What caught the eyes of the Kleinlerchers, Kate Cowie and Sarah Green at the recent PG Live show
Between The Lines
Between The Lines’ directors Florian and Lindsey Kleinlercher and their daughter Ellie who has recently joined on the buying front share their top picks and views on the show:
“We had a great time as always at PG Live. It’s such a great concept – so different from all the other shows. Visitors are so well looked after, as a buyer you feel very welcomed and valued; pampered from top to toe.”
Top Picks: “As for the product selection, it was fabulous. We were particularly impressed by the BBC Blue Planet/ Planet Earth range from Museums and Galleries, especially the innovative zero plastic packaging.
We loved the new MinaLima Harry Potter range from Mint, the new additions to The Proper Mail Company and also the new additions to The Happy News range from Pigment.
We were also impressed by Earlybird. We immediately placed an order and are hoping to have the selection in stores from next week.
We had a good chat to Mike Broad and Riou Baxter [of Why Management], who introduced us to some lovely ranges from Belly Button and Paper Salad.”
Utility
Kate Cowie, director of the trio of Utility shops in Liverpool was keen to share her product finds at the show.
“We find PG Live such a useful show as cards are a big part of our business and seeing so many great companies all under one roof is a fantastic way to stay focused.
Top Picks: “We spent a really enjoyable day at the show which resulted in us finding quite a few great new suppliers – notably Lucy Maggie Designs and Angela Chick. Both have ranges that are quirky, funny, well illustrated and boldly coloured.
We also loved catching up with some of our existing suppliers and have already ordered and received two great new ranges from Redback Cards and Stormy Knight.”
Spots in Southwold and Wave in Bungay
Leading independent retailer, Sarah Green, owner, of Spots in Southwold (which won a Retas award last year and recently reached the finals in the Post Office Retail Sales Awards) and its new sibling, Wave in Bungay (which is a finalist in this year’s Retas) is full of praise for the show and what she saw there.
“I thought it was the best ever PG Live, particularly in the Springboard area. We spent so much time chatting to suppliers that we ran out of time. Next year we will definitely do two days.”
Top Picks: “We had a Golden Ticket to spend for Spots and a Sunshine Ticket for Wave and wanted to spend them with some of the newbies. We struggled to decide as there were so many fabulous companies. In the end we chose Penguin Ink for its lovely letterpress cards of animals. We particularly loved the bold sealife designs, which are perfectly timed with the popularity of the theme, which has been generated by the Blue Planet series. The publisher also has a range of small cards with delightfully simple embossed images of dogs. We ordered a spinner of these for the counter and they are already selling well. Designer Lizzie Parker is from Suffolk so there was an immediate connection.
We used our Sunshine ticket for Wave with Deadpan. We loved the simplicity of the design and the dry humour. It was also good that there is starting to be a recognition that the LGBT community is very underrepresented in the greeting card industry. We loved Huetribe’s cards and are eagerly awaiting the publisher’s Christmas ranges as we hope to offer a more diverse offering in captioned cards this year.”
