Greetings retailer marks quarter century with call to founder – and more store openings
A quarter century of selling great value greeting cards has been marked at Card Factory as only they know how – opening even more stores!
Since founders Dean Hoyle and his wife Janet opened the first shop on Teall Street in Wakefield on 1 November, 1997, the company has just kept growing, now running a 1,000-plus store estate with the latest opening in Larkhall on Saturday, 29 October, plus there was the eighth revamped new model store in Hinckley last week too.
Chief commercial officer Adam Dury spent the anniversary on Tuesday visiting five stores in London, with regional manager Maureen Whele posting on social media: “What a fantastic day! What a privilege to spend the day celebrating this milestone with Adam visiting five amazing stores, three in Central London plus Tottenham Hale and Holloway.
“We celebrated our new values and Adam’s open and honest engagement with the teams was inspirational – it was absolutely wonderful that our ceo Darcy Willson-Rymer contacted the founder of the business to thank him for creating such a superb business – Dean Hoyle, thank you.”
Adam responded: “It was an absolute privilege and a pleasure to join you and your team to celebrate our 25th birthday. A huge thank you to all of the Card Factory team for making today so special.”
And Steve Lilley, executive director retail operations, added: “What an amazing day, celebrating our 25th birthday with our teams – extremely proud to be part of this phenomenal business.”
Having built the business to over 500 stores Dean and Janet sold the company to venture capitalist Charterhouse in 2010, with financial commentators putting the selling price in excess of £350million. Card Factory became a public company when it was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2014.
Top: Happy 25th birthday to Card Factory
