We're also aiming to reduce plastic content where possible in our products, from alternatives to glue, or selecting paper-based/cotton cords for gift bags instead of fabrics with any plastic content.”

Bow to Bown “At Studio 9, we are committed to doing our best for the environment,” explains founder Alex Bown. “In 2021 we moved our giftwrap production back to the UK from Europe - keen to get this a bit closer to home - but without compromising on quality or materials.

“Our gift wrap is printed on FSC-certified paper stock using vegetable inks as an alternative to petroleum-based inks - making production a little kinder on the environment, packaged in recycled packaging.”

Recycled cotton paper Born out of a love for beautiful wrapping and a passion for tradition, Paper Mirchi focuses on creating luxury artisanal papers that are handcrafted, recyclable and sustainable.

“Eco-friendly products are on track to be the future of retail,” says Paper Mirchi’s founder Rani Moochhala. “We use 100% tree-free recycled cotton paper and combine it with traditional textile processes to include hand block printing, tie dye and techniques such as hand marbling, to create an exceptional range of giftwrap sheets and greeting cards. We work closely with small family-run units in India, where the artisans are passionate about their craft which has been passed down through generations.

Below: Recyclable, sustainable wrap from Paper Mirchi.

Below: Tissue paper from Museums & Galleries comes in plastic-free packaging.

Wrap that lives on “It is an accolade for us that our reversible crackle wraps is in the finals of Gift of The Year 2022 awards,” enthuses Wrag Wrap’s co-founder Nicky Rajska. “In a category that historically has been dominated by single-use paper products, this is a true indictment that our industry is prioritising sustainability and placing it in a top position.”

She continues: “as a certified social enterprise we are always reviewing what we do and ensuring that we are at the forefront of any developments that can improve what we do for the benefit of our planet, without any compromise on function or aesthetics. For our 2022 launches, to celebrate our 10th birthday later in the year, we are working with a new all women’s co-operative to produce products for us.

“We have to ensure that the processes and materials that we use leave a lighter trace than that of a paper giftwrap product. Fabric has its own issues when it comes to cradle to grave sustainability, and we only work with fabrics that have the lightest touch of all, hence the use of traceable and certified recycled polyester as this is the fabric with the lowest impact of all textiles, even organic cottons.”

Above Wrag Wrap’s reversible crackle wrap.

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

39

The GreATesT COLLeCTiOn OF GreeTinG CArDs in The WOrLD

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

“What do I like about PG Live?

I love the fact that it’s just about cards - rows and rows of beautiful cards without any other distractions. Everyone’s upbeat, the attendance is strong and there’s a very friendly atmosphere.”

“We’ve never been so looked after at a trade show - just one of the things for us that means it stands apart from other shows. It has such a great buzz and positive vibe. It’s always great to see new publishers and emerging trends”

Jo Barber, owner, No.14, Ampthill

SAVE THE DATE Don’t miss PG Live 2022

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

40_PG_March 2022.indd 1

Miles Robinson, co-owner, House of Cards

“OMG where do I begin!?

PG Live is by far our favourite trade event.

Its size, dedication to the industry and having literally every good quality supplier under one roof trumps all other shows”

Carl Dunne, owner of Cards and Gifts, Sheffield and Dronfield

The FuTure OF GreeTinGs

Book your frEE TickETS now To rEcEiVE your frEE SHow PrEViEw www.progressivegreetingslive.com

24/02/2022 13:31

38-39_41.qxp_Grid 24/02/2022 12:48 Page 5

Giftwrapping: Sustainability

New sustainable initiatives “We strive to achieve important sustainability targets,” says Artebene’s owner, Dr. Rüdiger Kress.

“We have been a carbon neutral company since November 2019, and in 2020 we pursued two further sustainability initiatives. With our ‘No plastic bag - let’s keep our planet green’ initiative we omit outer packaging for more and more of our products, actively reducing waste. And under the motto ‘Use me twice, so our world stays nice’ we provide all bags with an embossing, highlighting their premium quality and that the bags are worth using more than once. In 2022 we are pursuing an additional sustainability initiative - gras giftwrap which is wonderfully sustainable. The fast growing raw material of gras causes 75% less CO2 emissions than wood and its production consumes 80% less water.”

Fully recyclable “We have always been keen to work with suppliers and retailers in waste accountability and seek improved alternatives,” states Rachel Hare, creative director and boss lady at Belly Button Designs. “Reducing plastic within our portfolio and practice is not new to Belly Button. Over three-quarters of our bags are produced on uncoated paper and are fully recyclable - all our new designs are too, including the tags. We keep foil to a minimum to help in recycling.”

Right: Recyclable bags and tags in Belly Button’s Hearts collection.

Keep on (re)cycling “With giftwrap, as with all of our paper products, we ensure that we use FSCapproved components and suppliers and that everything is fully recyclable,” confirms sales director Carolyn Verderame.

Above: Gras giftwrap is new from Artebene.

Left: Caroline Gardner’s paper products include gift packaging that is fully recyclable.

From blue to green Cottoning on

Above: Globe Enterprise uses screen-printed papers.

“Globe Enterprise has always sourced environmentallyfriendly wrapping papers and paper products,” states Globe Enterprise’s founder Dipika Shah. “Our handmade papers are produced using left over cotton, a by-product of India’s huge garment industry, which we recycle into something beautiful.”

Explains Dipika: “Over the last few seasons we have been actively taking steps to reduce the glitter papers in our range. Now we can proudly say we are down to the last handful, and only in the Christmas ranges. We have focused on screen-printed papers, handmade by artisans, offering the highest levels of precision to create the perfect motifs, sheet after sheet. This has given us ever more beautiful wrapping papers and allowed us to support local artisans and producers.”

In mid 2021, Out of The Blue Studios launched a new brand, Acquire quality giftwrap, as part of the wholesale publisher’s everyday in-stock range.

As Peter Rawlingson, co-owner and sales director, explained: “As part of Out of The Blue Studios’ commitment to a more eco range, we produced all of the wrap and tags using FSC accredited paper to offer our wholesale/distributors a ‘greener’ option.

“On the back of the success of the flat wrap and tags we have launched 24 designs of two sheet/two tag packs, again with eco and value as top priorities.”

No cover up The Art File has been pulling out all the eco stops in its 25th anniversary year - even taking into account the outer packaging for its products. “I wouldn’t even say it’s exciting,” said James Mace, sales and marketing manager. “It’s vital for all companies to do this so we can all do our bit to save our planet.”

