Eddie Shepherd has replaced Dominique Schurman as chief executive officer of Clintons.
Eddie is certainly no stranger to Clintons, nor the greeting card industry. Eddie has been general manager of Clintons since 2012 (the year the company was acquired by American Greetings, US parent company of UK Greetings). Previous to joining Clintons, Eddie held senior management positions at Watermark Publishing and Birthdays Group (the latter going back to the time it was owned by its entrepreneurial founder, Ron Wood).
The change allows Dominique Schurman, who was brought in by American Greetings when it acquired the UK specialist chain in 2012, to concentrate solely on her US-based responsibilities, running her own company, the Schurman Retail Group (SRG) which includes card shops that trade under Papyrus, Niquea.d and Carlton Retail.
In a statement issued to PG Buzz, Clintons officially thanked Dominique for “her years of service.”
Dominique frequently joked that she had something of a hefty commute – making references to her responsibilities of running Clintons in Essex as well as the SRG business, that is based in California.
Commenting on his new role, Eddie, a man shies the limelight, said: “I’m delighted to be offered the opportunity to lead the Clintons team through this next phase in our story.”
He gave his assurance that the retail group is to “renew our focus on offering our customers a great value card assortment, including new, exclusive and differentiated ranges.”
As part of this Clintons is to strengthen its gift, wrap and party ranges as well as align its store portfolio, which currently comprises 380 stores, “to profitable markets”.
This development comes shortly after Clintons issued a trading statement to counter its 2016 financial results, which showed a £19 million loss that was covered in PG Buzz recently.
