With the announcement yesterday morning (September 3) of the 12 publishers who have reached the finals in The Henries’ 2020 hotly contested Best Service to the Independent Retailer Award (https://www.pgbuzz.net/the-henries-2020-best-service-to-the-independent-retailer-finalists/), there have been plenty of beaming smiles and whoops of joy from many quarters.
From The Art File…
James Mace, sales and marketing manager: “Sensational news! Such rewarding news for our team who stuck with it through lockdown.”
From Dandelion Stationery…
Jo Wilson, founder and creative maestro: “Bloody hell! Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We made it into the top 12! Ridiculously chuffed to bits! Thank you sooooooo much to our wonderful and amazing customers for voting for us. Thank you to our fabulous agents for looking after our customers. And a huge thank you to our amazing team in the office for going above and beyond, pretty much on a daily basis.”
From Rosie Made A Thing…
Rosie Harrison, managing director: “How exciting!!!! This is such lovely news. We’re so happy to be finalists in this category – one for the whole team! Thank you so much to everyone who voted for us – we feel quite grown up and professional for once!”
From UK Greetings…
Darren Cave, commercial director: “This is fantastic news! I want to start by saying ‘thank you’ to those retailers who have nominated UK Greetings for the award this year. We of course pride ourselves on the service and support that we offer our customers so to reach the final in this category means an awful lot to us. This has been a tough and challenging year for everyone, so it is great to receive such wonderful news.”
From Wendy Jones-Blackett…
Wendy Jones-Blackett, co-owner of the company posted on social media: “CONGRATS to our fellow finalists in this year’s awards for customer service, during a GLOBAL PANDEMIC to boot!! Well done guys you’re superstars and it’s an absolute pleasure to know you all – thank you lovely customers who nominated us as well, always sooo lovely to have good news! X 😘🎉🎉🎉”
From Woodmansterne…
Adam Osborne, director of operations and IT: “I was absolutely delighted we won the silver service award last year. It’s such a big deal in the industry; I made it an objective to get my hands on one when I joined ten years ago! It would be a real honour for us to be recognised again.”
Seth Woodmansterne, managing director: “We are nothing without our customers. Looking after them well and aiding their success is at the heart of everything we do – through thick and thin!”
The Henries 2020 Best Service to the Independent Retailer Finalists are:
(Companies are listed alphabetically)
The Art File
Cherry Orchard Publishing
Dandelion Stationery
IC&G
Jonny Javelin
Nigel Quiney Publications
Noel Tatt
Pigment
Rosie Made A Thing
UK Greetings
Wendy Jones-Blackett
Woodmansterne Publications
The finalists in this award category were decided as a result of an exhaustive poll involving 2,500 Independent retailers who voted in droves for their ‘top three’ card publishers who have excelled on the service front over the last year.
“So much has been put to the test over the last year – and being able to rely on a good service from their suppliers has been a top priority for all greeting card independent retailers both pre-lockdown, during and now,” explained Warren Lomax, joint md of Max Publishing, which owns and organises The Henries greeting card industry awards. “We were inundated with indies pledging their votes for this year’s Best Service award contenders, ever grateful of the lengths some publishers have gone to over the last 12 months.”
As in previous years there will be a Bronze, Silver and Gold award for the Best Service To The Independent Retailer category in The Henries 2020.
Other publishers who were ranked highly on the service front by retailers in the nominations, but just missed out on making it into the finals, are (shown in order of the votes):
13th = Hallmark
13th = Words ‘n’ Wishes
14th Second Nature
15th Cardigan Cards
16th Paper Salad
17th Wrendale Designs
18th Redback
19th Rachel Ellen Designs
20th Five Dollar Shake
The winners of this award category as well as the product award categories (the finalists of which will be announced next week), will be revealed on December 10!