On the giftwrappings side, new bags that made their debut at Spring Fair are laminate-free, meaning the products can be easily recycled fully alongside other paper products.

“One of the largest challenges during our continued sustainability campaign has been the cello that surrounds our popular rollwraps - we’re absolutely delighted to announce that, after much testing and trialling with key retailers, the rollwrap is now cello free!” proclaimed James last month.

Left: The Art File has been showing its sustainable heart of late.

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

41

42_PG_March 2022.indd 1

25/02/2022 16:55

43.qxp_Grid 24/02/2022 13:03 Page 1

Giftwrapping: New Products

It’s a wrap A selection of new giftwappings launches. l Kraft products feature heavily for Glick this year, starting with its Happy Birthday text designs, along with bees, butterflies, cats and dogs. Meanwhile, for Christmas there is an abundance of styles and finishes from our best-selling artists.

Right: One of the Kraft-based ranges from Glick.

l UKG has launched four new ranges: Just My Type - bright, bold, brave statement gift bags, topped with a foil finish; All New Essentials - bigger, brighter and bolder than ever before, at a value price point; WOW Balloons - soft hand-painted designs meets luxury gold foil and embossed detailing, and Confetti Cocktail - finished with stylish holographic foil and embossed detailing.

l Belly Button’s Mobius is a continual hand drawn line art collection featuring across cards, bags, flat wrap, stationery and gifts ‘a way of simplifying our complex world filled with little pops of colour’. The wrap and bags selection covers flat wrap and bags in small, medium, portrait and bottle bag sizes.

Left: Delicate styling from Belly Button.

Above: UKG’s Wow Balloons.

l Kali Stileman Publishing has recently added gift tags to the company’s growing product collection. The laser cut gift tags feature everything from radishes and rainbows to sports cars and lucky cats.

Right: A gift tag with a mighty roar!

l Nothing says ‘celebrate’ as much as painted Party Brights designs from Deva Designs. From party hats to chunky script and stars and stripes, the optimistic range is perfect for mixing and matching. Also new from Deva is Collaboration, with Julie Dodsworth creating a new bicycle design in her unique style and colour pallets. Plus double-sided Madhya from Designers Guild features highly detailed verdant leaves, with the front and back strikingly contrasting and complementing each other.

Above: Deva Party Brights.

l A trio of new designers’ giftwrap designs have been launched recently by Lagom. Manchesterbased Caroline Dowsett is literally painting her city all the colours of the rainbow; Lois O’Hara’s distinctive designs are making people smile, while Naomi Wilkinson takes her inspiration from folk art, vintage graphics and children’s books.

l Having spotted The Wild Kind’s quirky engaging designs on its homewares products, Penny Kennedy was keen to clinch a licensing collaboration. It debuted at the recent Spring Fair and has been included on a Christmas range.

Left: Pick up a penguin. The Wild Kind style from Penny Kennedy.

l The arrival of warmer weather is reflected in Crumble & Core’s floral and outdoorsy designs across giftwrap and tag packs.

Right: A Crumble and Core Wheelbarrow design.

Right: A Caroline Dowsett design from Lagom.

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

43

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 1-3 Tithe Barn Street Horbury Wakefield West Yorkshire WF4 6HN

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT...

Polypropylene & biodegradable bag specialists Over 40 years quality service to the trade Hotfoiling also available

GREETING CARD Our innovative greetings card finishes include: Thermography Foil Intense Glitter Snowraise Liquid Metal Blended Glitter Embossing Textured Foil Laser Cutting

FRIENDLY, EXPERT ADVICE DEDICATED AND KNOWLEDGEABLE TEAM FAST AND EFFICIENT SERVICE HIGH QUALITY FILM BAGS

ask about our ‘Mr Abbot’ sample pack

To discuss your next greetings card range call us on 01797 223355 www.abbotprint.co.uk sales@abbotprint.co.uk

44_PG_March 2022.indd 1

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

25/02/2022 17:00

PG Innovations MARCH 2022 p.45-47.qxp_38-39/40-41 25/02/2022 17:47 Page 1

PG showcases a selection of new product launches

Clapping Loudly Molly Mae’s launch of its Applause collection is perfectly timed for those pent-up special occasions and celebrations being marked. The distinctive hand drawn designs are enhanced by delicate and beautiful foil and emboss finishes that Molly Mae is known, in a new trend size of 131mm x 146mm. Supplied with a cream pearlescent envelope, the cards can be supplied either clasped or cello wrapped upon request.

Molly Mae +(44)1455 557115 www.mollymaetrade.co.uk

Signs Of Life The bright vibrant colours mean there is no missing ArtPress’ latest collection, based on the art of Michael Pfleghaar.

Celebrating the growing trend and love of bringing the outside in, Botanical not only incorporates colourful plants such as aloes and cacti, but also draws on Michael’s love for mid-century design objects, architecture, and interiors.

The blank cards measure 120x170mm and come with an accompanying China white envelope.

ArtPress Publishing 020 7231 2923 www.art-press.co.uk

Nature’s Bounty Bounding out from Paper Shed Design, is Bucklebury Wood, a charming new range featuring 12 cute woodland illustrations.

From hedgehogs to badgers, bunnies to foxes, squirrels to mice, the designs feature the animals in a natural setting, including wild flowers, tree stumps, leaves and acorns.

All printed in the UK on quality FSC approved sustainable board, the cards are supplied with a recycled brown envelope.

Paper Shed Design 07909 596574 www.papersheddesign.com

Love Actually New for ’22 from Emma Bryan Design is WE TWO, a flexible collection designed to send love all year round. The range of 12 designs celebrates the different forms of love we have in our lives and those special friends, family and partners that we want to tell. Measuring 120x170mm and printed on luxury 350gsm stock, the cards are supplied with a kraft envelope and a fun infographic featuring designs from the range describing the eight different forms of love. While supplying the cards naked is the publisher’s preference, biocello wrap is available.

Emma Bryan Design 07889 598606 www.emmabryan.co.uk

Worldy Treats With travel opportunities opening up, Visoni.com is expanding on the cards, posters and calendars front. Its range of blank 7x5" greeting cards and 50x70cm posters are based on vintage travel posters featuring British Airways and P&O Cruises imagery, skiing, dancing, sport and wine! New point of sale banners have also been developed for retailers' displays. In addition, Carousel Calendars is to publish two 2023 World Travel calendars based on Visoni’s vintage travel posters, one centred around the US, the other covering the rest of the world.

Visoni.com 01242 575574 www.clannacardsandvisoni.com

Buzzy Times Popsy & Plum pays homage to the humblest of garden visitors with its new Bees Knees collection. The inaugural range includes designs covering birthday, engagement, wedding, and new home as well as others.

