11 minute read
Viewpoints
A juicy
first quarter?
On the back of what was a good Christmas period for many independent card retailers, there were high hopes for the first quarter of this year, but that was before the spiralling cost of living really started hitting people’s pockets.
With three of the 2022 Spring Seasons events ticked off the calendar, PG checked in with some leading indies for their trading reports. Above: Some retailers are finding trade juicier than others.
Mark Rees
owner of Penmark/Henry & Co
“It is very tough at retail right now. We were trading circa 3.5% down for the first quarter of this year.
Mother’s Day was disappointing for us overall with sales for the two weeks prior down 10%.
With the cost of living crisis and the war in Ukraine I think people are battening down the hatches and non-essential spend will more than likely suffer as a result.
I was feeling positive after our Christmas trade, but am feeling a little less confident as we go into the summer trading period. Having said that, the business has plenty to be excited about as we will be refitting two stores in April/May and another one in June. Our Henry & Co stores continue to outperform the existing estate, which I guess proves that if the model is right, shoppers will come and spend!”
Above: The Henry & Co shop in Ormskirk. Right: Mark Rees holding Penmark’s winning Retas 2021 trophy.
Mark Janson-Smith
managing director of Postmark, six shops in south and west London
“Our sales were 20% up on the first quarter of 2022 compared to 2020 and 16% up on 2019’s first three months. The working from home trend is still benefitting us though the retail price rises also account for some of this year’s increase. Not sure though how much further we can push these prices up without a backlash from the consumer. I think we are reaching a ceiling price point wise.”
Below: Part of Postmark’s Easter marketing.
Penny Bailey
co-owner of Bailey’s, Ainsdale, Crosby and Maghull
“I am cautiously optimistic about this second quarter, based on our performance in the first quarter of this year, Strangely, it felt very quiet earlier in the year although the takings say otherwise and we have, mostly, met our targets. Above: Penny Bailey (left) with
Paper Salad’s co-owner Karen
I think it's because over the last couple of Wilson at PG Live 2021. years we had such hectic periods of being open, then closed, then open
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again, followed by the crazy Christmas period. That buzz and almost manic feeling has calmed down and although footfall may be down a little, the average spend is up.
Our customers tell us we are a little bit different so I think, and I hope, that's what keeps them coming back.
The main challenge for me has been getting stock, particularly for our gifting ranges. Some orders placed at Spring Fair for the Spring/Summer season have only just arrived or are still to arrive, which, although I understand all the constraints, is a little disappointing, especially as those goods missed Mother's Day. Luckily, I'd placed some orders from current suppliers before Spring Fair, to fill gaps and bring newness post-Christmas, which have served us well. Our greeting card suppliers have been great. I have had no issues with supplies and am so excited by many of the new ranges. I just wish I had room for more.
We have been pleased with the Spring Seasons trade though it is a little tricky to comment on Easter, as despite having three shops, and Crosby now being three years old, we've only ever had an Easter in our Ainsdale shop!”
Above: One of the Rosie Made a Thing mugs from Mclaggan Smith that chimes with Bailey’s customers.
Stuart Delahoy
owner, Set in Leicester
Below: Stuart Delahoy reports “pretty solid” sales in Q1.
“Our card sales for the first quarter have been pretty solid, but we’re still suffering from a lack of footfall in the city centre, and I think that might be typical for a lot of city centre shops.
With cards it’s bums on seats, if you sell a card to every third person in the shop you need people in the shop, but we’ve done OK.
On card buying patterns, people are definitely going early and being more organised. This started with Christmas when we found our best card sales were in November and this pattern carried through to Mother’s Day.
Now we’re having a little bit of a card sale to make the most of the lull before Father’s Day. We have permanent displays and also an occasion wall so with no events we’re trying to move older stock in time for Father’s Day.”
Philip Nield
co-owner of Reflections in Nantwich and Rugeley
“Trade’s been good in the first quarter, but not reached the same levels as the phenomenal Christmas performance we enjoyed. Our Valentine’s Day sales were on a par with 2020 while we were slightly up on Mother’s Day and Easter.
However, we were not disappointed by this, especially as our everyday sales improved in the second half of the first quarter when footfall was definitely on the up.
All the doom and gloom in the news is not helping, but people who do come in are responding positively to our product selection. We have been doing very well with UKG, Little Dog Laughed, Alex Clark, Second Nature and The Art File, while our introduction of additional chocolate brands to sell alongside Thorntons has proved successful. For Q2 we have high hopes for Special Delivery Cards, The Alternative Image Company and Hype that we are stocking for the first time, plus are awaiting the arrival of an impressive gold ice cream freezer from Carte D’or which I feel sure will work well.”
Above: Spring is in full bloom at Reflections. Left: Reflections’ customers are responding well to its greeting card selection.
