The Eco-friendly Card Co. marks its 30th anniversary this September with celebrations due to kick off at the NEC Autumn Fair (6C02) The publisher has teamed up with award-winning artisan chocolate maker, Cocoa Loco, to give away thirty boxes of champagne chocolates at the show!
The Eco-friendly Card Co., previously known as Glebe Cottage Studio, was established back in 1993 by art student Scott Morrish. Scott was looking for a way of funding a new darkroom in his garden shed, nestled in the garden of the original ‘Glebe Cottage’.
He was shortly joined in the business by Susanna, who would drive around Devon’s narrow lanes visiting independent retailers to sell their blossoming range of greeting cards from a cardboard box in the back of the car. This passion for independent retail that was kindled thirty years ago remains to this day with the publisher choosing not to supply supermarkets or take part in brokerage.
It was in the early nineties that the eco-publisher’s first environmental commitment was born, a choice to only use recycled envelopes for cards, against a background where the idea of being ‘green’ was often seen as a bit left-field. “It was pretty hard to find suppliers to work with then“, muses director, Susanna Morrish. “Fortunately that, like so many things, has changed over the last 30 years – just think when we first started out we had to use pay-phones to contact the office, you always needed to have a good stack of A-Z maps and change to pay for parking, and when you answered the phone it was as just as likely to be a squeaking fax noise on the line as much as a person. We used to wrap all our cards ourselves at the kitchen table in the evenings – we quickly got used to multi-tasking!”
The eco-friendly publisher has a whole host of ‘firsts’ under its belt, from being the first DTR publisher to become FSC certified, to the first to use compostable bags for cards all the way back in 2006; from winning leading eco-awards and scooping the trophy for best bespoke calendars at the Callies, to publishing the Christmas cards for HRH Charles the Prince of Wales, there’s certainly been a lot of highlights over the past three decades. However, it’s not any of these milestones that the publisher is most proud of. “The thing I value the most from over the last thirty years is our relationships with our independent retail customers, many of whom have been with us from the start,” said Susanna. “It’s their support that’s enabled us to thrive over all this time and I’m really looking forward to catching up with customers old and new at the Autumn Fair.“
The publisher also has a long-standing licensing relationship with The Wildlife Trusts and will be launching a brand- new collection of 24 designs of greeting cards at the Autumn Fair. The range showcases the very best of British wildlife, with every product featuring interesting text about the species depicted. Like all cards from The Eco-friendly Card Co., they are printed on 100% recycled FSC® board Carbon-Balanced with The World Land Trust. The new collection can be ordered at the show alongside the publisher’s other photographic and art ranges – with the first thirty customers placing an order receiving a box of celebratory champagne chocolates from Cocoa Loco. Director, Sue Morrish, said, “We chose Cocoa Loco champagne chocolates to give away due to the way they create their products. They are committed to using organic and fairtrade ingredients, as well as compostable packaging – and of course they taste delicious!”
As well as enjoying the hand-made chocolates retailers will also be able to benefit from a 20% discount on orders with Cocoa Loco – please visit The Eco-friendly Card Co. stand 6C02 at The Autumn Fair, for more details.