Printed on FSC certified, deluxe, textured stock, as with all Popsy & Plum cards, they are blank inside and come with a recyclable card clasp.

Popsy & Plum 07769 212269 www.popsyandplum.com PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

45

A whimsical and badass range of humour cards!

jamesellis PL ASTIC FREE, 100% RECYCL ABLE CARDS AND STATIONERY

FREE UK DELIVERY | N O MINIMUM | ORDER ONLINE AT TRADE.JAMESELLIS.COM

info@jamesellis.com +44 (0) 117 927 7667

46_PG_March 2022.indd 1

28/02/2022 10:12

PG Innovations MARCH 2022 p.45-47.qxp_38-39/40-41 25/02/2022 17:48 Page 2

PG showcases a selection of new product launches

Let It Snow White Christmas is Laura Sherratt's 2022 Christmas card collection. With a title for every friend and family member, the 48 designs feature dainty Illustrations hand finished using gems to add some Christmas sparkle.

The cards, designed, printed & created in the UK, are 15cm square and come with a jolly red envelope.

Laura Sherratt Designs 01538 384566 www.laurasherrattdesigns.co.uk

Punny Stuff

Over 80 new designs have just been added to Jolly Awesome’s Illustrators range, featuring the work of talented artists Darcie Ollie, Scotty Gillespie and Ant Gardner. The designs cover a wide range of occasions and are diverse, bright and contemporary, with fun positive messages.

The cards are all A6 and come with white Jolly Awesome envelopes with the option of plastic-free packing.

Jolly Awesome 07904383876 www.jollyawesome.com

Puns and detailed artwork combine in Citrus Bunn’s latest clutch of new designs. Some 35 new super fluffy, cute and cuddly animals in the publisher’s watercolour style join the line-up covering various sending occasions (age birthdays, relations and Spring Seasons) through witty puns. Keeping it real, all cards are painted, printed and packaged in London.

Citrus Bunn 07746324124 www.citrusbunn.com

Written In The Stars Starlight is Five Dollar Shake’s latest collection to add sparkle to the scene! The 72 contemporary illustrations are ‘starlit’ onto the board with flecks of gold and brought to life with delicately placed genuine crystals. Featuring everything from kitchen discos to baby penguins, this new occasion range is aimed at everyone fun and fabulous!

Five Dollar Shake 01424 434062 www.fivedollarshaketrade.com

Artistic exuberance

Rich Pickings New from The Eco-friendly Card Co is a range of 24 blank everyday cards by artist Sally Rich. Sally paints distinctive floral imagery by building up swirls and circles of colour to create vibrant and unusual designs. The 153mm square cards are printed on 100% recycled uncoated board and supplied with 100% brown kraft envelopes, either with a card clasp label or a compostable bag.

The Eco-friendly Card Co 01626 369269 www.ecofriendly.cards

A Star Cast White Cotton Cards has added to its Star Cards’ constellation. As well as a male BIG STAR collection joining the line-up, there is also a new kids’ range that is going down a storm. Both ranges feature a handmade wooden star element or some classic glitter and ‘diamonds’.

White Cotton Cards 07909 911229 www.whitecottoncards.co.uk

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

47

48-51.qxp_Grid 23/02/2022 16:32 Page 2

Regional Accents

Left: Going local down in Royston Vasey – the local shop for local people TV mantra has really taken off.

Below: Humour and locality go down very well for Jo Barber at Number 14, Ampthill as sales of designs from Dandelion (left) and Brainbox (right) prove.

Bottom: The publishing collaboration with local artist Hannah Lawson has worked well for Sean Austin of Austin & Co, Malvern.

Keeping it

local

As indie retailer Sean Austin, owner of Austin & Co, Malvern, said of about working with local artist Hannah Lawson: “I originally met Hannah while she had a stall on the local arts market displaying her prints of the Malvern hills, I started selling the prints and a couple of months before Christmas I asked if she was interested in going down the cards route - lots of artists worry because people will buy the cards instead of their prints so she did three cards of Malvern that she hadn’t done as prints and they sold out. She’s just done six images of Malvern as cards with ColCards who are based here too.”

Austin & Co also does well with designs from renowned photograoher Jan Sedlacek.

“Customers really love his images of Malvern.

He did a range of cards for us for Christmas last year and they went really well,” says Sean.

Meanwhile in Ampthill in Bedfordshire, Jo Barber, owner of Number 14 card and gift store, stocks bespoke localised designs from Dandelion Stationery and Brainbox Candy.

“Both sell well as customers like cards

Amplifying the UK-wide Shop Local movement, greeting cards are playing their part in reminding people where they are, where they’re from and rejoicing in their community.

PG tracks the rise in popularity and broader availability of localised greeting cards and how this has put retailers and publishers on the map.

With more folk choosing to work from home even as the world opens up again, the “local shops for local people” mantra courtesy of TV’s Royston Vasey and The League of Gentlemen - has really taken off across the UK. While the black comedy of the TV series harked back to the 1950s, it’s actually a saying very much of the moment, as many organisations are supporting the Shop Local push, from the Government and Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), through British Independent Retailers’ Association (BIRA), to Small Business Saturday and the Just A Card Campaign.

Indie greeting and gift stores have been at the forefront of the Shop Local movement, finding different ways to operate, not only in a bid to keep their 48

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

businesses afloat but also as a show of support to their respective communities.

And it’s cards that are now shouting loudly to remind people of their sense of place, with the rise in popularity and availability of local cards from many different publishers growing by the day.

relating to ‘New Home in Ampthill’, or ‘the most beautiful baby in Bedfordshire’, it shows they’ve gone out of their way to source the perfect card,” believes Jo. Up in Scotland, Gullane’s BlackHouse store has taken the local theme to new heights with owner Lynne McCallum Barr using DTP Southfield to design and produce specific items as well as buying from local artists.

Lynne says: “Southfield provides excellent service for all my business needs, from personalised cards, jute bags, cotton tea towels and ceramic mugs. The company’s customer service is fantastic, whether it’s over the phone or by email they are always super helpful, and turnaround times are excellent.”

48-51.qxp_Grid 23/02/2022 16:32 Page 3

Regional Accents

Left: BlackHouse is another retailer findings success with localised products.

Right: A Broadstairs’ design by I Drew This, who has been working with Arrowsmiths’ Margie Hume.

Below left: Some Jessica Hogarth’s bespoke products in Mooch’s Ealing store.

