Michelle Mills, marketing manager of leading greeting card printer, Windles shares her views on the industry as well as The Henries.
What most concerns you about the industry’s future?
“Ever since the emergence of the worldwide web there has been speculation over the lifespan of the greeting card. And then again as social media began to dominate the lives of our youth. But the industry is still very strong. Anything that’s virtual will never replace a tactile emotional message, often an article of beauty, delivering elation, laughter, warmth and thoughts. A physical thing means more.”
What do you most love about this industry?
“The people and product. It is full of warm, friendly people, and inspiring and fantastic designs, covering up to date trends and more traditional tastes. The variety is huge and impressive.
Tell us a piece of good news about Windles…
“We need to continually come up with solutions for our publishers to deliver a point of difference; cleverly using finishes that add value without costs rocketing. Investing in state of the art finishing equipment enables us to keep on pushing the boundaries.
Windles is proud to have reduced our gas consumption by 50% through full integration of our renewable energy system to heat our factory using pallets that are not fit for purpose. This is a huge achievement and makes us proud to know we have done our bit. The UK broke the 50% barrier recently as the National Grid reported for the first time that 54% of our energy was created through renewable sources.
As people are becoming more environmentally aware, it is good to shout about how the greeting cards produced in our factory being done so in the most sustainable way.”
Why does Windles sponsor The Henries?
“We are proud to feel part of an amazing industry. The Henries supports all publishers of greeting cards, many of which are our customers. It’s also an event we’ve been loyal to support since it started. Many of us have been in the industry in excess of 20 years and family connections at Windles Group go back decades!”
Windles is sponsoring the Best Christmas Counter Cards Range at The Henries this year.
The finalists in this category are:
Christmas Edged In Gold from Five Dollar Shake
Christmas Gin & Frolics from Rosie Made A Thing
Flair from Hotchpotch
Forget Me Not from Janie Wilson
Velvet Wishes from Jonny Javelin
Winter Park Life from Rocket68