Sally Matson
owner of Red Card, Petworth
“Our first birthday in the new double-sized premises was 12 April, consequently, all our sales since opening have been up on previous years by quite some margin.
Our greeting card sales have been extraordinary right through from the start of January. We had a record Valentine’s Day, Mothering Sunday and Easter.
We have noticed people are definitely buying seasonal cards and gifts earlier, and I think this is partly due to the pandemic - people feel uncertain about when things may be available in the future so they buy when they see it, but that said you always have the last-minute purchasers!
We’re not usually open on Sundays but opened for the day before Valentine’s Day and on Mothering Sunday and did a roaring trade for both events.
So, spring seasons have been amazing for us even with the pandemic and the war. The shop is thriving, but we don’t take this for granted. We will keep working hard to fill the shop with beautiful cards and gifts at the right prices.”
Right: One of the Mother’s Day windows in Red Card.
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Hannah Rudder
co-owner of Dee’s Cards, Leighton Buzzard
“Our greeting card sales have been up this year by about 15% which is great! On Mother’s Day alone our sales were up by 5% while our Easter sales were up around 25% up compared to April 2019, which is wonderful news! This increase could be down to a couple of factors. The first could be that this is the earliest we have ever put our Easter display out. They were on sale for almost eight weeks. This made customers buy earlier than they normally would and when they did run out of their multi-packs they had time to buy more and still had time to post them. Also, our high street is no longer pedestrianised on non-market days, so the buses that bring people in are now finding it a lot easier to come in town and shop on the local high street. There are definitely changes in buying habits. Customers are more organised, they are buying a lot earlier than they normally do, no leaving it to the last minute. They will buy two or three months in advance so they are coming in less frequently but buying more when they visit. We are feeling really positive about the second quarter. Every month our sales seem to be up so we are very optimistic. A lot of our customers buy a lot of cards so it’s great to be able to get new designs in and just keep the shop looking full and up to date. Our blank card selection has been extended and so have our occasions and relations so we are giving our customers more choice than they’ve ever had. The feedback we receive is really positive so we must be doing something right! Just a note of caution, with the current hike in energy and household bills this may impact on retail sales but the greeting card industry has proved to be very resilient so we will be keeping our fingers crossed that it will be another successful year.”
Above right: Putting Easter cards out early worked well for Dees Cards. Left: The Dees’ card sales being up by 15% is good reason for co-owners Hannah Rudder and Paul Mordecai to jump for joy!
Sean Austin
owner of Austin & Co, Malvern
“Turnover is vanity, profit is sanity, but cash is king. To look at how well we've done in the past quarter means we have to go way back to 2019 as, in 2020, we were just beginning to see the early impacts of Covid on the business, and we were in full lockdown in 2021.
Turnover has certainly returned to pre-pandemic levels, but then prices have gone up too so this gives a false positive. What I'm happy with, though, is that through cautious and prudent buying during the past months, profit has increased too over 2019 levels.
And, if we take the measures of success away from the accounting sheet, we had the best day ever for the total of cards sold in a day during this period.
Mother's Day profits were on a par with 2019 and you can't ask for more than that. Despite talk of rising inflation, energy and fuel costs, a card for your mum is still priority for many customers - and a nice card at that.
In addition to new titles, it was also a case of clearing through what cards had been bought for the 2021 event but we were very happy how certain lines sold through.”
Above: Austin & Co’s inventive Valentine’s window which is a recreation of a Dandelion Stationery card. Right: Sean Austin is happy that old stock has cleared through.
Jo Barber
owner, No14 Ampthill
“Card sales in Q1 grew at a rate we’ve never seen before. This was partly due to a new housing development nearby, coupled with an incredible Valentine’s and Mother’s Day.
A stand out for us was Mother’s Day, which was fabulous. The lead-up was incredible. Our Mother’s Day cards began selling online before they reached the shelves in the shop. This year, as the day fell later in the month, we put our cards out the day after Valentine’s and they started selling immediately. We ended up pretty much selling out of cards, customer spend was much higher than usual, the shop was buzzing and we had a record-breaking Saturday prior to the actual day. This Easter made up for previous years, in that we had a lot of unsold cards from lockdown Easters and they pretty much sold out. We benefitted from stronger margins as wholesale prices had increased since ordering and the warm weather leading up to Easter produced a strong turnout and a huge ‘feelgood’ factor.
Generally, customers are spending more time perusing cards but we’re becoming very mindful of price points. I’ve stopped buying any cards that retail over £3.95. The main reason being that they started to make us look expensive as there are so many beautiful ranges which retail around £3.50 or less. I feel some publishers may need to look at their more expensive ranges, the most recent price increase may have pushed them out of reach.”