Below right: The Indigo Tree’s delightful Doris in reality and on a Stripey Cats’ greeting card.

Bottom: Tourists and locals buy the localised products on offer at Red Card.

Lynne also says she is “genuinely thrilled” to have a brilliant new supplier - Fiddy & Mabel, a beautiful and unique collection of wild swimming and paddle boarding inspired designs. “This wonderful range has been created by the very lovely Hattie who is also a local East Lothian lass.

Ilona Drew of I Drew This specialises in colourful architectural designs (including many bespoke commissions) and is currently working with Margie Hume, who owns

Arrowsmiths in Broadstairs. Margie says: “I met Ilona and really loved her and decided to work with her.

Dandelion Stationery’s Best Mum In Broadstairs, Best Dad In Broadstairs, New House In Broadstairs cards have sold very well.”

With four stores in London Sandra O’Connell, who co-owns Mooch with Evelyn O’Flaherty, currently stocks bespoke cards and gifts from Jessica Hogarth Illustration in their Ealing outlet: “We asked Jessica to do a special pack at Christmas from which we give £1 to our local hospice for each pack we sell.

We also stock a Greetings From Ealing card featuring the local landmarks. Ealing is fabulous as it has so many fantastic buildings. We come up with the ideas and Jessica then creates the designs. I make personalised cushions so we know anything to do with the local area will sell as long as it’s done well. We have a new shop in Fulham and Jessica is going to do some designs for there too.”

At Red Card in Petworth, owner Sally Matson is all for the personalised touch, stocking bespoke cards and gifts from Weekend 365, I Drew This, Bluebell 33, Julie Gash, Louise Mulgrew and Chichester Graphic Arts in a designated area in the shop.

“Petworth is a hugely popular tourist destination,” Sally says, “we’re in the South Downs National Park and also have the wonderful National Trust Petworth House & Gardens in the centre of town. It’s important to me to be able to offer quality, stylish local souvenirs and cards. They are part of our ranges and not just the souvenirs in the corner.

I’ve stocked bespoke souvenirs for a number of years, my favourites being the postcards designed by Ilona Drew and Louise Mulgrew. When we first launched Louise’s postcard range we put large-size prints in the window and they attracted a huge amount of interest as the locals recognised the scenes. I find the tea towels and coasters that match our cards also sell well as a gift pick-up to take home, and many of our local B&Bs also use these items in their properties.”

And you can really take the local connection to extremes as The Indigo Tree’s owners Adam and Harriet De Wolff discovered when Jonathan Crosby of Stripey Cats was inspired by their shop dog Doris, who is often in their Streatham and Crystal Palace stores where the Delightful Doris design is promoted on the counter with great success. For many indies, offering locallyflavoured designs is definitely barking up the right tree!

Sheffield united

Having taken over as owners of Gifted, Eccles four months ago Sham and Shehla Haseen-Khan, have already upped the local flavour of its offer.

“We’re two semi-retired teachers having a pre-pension shop adventure,” relayed Sham and Shehla. “We have about 20 artists coming in many of whom offer different views of Sheffield and places which would only be known to people from here. The shop is actually ‘more Sheffield’ now than it was before.”

“We just want to do some good, either it’s people buying ethically and sustainably or helping Sheffield artists.”

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

49

48-51.qxp_Grid 23/02/2022 16:32 Page 4

Regional Accents

Publisher’s sense of place PG checked in with some of the publishers and suppliers who have tapped into the localised appetite with designs that feature town names or regions or feature landmarks.

Dandelion Stationery Jo Wilson, founder: “At Dandelion we have always had our own in-house digital print facility which allows us to offer short print runs for specific/niche cards. This puts us in an ideal position to offer personalised cards for our trade customers.

We now offer over 16 designs which can be personalised, and these cover many occasions such as general birthday, new home, new baby, teacher, relations and various Christmas designs. Spring Seasons - Mother’s Day and Father’s Day have been particularly popular for us).

We picked up a lovely new customer at Spring Fair who was so thrilled with the personalised cards that they ordered 100 of one design!”

Above: One look from Dandelion’s personalised collection.

DTP Southfield Alun Joseph, managing director: “Bespoke, local designs are at the core of our range.

Designs based around towns or locations work for locals, tourists and friends and family who have maybe moved away - there is always a market, but it needs to be the right design.

Working with both retailers and creatives, we develop bespoke ranges with customers producing bespoke greeting cards as well as other gifts and stationery products.

We put a lot of effort into working closely with our valued customers to get the range of products and the bespoke designs just right.”

Jo O’Meara, customer account manager: “We have shops in some areas who sell a lot of our Terribly Posh range, where in some areas the customer base is quite different and another range sells better. It’s very interesting to build a picture with our customers and help them get the right products for their shop.”

Above: Different artwork approaches from DTP Southfield, including Sketch Your Town, whereby the company will produce hand-drawn artwork from any photograph of a town, local landmark, building or view in either a line art or vintage style.

Buddy Fernandez Lee Rowlett, creative sheriff and co-owner: “Following our Buddy Tour around these fair isles in January, we started coming up with some regional cards that would sell for customers in various areas - so now we have some local designs in the Regional Honesty range.”

Left: Saying it like it is with Buddy’s Regional Honesty range.

50

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

The Eco-friendly Card Co Sue Morrish, co-owner: “Tourist attractions are thriving in the south-west and retailers are looking for more products that are local to them. When we first saw Becky Bettesworth’s nostalgic posters we knew they would make fantastic cards, and we now have designs from locations across the South West and also offer mininotecard stationery too - which are especially popular with visitors.”

Living in Torquay by the beach with her three children, husband Matt and golden retriever Squiggle, Becky’s artwork takes inspiration from the classic travel and railway posters of the 1930s.

Above: Glorious West Country locations feature in Becky Bettesworth’s nostalgic artwork from The Eco-friendly Card Co.

Jessica Hogarth Illustration Jessica Hogarth, owner and artist: “My coastal upbringing inspired me to start my business so my very first designs had a local flavour, although not as much as they do now!

I created my Whitby map design during a quiet couple of weeks in 2017. It now sells on various products including cards, prints, tea towels, mugs and coasters in a couple of local retailers as well as our own bricks and mortar shop in Robin Hood’s Bay. This design helped to get the ball rolling for me to create designs for other independent retailers in the UK. Every location has its own quirks!”

Above: Jessica Hogarth’s detailed local drawings.

