One of the UK’s leading publishers of greetings cards, Woodmansterne, has announced its acquisition of advent calendar specialist Caltime
Woodmansterne reports that after an eight week process it is ‘delighted to announce that we have now acquired Caltime the advent calendar specialists established in 1979.
This is the first acquisition to have been completed by Woodmansterne managing director, Paul Woodmansterne, who likened the speed of the process to a “shotgum wedding” and admitted to a “soft spot for unashamedly traditional advent calendars – not the chocolate-filled variety that has become commonplace in supermarkets, but those old-fashioned, more-wholesome-than-you-would-like, busy picture cards with windows”.
“If you think about it”, says Paul, “advent calendars are very special for a number of reasons: they give us all permission to start anticipating the arrival of Christmas (adults and children alike) on 1st December; they are a way for parents to manage their children’s enthusiasm (“are we nearly there yet?”); they are an educational tool (maths – counting up and down the days [have you seen that Dave Allen sketch ‘learning to tell the time’ – hilarious, find it here on YouTube!]; but best of all, they give permission for the shops to start selling their Christmas wares a whole month early because Advent Calendars are out of date after 1st December”.
The publisher is also now the proud owner of the Caltime Bobst machine – a vintage cutting machine the size of a Cold War amphibian tank from the 1950s. Paul is pictured here with Caltime’s General Manager, Sarah La-Plain standing in front of the monster machine which was moved from the old Caltime premises in Sandy (Bedfordshire) to Woodmansterne’s Croxley Press in Watford and erected yesterday.
