David Greaves (pictured above) has bought Emotional Rescue, the greeting card company he ran (and co-owned) for 22 years until 2013. The business was sold in its entirety to industry stalwart Martin Nevin four years ago.
In a decision that works very well for both parties, Martin has now sold the business back to David Greaves. “Emotional Rescue is a great business and I have really enjoyed the last four years working with the team there and developing the company,” said Martin. “The opportunity to sell the business to someone who knows it better than anyone, thereby offering security to the staff and customers makes this a perfect deal. There is no better bloke for the job than David. I am just happy to have kept the business in good shape for him.”
Ever since he left Emotional Rescue, David Greaves has been exploring business opportunities within the trade. He spent a brief period working with Paul Taylor, md of Cardzone, utilising his retailing knowledge honed from many years prior to joining Emotional Rescue.
It appears that the ideal opportunity was right under his nose.
“It feels like putting on a favourite comfortable jacket that is just the perfect fit,” said David of becoming the owner of Emotional Rescue. “I can’t tell you how excited I am to be back involved in developing products for this market.”
Martin says he has no intention of retiring, but is planning to take a bit of time off.
Chris Houfe, who has been joint managing director of Emotional Rescue for the last seven months (having joined from GBCC, where he was sales director) is no longer with the business.
Paying tribute to Chris, David said: “I’d really like to thank Chris for all his help during the build up to the sale.”
Although somewhat of a shorter tenure than he initially envisaged, Chris said that it had been “a great seven months. I am very glad for Martin and David and a good result for Emotional Rescue. Having had a bit of time off I realise that retirement is definitely not for me. I would miss the cut and thrust. I would really like to stay in the card and gift trade, working on the sales/commercial side and will be open to ideas.”
Top: David Greaves has just bought Emotional Rescue.