48-51.qxp_Grid 23/02/2022 16:33 Page 5

Regional Accents

Emma Ball Emma Ball, founder, artist and owner: “We have a full range of regional cards and imagery that we can bespoke for our customers. And if we have a painting then the customer can have that image as a card, tea towel, postcard, magnet etc. We can also create a truly bespoke range for a customer too.”

All Emma’s products are designed with a smile over her two Nottingham studios, one at home where her cats help out, and the other in the offices/warehouse.

As well as introducing other artists to the Emma Ball brand, including Shelly Perkins, Eric Heyman, Caroline Cleave, Abigail Mill and Susie Lacome, Emma herself loves to paint and, 20+ years on, still runs the business herself with the help of nine other staff - including her mum and dad, June and Mick, ensuring the whole company is very local too!

Above: Many of Emma’s paintings are of British scenes so work well on bespoke items.

Holy Mackerel Katie Meeke, co-owner: “One of our first ventures into local cards was the Beer Breakfast created for the Steam Gallery in Beer, the Devon village where I live and work.

From there we worked with artist Erica Sturla to create a whole host of cards featuring regions and counties of the UK, from birthday cards from ‘the best Dad In Cornwall’, to anniversary cards ‘for a couple of Worcestershire hardy perennials’ and have received lots of requests to go more local again, so we’ve made cards for towns stretching from St Mawes to Milngavie.

We have other ranges with a local flavour too - Andy Poplar’s brilliant Vinegar & Brown Paper range uses a little visual punning to bring Sheffield Steel, Yorkshire Grit and A Sprig of Cardiff Bay. Then, a couple of years ago we decided to combine my sister and Holy Mackerel co-owner Sarah Hopkins’ stitching talents with a new bespoke offering where we’ve been recreating landmarks and heritage sites in fabric and embroidery to build ranges of bespoke products for our customers.”

Top: Two localised cards featuring Erica Sturla designs from Holy Mackerel.

Above: Holy Mackerel’s Sarah Hopkins has painstakingly stitched the turrets and towers of Highclere Castle as well as a cheeky stitched reimagining Dorset’s Cerne Abbas Giant.

I Drew This Ilona Drew, founder: “The first local Landmark I illustrated was Brighton Pavilion when I took part in my first Open House event here in Brighton.

That design changed my life and I quickly illustrated more which continue to be best sellers with tourists and locals every year - the range now comprises 300+ designs and is still growing.

I love the relationships that I have with my stockists, including Jessica Hogarth’s gorgeous shop with my Robin Hood’s Bay design, Sally at Red Card with Petworth House, Justine at Hyde & Seek in Exeter and Margie at Arrowsmiths in Broadstairs, alongside my local stockists in my home town of Brighton.”

Left: Colour and line define Ilona’s I Drew This’ designs.

Pink Pig Mabel Forsyth, owner and designer: “I used to get an Invergordon Christmas card every year from my in-laws and I spent a long time trying to get a decent Edinburgh card to send back to them, so it was fun to be able to design and publish more fun, contemporary designs myself once Pink Pig was established - and they were a hit!

Our best-selling Christmas town card is our good old Robin design, the festive cards are the most popular. It was only when a stockist asked for personalised birthday cards as well that we went ahead with a range of localised and dialect cards to test - so many good ideas come from Pink Pig’s stockists as shops know what their customers like, and local obviously sells.

Local birthday cards with Best Mum or Dad in Town are always popular, as are best gin drinker in wherever.

Our ‘A wee cuddle from town name’ was very popular during lockdown months when it was difficult or impossible to meet friends and family. There are often places we’ve not heard of, so look up, and immediately want to visit - Minnigaff in Kircudbrightshire springs to mind!”

Above: Pink Pig’s Mabel Forysth and the Edinburgh card that started her personalised range, which now covers Christmas and everyday.

Sarah Patel Sarah Patel, owner and artist: “I paint my designs in watercolours taking inspiration from my surroundings, the seasons and family life.

In my local range I depict, in a series of images, the charm and characteristics of a place that make our surroundings so beautiful and rich my Bedford card was so popular it completely sold out within a few hours at the first market I took it to!”

Abovet: Sarah in her studio where she works on her detailed illustrations such as her Bedford design.

Right: Some of Sarah’s delightful designs.

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

51

ART SOURCE

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

Talk to us about our Integrated Recruitment Package.

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

TO APPEAR REGULARLY IN THE

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

52_PG_March 2022.indd 52

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

25/02/2022 16:56

53.qxp_49/51 23/02/2022 12:43 Page 1

Art Source

Bright and Breezy As a little girl, she was most likely to be found in the middle of a creative cornucopia of fabrics, papers, paints, sequins.

And not much has changed since then for Georgia Breeze apart from her wonderful contemporary designs now adorn all manner of different products.

Here Georgia tells her tale, with greeting card design very part of the continuing story.

“I’m an illustrator and surface pattern designer, living with my family in the beautiful coastal town of Bude in North Cornwall.

I’ve always been a creative person. As a child my bedroom was always littered with snippets of paper, sequins and fabric, remnants of various crafting projects…to be honest this has not changed much!

I studied art at Falmouth College and went on to specialise in textiles and surface pattern design. This was many moons ago, pre-digital, but one thing that always stuck was my love for colour, texture and pattern - whether it be in fashion, interiors or paper goods.

Fast forward 20+ years, juggling several jobs around bringing up three children and gaining a teaching qualification in Art, I decided to take on a new challenge and launched Georgia Breeze Designs.

Above left: Georgia Breeze can’t remember a time when she wasn’t creating something.

Above right: A piece of Georgia’s framed artwork.

Right: Surface pattern illustration remains one of Georgia’s big loves.

Below: The coastal view from Georgie’s studio.

WANT TO BE FEATURED?

Inset: Nature and wildlife are two of Georgia’s inspirations.

Left: Georgia loves the idea of her designs being appreciated all over the world, whether on cards or other products.

Below right: One of Georgia’s winter scenes.

Initially my focus was publishing my own hand-finished greeting cards and I spent five years selling my cards, both nationally and internationally.

I have now left publishing my own cards behind to focus on licensing my work. This sidestep for my business has allowed me to return to my roots and truly fall back in love with surface pattern design.

These last two years I have worked hard to familiarise myself with new digital ways of working. Combining my passion for handmade art and new found digital techniques, I have developed a fresh new commercial style and a portfolio of beautifully uplifting, design work. I have had over eight years of working in the greeting card industry and have been very fortunate to have had my work published by some of the UK’s largest greeting card companies. It still amazes me that pieces of my artwork end up in all corners of the world!

