The Great British Card Company (GBCC) is one of the UK’s most popular and successful publishers of greetings cards, with over thirty years of heritage and dozens of well-loved brands in its ever-growing portfolio*.
While other companies struggled throughout the recession, GBCC has consistently performed well and demonstrated years of steady growth. Sales are between 10 and 20 per cent up – no mean feat in a challenging market that’s flat or taking a dip for most publishers – new product development has been prolific and a brilliant acquisition in the form of the Almanac Gallery was made in June 2012.
At the time company founder and Chairman Peter Reichwald said that the purchase was a “unique opportunity”, and that The Almanac Gallery has a “marvelous reputation for superb design, both in everyday and Christmas”
“In the first five months of the acquisition”, says Group Product Director Nick Adsett, “our sales team sold as many everyday cards as Almanac did in a year using sales agents. This could be our company’s best-ever acquisition and there have been a few of those over the years; the collection is a perfect complement to what we already had in-house.”
Speaking of the current greeting card market, Nick added: “The market is still tough but we’ve made it work for us with a continuous stream of new product, allowing our extremely dedicated sales team to give our customers something new each month. The Christmas trade is particularly strong for us especially with the addition of Almanac, which is renowned for its brilliant Christmas cards (left).
“A lot of publishers have had to cut back on new product development during the recession but Peter took the opposite approach by investing heavily in this area and we’re reaping the rewards now. People can see that we’ve really moved forward and made the effort, he sees opportunities where others might see setbacks.
In a publishing house that was already very strong on humour and traditional Nick focused on pouring the team’s creative expertise into GBCC’s previously weak contemporary offering, saying: “We’re continually striving to update our product and slowly but surely are taking it upmarket.
“We have some fantastic artists on board and there’s huge growth potential for us in this area. Our portfolio is expanding and catching the eye of upscale retailers. More and more garden centres are coming to us and we have some great licenses that perfectly fit the bill for that market sector, such as National Geographic, the Royal Horticultural Society, Madeleine Floyd, Peter Cross and The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady.”
One of GBCC’s most new popular contemporary ranges is Peony Rose (pictured right), which was developed by renowned greetings artist Nicola Evans and makes skilful use of the popular trend for nostalgic, layered images and romantic motifs.
Also unique in the GBCC stable of in-house designers is bona fide self taught calligrapher Mike Burgin, who brings a touch of creative genius to the all-important words that do so much to sell cards. Adept at working in both traditional calligraphy materials and cutting edge computer-aided design, Mike has enabled GBCC to get a firm hand on the strong trend for cards that make an illustrative feature of unique fonts and typeface (pictured left is a design from the Paper House Words range).
As well as upping the investment in new product development the Great British Card Company has also expanded into the online arena with the launch of card personalisation service, mouse2mat.com, which went live over the summer.
Commenting on this new string to GBCC’s bow, Peter commented: “Our customers had been asking for this kind of service from us for quite some time, and there’s clearly a market for personalised greetings products. We are launching with around 1,200 designs – all by our own artists – and there is a strong focus on humour, which works very well online.”
Together with a superb selection of carefully categorised GBCC cards, Mouse2mat includes an option for customers to upload their own photos onto a variety of templates to create the ultimate personalised greeting. There is also a ‘Card Finder’ function that enables users to hone in on the perfect card for any one of 24 different occasions, from passing a driving test to specific designs for male relations. Prices start at just £2.99.
Alongside this consumer-facing website, GBCC recently made it possible for all retail customers to order online through a trade-only website, greatly facilitating the process of restocking, especially for customers in far-flung corners of the UK. (This service is open to both existing GBCC account holders and new customers).
As the greetings industry heads towards its key trading period the future has never looked brighter for The Great British Card Company, and it seems fitting that another company director, Chris Houfe, is just about to start his tenure as President of the Greeting Card Association.
Commenting on his appointment, Chris says: “This is a brilliant, vibrant industry to be involved with and I’m extremely honoured to lead the Council and Association over the next two years. We need to look at every opportunity to promote our fantastic industry and remind people of the importance and emotional connection of sending and receiving a greeting card.
With the addition of the Associate Members this will allow the Association to look at ways to pro-actively invest in publicity initiatives and activity. Within the membership we have some very talented Social Media operators and we will be seeking their advice of the best way of promoting the whole industry.”
For more information about The Great British Card Company and to order online visit the website.
*Greetings card brands produced by The Great British Card Company include: The Humour Factory, Elgin Court, The Almanac Gallery, Eric the Penguin, Young at Heart, Medici Cards Blue Label Art, Margaret W Tarrant World of Fairies from Medici Cards, The National Trust, The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady, Royal Horticultural Society, Copper Tree, English Heritage (left), Darkroom, MODA, Peony Rose, Paper House Words, Madeleine Floyd, Fred and Ginger, National Geographic, Gaia, Peter Cross, Fred and Ginger, Bebunni (Close to your Heart), Up the Garden Path, Floreo Photographic, I Can’t Believe I’m Not Human (right), Hunks and Babes, Paper House Words, Coast to Coast, Birdwit, Trevor Waugh’s Sketchbook, Winterbourn, Nicholas Hely Hutchinson, Kristiana, Enlightened Hound, Stripy Horse, Everybody Smile, Two Fat Gherkins, Darkroom, Cherry Boom Boom, Rather Amusing Cards, Just My Type, The Great Outdoors, Bee Brown, and Dollop Of Sauce.
