Greetings Cards

The UK market for greetings cards is mature and saturated, and in an already competitive marketplace, specialist retailers have struggled as the nation’s high streets have become depressed. High-profile casualties since the previous (2008) edition of this Market Report on Greetings Cards was published have been the retail chains of Birthdays and Celebrations Group, which operated as Card Warehouse and Cardfair. Their demise has left just two major specialist chains — Clintons, placed towards the top end of the market, and Card Factory, a value retailer — and, effectively, no middle-market retail chain of significant size with which publishers can trade. Another iconic brand, Woolworths, closed its last shops in January 2009, leaving some of its supplying publishers with bad debts, unwanted ordered stock and loss of future business. The long-established wholesalers JA Magson Ltd and Sellicks (Plymouth) Ltd both went into administration in late 2008, while further job losses have been sustained at Hallmark, International Greetings and Simon Elvin as the recession has tightened its grip on the high street.

Nevertheless, the outlook is not all doom and gloom. Other card retailers must eventually take on the customers of the casualties and the mood among many independent retailers is optimistic. On the publishing side, there has been no shortage of acquisitive activity, including UK Greetings’ purchase of Card Connection, Paper House Group’s acquisition of Medici and Paper Rose’s acquisition of Avocado. It seems likely, in the current climate, that other publishers will come up for sale before the end of 2009, offering competitors with the necessary funds the potential to expand.

One of the most serious threats facing the UK greetings-cards industry is the growing encroachment of supermarkets, whose huge buying power enables them to sell quality cards at low prices. For example, Tesco sells cards at less than £1 and for as little as 10 pence. Such excessive discounting obviously does nothing for the value of the market, especially at a time when many consumers are struggling to keep within tight budgets and are more likely to be tempted to buy cards of an inferior quality.

However, the industry is fortunate in that enough of the population are discerning in their choice of cards, aware of their importance to the recipient and mindful of the fact that their choice says much about themselves, as well as their perception of the recipient. The continuing gloomy outlook and job insecurity could well encourage the sending of more cards, to boost morale and show support in difficult times.

Consumer research commissioned for Key Note in June 2009 found that just 2.3% of adults in Great Britain had not sent a traditional greetings card of any kind, while penetration for birthday and Christmas cards was as high as 93.4% and 91.2%, respectively. The UK’s world-leading industry will continue to encourage the population’s love of the product, developing a never-ending stream of new designs to cater for any number of occasions and sentiments, and taking advantage of the changing nature of the growing population.

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