For my designs, I find inspiration from the simple things in life, whether it’s weekend rambles along the coast, nature, wildlife or rummaging in secondhand shops. My creative process begins with simple sketches, paired with beautiful colour palettes. These are then developed into collections of illustrations and patterns which could be used in a variety of markets. Nothing excites me more than seeing my artwork being brought to life on of beautiful products. I have also recently launched my own online shop selling gorgeous illustration paper products.

Equipped with my new look website, branding and portfolio I am loving this new chapter of my business. I am now represented exclusively by Sarah Lawrence of This is Iris and feel very excited about up-and-coming projects and really can’t wait to see what new opportunities will arise.”

If you are an artist, photographer or verse writer and would like to be considered to appear in Art Source, please contact PG’s Jakki Brown on jakkib@max-publishing.co.uk. This is an editorial feature and as such is free of charge.

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

53

54-55.qxp_Grid 23/02/2022 12:58 Page 2

PG ASKED A SELECTION OF RETAILERS FOR THEIR BEST SELLERS. Greg Rose, co-owner of Maybugs in Hailsham and Eastbourne.

Two card and gift shops and flowershop in Sussex towns.

Category

Name of Publisher

Product/Name Range

Comments

Everyday

Lola Design

Just Sayin’

“The bright funky designs with die-cut edges really stand out.”

Relations and Occasions Humour

Hammond Gower

Various

“An easy buy.”

Poet & Painter

All

Art

Redback Cards Wrendale Designs

Zepplinmoon The Country Set

Children’s Adult ages

Bug Art Lola Design

Kooks Apollo Milestones

Giftwrap Gifts

The Art File Candlelight Products

Bee rollwrap and bags Chinoiserie

“Cleverly humorous with a great variety of fresh artwork styles.”

“Fabulously hilarious “Too cute for words - perfectly captures the creatures’ personalities.”

“Bright and fun, but not too 'young’.”

“Nothing else like it on the market for male ages - zesty, cheerful and not overly sentimental.”

“Everyone loves a bee.”

“Great price and a huge variety of scents.”

Above: A Just Sayin’ card from Lola Design.

Right: A Zepplinmoon design from Redback Cards.

Yolande Gautrey, director of Ladds of Royston. A well-loved family-owned store that sells cards, confectionery and cake decorating products at the heart of this Hertfordshire town.

Category

Name of Publisher

Product/Name Range

Comments

Everyday Humour

Noel Tatt Nigel Quiney Country Cards

Generally Pizazz Generally

Art Photographic

Woodmansterne Abacus

Children’s

Jonny Javelin

Generally Springwatch; Gardeners’ World Velvet

Adult ages

IC&G

Year You Were Born

Giftwrappings

BGC Simon Elvin Artebene Stewo House of Sarunds Orchard Games Gibsons Keycraft

“Hard to beat.”

“This never fails.”

“The ‘no you’re wrong it doesn't even go in one ear’ design has really hit the right spot this week.”

“Constant good sellers.”

“People buy several cards at a time.”

“The 1st birthday designs are great sellers.”

“The 80th female design is top with the male version not far behind.”

“Great value”

Gifts

Above right: A top selling Country Cards’ design.

Right: A trio of new BBC Gardeners’ World designs from Abacus Cards.

54

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

“Real class. The gift bags and tissue are good too.”

Belgian chocolates Games Puzzles Pocket money toys

“You can't go wrong with beautiful chocolates, while puzzles are still selling post lockdown.”

54-55.qxp_Grid 23/02/2022 12:59 Page 3

Sarah Marsh, owner of The Gorgeous Gift & Card Company, Biggleswade.

A popular medium sized card and gift shop in the Bedfordshire market town.

Category

Name of Publisher

Product/Name Range

Comments

Everyday

Janie Wilson

Various

Relations & Occasions

Louise Mulgrew

Relations

Paper Salad

Various

Noel Tatt

Various

Art Photographic

Cinnamon Aitch Noel Tatt

Various Cube

Humour

Rosie Made a Thing

Gin & Frolics

Children’s

Rachel Ellen Designs

Various

Giftwrap

Belly Button Glick

Bubble Various

“Lovely colours and expensive looking.”

“New in - I love that there are relations captions on this type of animal cards.”

“The colours are so vibrant.”

“Always something new and great value.”

“I just love the designs.”

“Great price for photographic cards.”

“Customers still love them.”

“Great for all ages of children.”

“These two companies’ ranges are favourites here.”

Gifts

Rare Gear Gaeltag Keltika Richard Lang East of India Aromatize Bomb Cosmetics Wild Things

Ultrasonic oil diffusers You’re an Angel Glass animals Various Wax melt burners Bath blasters Crystals

Above: A Louise Mulgrew relations card.

Right: One of the designs from Noel Tatt’s Cube range.

Maxwell Reynolds, owner of Headrow Gallery, Leeds.

An established art, framing and card shop in the north of the city.

Category

Name of Publisher

Product/Name Range

Comments

Everyday

Second Nature

Champagne; Yours Truly; Pop-ups

Humour

Peartree Heybridge

Camilla & Rose; Pugh

Relations & Occasions

Five Dollar Shake

Bespoke; Diamond Blush; Dream Garden; Flights of Fancy

Multi-cultural

Cazenov Judaica Davora

Generally Jewish and Hindu

Ages

Second Nature

Generally; Express Yourself

Art

Robert Dutton David Tunstall

Across the board Across the board

Giftwrap Gifts

Simon Elvin Sixtrees

Across the board Readymade frames

“I have weekly deliveries from Second Nature, customers buy several at a time.”

“I have a 64-pocket spinner of the designs. These two ranges especially just get it right funny and easy to see.”

“Our customers love them we do especially well with the larger cards as well as the bespoke ones.”

“We have a big demand for Jewish cards especially and these two companies have good designs.”

“The Express Yourself ‘stick ons’ mean that customers can personalise all cards.”

“Robert is a local artist and David is a local photographer. We also sell their art.”

“We buy from Paul White wholesalers and it sells well.”

“These work well for as we sell art.”

Top: One of the recent Camilla & Rose designs.

Above: A contemporary design from Cazenov Judaica.

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

55

Classified Complete 2021.qxp 25/02/2022 16:37 Page 56

PRODUCT DIRECTORY

l PRODUCT DIRECTORY

l PRODUCT DIRECTORY

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

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

www.bugart.co.uk

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

www.bexyboo.co.uk 01565 830 546

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

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

56

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

@BexyBooLtd

BexyBooLtd

@BexyBooLtd

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

Classified Complete 2021.qxp 25/02/2022 16:42 Page 57

l PRODUCT DIRECTORY

PRODUCT DIRECTORY

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

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

l PRODUCT DIRECTORY

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

1b-Ѳbv|v |_mb1 u;;ࢼm] -u7v "r; S end i n g YO Y OU OU

WISHES

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

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

A w o n d e rf u l Eid!

Ch C hin nese ese HE IS

THE

WAY

THE AND TRUTH

By

®

LIFE

THE

Also acting as the exclusive UK distributor fo forr Bl Blue Mountain M t i A Ar ts t

Order s can be placed on our tradeer site

www.cbgtrader w. r..co.uk or call our customer ser vices team m on

Polissh Po h

&$5'6 )25 :+(1 :+$7 6 ,16,'( &28176

! & Ŋ& "

" " "

Š 1-u7oѴo] Ѵ|7

! &! ņ $! ( ! Š ! +ĺ ĺ&

CATHERINE KLEELI C

+44(0)1243 792600

Te T el: 0161 1 64 641 0 06 655 Email: m sales@daav sales@d avora.co.uk

card arrddss

135 Hea 13 135 eaton Moorr Rd | Stockp ock kpor port ort SK4 4HY 4 4H HY

.....worth orrt ke keep eppiing!

NEW

ck@catherinekleeli.co.uk www.catherinekleeli.co.uk th i kl li k

www.ch w eekyc w. ychoppstrrade.ccoo..ukk phone: DDaanielle :07946 056571 email:wholesale@special-day l-daay yss.coo..uk

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

PRETTY ELEGANT DESIGNS | LONDON

Available online Wholesale & Licensing

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

hello@emmabryan.co.uk www.emmabryan.co.uk

SALES AGENTS WANTED

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

57

Classified Complete 2021.qxp 25/02/2022 16:43 Page 58

PRODUCT DIRECTORY

l PRODUCT DIRECTORY

l PRODUCT DIRECTORY

Faulkner’s Gallery

60

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

years

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

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

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

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

from the

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

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

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

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

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

Tel: +44 (0)115 986 0115 customerservices@paperrose.co.uk www.writefromtheheart.co.uk

)

CHARITY GREETING CARDS One of the UK’s leading publishers of Charity Greeting Cards.

Impress offers a wide collection of images, including fine art, graphic, photographic and cute.

We also offer a bespoke design service for bulk orders and/or mail order fulfilment.

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

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

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

@glickgiftwrap

58

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

Impress Publishing Appledown House Barton Business Park New Dover Road Canterbury, Kent CT1 3TE Tel: 01227 811 611 Fax: 01227 811 618 email: info@impresspublishing.co.uk

Classified Complete 2021.qxp 25/02/2022 16:46 Page 59

PRODUCT DIRECTORY

l PRODUCT DIRECTORY

l PRODUCT DIRECTORY

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

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

+

originalposter.com

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

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

We replace slow sellers and damaged stock free of charge.

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

@ @paperlinkcards

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

THAT’S WHY WE’RE ORIGINAL!

01932 267 300

Send Love e ( all year round )

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

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

From smaller displays to redeveloping complete card departments

t: 0208 6138 085

Tel:: +44 (0)115 986 0115 Te customer ser vices@paperrose .co.uk www.paperrose .co.uk www.ar tgroupcards.co.uk

paperbirdpublishing.co.uk u @NoelT Ta attGroup 01227 811 600 sales@noeltatt.co.uk www.noeltatt.co.uk

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

01423 876311 www.peartreeheybridge.co.uk

Peartree Small Ad.indd 2

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

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

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

ww ww.passelllpublisshin ng.com m iinfo nfo o@ o @ passsel ellpu lpu u blissshin hin ng n g..com m @pas ublis

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

59

Classified Complete 2021.qxp 25/02/2022 16:47 Page 60

PRODUCT DIRECTORY

l PRODUCT DIRECTORY

l PRODUCT DIRECTORY

7RPFDW &DUGV 6 Heron Trading Estate Alliance Road, Park Royal, London W3 0RA T: 0208 385 4474 F: 0208 385 4471 E: info@Xpressyourselfcards.co.uk WWW.XXPRESSYOURSELFCARDS.CO.UK

PRODUCTS: World’s leading publisher of high quality plastic greeting cards. Also an extensive range of quality greeting cards covering Everyday, Occasions, Christmas and Spring seasons.

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

BRANDS: Cherished Thoughts, Sweet Sentiments, Buddies Always, Symphony, Thinking of You, Style, Special Wishes, Special Times, Young Editions, Groove Sensations, Forever Blessed, Grey Skies, Classics.

METHOD OF SALE: SENSATIONS – Direct to retail XPRESS YOURSELF – Now one of the leading wholesale publisher suppliers in the UK

www.tomcat.cards info@tomcat.cards

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

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

Method of sale: Wholesale Distributors

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

60

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

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

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

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

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

Classified Complete 2021.qxp 25/02/2022 16:49 Page 61

PRODUCT DIRECTORY

DIRECTORY OF WHOLESALE

Market Leaders in

Verse

& entimen

an extensive range of superior quality,

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

EUROPE’S LEADING GREETINGS CARDS, PARTY PRODUCTS, GIFTS, CANDLES, TOYS, STATIONERY AND FLORIST SUNDRIES DISTRIBUTION CENTRE 75000 SQ FT BESCOT CRESCENT, WALSALL, WEST MIDLANDS. WS1 4NG 01922-646666 www.greetingshouse.co.uk info@greetingshouse.co.uk MON,WED,FRI 8.00am-4.45pm TUES,THURS 8.00am-7.45pm SAT,SUN 8.00am-1.45pm

Method of Sale: Direct to Retail Orders can be placed on our trader site

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

+44(0)1243 792600

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

We offffer a COMPREHEN

range of high Greeting Cards f ALL

Occasions,

CHRISTMAS an Season f Sale:

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

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

Tel: 01942 233201

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

traceya@max-publishing.co.uk

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

61

Classified Complete 2021.qxp 25/02/2022 16:49 Page 62

DIRECTORY OF WHOLESALE

CLASSIFIED

l CLASSIFIED 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

BAGS 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

BAGS

GIVE E YOUR

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

CALL US TODA AY

01773 5378 810

V VIP

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

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

CALL CA CAL C LL US ST TO ODAY OD

0122 1228 228 2 28 8 5605 56 60 052 26 6 www.fful ulcrumfilms. ulcrrum mfillm ms s co.uk uk

62

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

Classified Complete 2021.qxp 25/02/2022 16:49 Page 63

CLASSIFIED

l CLASSIFIED

l CLASSIFIED

l CLASSIFIED

l CLASSIFIED

PRINTERS

ENVELOPES

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

PAPER

100% Recycled Paper Available Stock & Bespoke Cello Bags Peel & Stick Envelopes Bespoke Service on Request

ORDER ON LINE AT:

W W W. EN VE CO .CO .U K

01 90 83 78 86 6

www.regentenvelopes.com 01274 583000 sales@regentenvelopes.com

IN FO @E NV EC O. CO .U K

‘we we make Envelopes and Stationery’

MOREE THAN 50 COLOURS 6 POPULAR GREEETINGS CARD SIZES 50+ WH HITE SIZES IN STOCK BESPOKE ENV VELOPES AV AVAILABLE PEEL A AND SEAL CLOSURE RECYCLED / KRAFTT / 140GSM / 120GSM 11 SUPER BRIG GHT NEON COLOURS BESPOKE NOTEBO OOKS & STATIONERY

PLEASE GET IN TOUCH FOR TARY RY YOUR COMPLIMENTA ENVELOPE OR NOTEBOOK WATCH PA PACK SWA

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

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

The simplest way to order your greetings cards

FLITTERING FOR ALL YOUR FLITTER REQUIREMENTS

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

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

Powered by

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

we print

we finish

we pack

we deliver

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

63

Classified Complete 2021_GF.qxp 25/02/2022 17:23 Page 64

CLASSIFIED

l CLASSIFIED PRINTERS

l CLASSIFIED

l PRINTERS

l CLASSIFIED

l PRINTERS

l CLASSIFIED

l PRINTERS

PJ PRINT LONDON The Capitals Only Specialist Greeting Card Printer All Industry Finishes Available In-House Including Laser Cutting

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

64

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

Classified Complete 2021.qxp 25/02/2022 16:49 Page 65

CLASSIFIED

l CLASSIFIED PRINTERS

l CLASSIFIED

l PRINTERS

l CLASSIFIED

l PRINTERS

l CLASSIFIED

l PRINTERS

Social Sta tationerry Printer of the Year

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

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

WAREHOUSING & DISTRIBUTION

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

D Die-cutting

Digital Print

F ering Flitt

Foiling

Packing

Embossing

D Distribution

With an excellent reputation we work as an integral part of your 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 GEVI EFSYX ]SYV TVSHYGX EW QYGL EW ]SY HS &XXIRXMSR XS HIXEMP 6( .WWYIW ;I

Tel:0127 e 4 4531828 Email: info@herbertw o alkers.co.uk

www.herbertwalkers.co.u uk

T JSV EPP WXSGO QSZIQIRXW EVI SYV ERH .8 WYTTSVXIH F] E GSQTVILIRWMZI TETIV XVEMP JS LEPPQEVOW 4YV GER HS ETTVSEGL QIERW [I EVI LETT] XS WSPZI ]SYV TVSFPIQW 4YXWSYVGMRK ]SYV [EVILSYWMRK STIVEXMSR VIPIEWIW ]SYV XMQI XS CREA AT TE/MARKET/SELL/ MANAGE/ /GROW THE BUSINESS =S = SYV FYWMRIWW MW SYV FYWMRIWW FYWMRIWW TPIEWI Z ZMWMX SYV [IF WMXI ERH WII SYX QSVI GEPP Ly [LEX SYV GYWXSQIVW WE] XLIR XS ǻRH S Lynda Raymond ERH TIVLETW [I GER EVVERKI XS QIIX ERH HMWGYWW ]SYV RIIHW . EQ WYVI XLEX [I GER G LIPT

LB Warehousing 9RMXW Ȧ ȶ ȴ ;E]WMHI ;EVILSYWIW 8 8S SWIPERH 3IEV X 3ISXW (EQFVMHKIWLMVI 5*Ȧȟ Ȱ7< Tel ȉȦȏȁȉ ȁȁȉȁȉȉ Fax ȉȦȏȁȉ ȁȁȉȟȉȉ Mobile ȉȮȁȁȟ ȴȟȟȴȏȦ P]RHE%PF [EVILSYWMRK GS YO

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

65

Classified Complete 2021.qxp 25/02/2022 16:49 Page 66

CLASSIFIED

l CLASSIFIED

l CLASSIFIED

l CLASSIFIED

l CLASSIFIED

DISPLAY AND SPINNERS

WAREHOUSING & DISTRIBUTION

࠮ -:+< ࠮ *+< ࠮ 76:

.YLL[PUN *HYKZ +PZWSH` :VS\[PVUZ

>L HSZV KV! ࠮ *HY[VUZ ࠮ )V_LZ ࠮ +PLJ\[Z

*HSS! LTHPS! ZHSLZ'UZTP[OIV_ JV \R

^LI ^^^ UZTP[OIV_ JV \R U ZTP[O /HPUNL 9VHK ;P]PKHSL 6SKI\Y` >LZ[ 4PKSHUKZ ) 5A 6=,9 @,(9: 6- 4(5<-(*;<905. 05 ;/, <2

N.Smith Box.indd 1

21/05/2020 12:02

!"! ## $#

66

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

Classified Complete 2021.qxp 25/02/2022 16:52 Page 67

APPOINTMENTS

l APPOINTMENTS

l APPOINTMENTS

l APPOINTMENTS

Va V acancies are being b created for Territory Agents Te s for Independent and Key Account Customers around d the UK. Please email mark.mo ostyn@wplgifts.co.uk to register interest and detail your experience.

www w..wplgifts.co.uk g

ARE YOU EARNING AS MUCH AS YOU ARE REALLY WORTH?!

IS NOW THE TIME FOR YOUR NEXT NEW CHALLENGE? Allsorted has a small team of ‘SUPERSTAR’ Sales Representatives – and through 2022 we’re hiring more in multiple territories – so are you our next ‘SUPERSTAR’?

You must have a proven track record as the best – or one of the top performing – sales reps in your current and previous team/s. Good relationships with lots of garden centres & visitor attractions would be a major plus.

You must be persuasive, honest, hardworking, positivethinking, dedicated, smart, and really enjoy helping your customers to be more successful.

Good basic salary plus great commissions. When successful, you can become a top earning sales rep in the industry! (And if you’re a Key Account Manager, and consider your sales to be underpaid, could this be the right move for you, too?)

WE’RE HIRING Please contact Sharon Hale with CV & covering letter: sharon@allsorteduk.com

67

PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE

INCLUDINGGBRANDDNEW

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

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

24/02/2022 13:46