Third generation greetings business marks big birthday with barbecue and cake
It’s big birthday time for Woodmansterne as the publisher celebrated 70 years in business with a barbecue and sweet treats for all staff.
The third generation greeting card design, print and brokerage company threw a birthday barbecue at its Watford headquarters which md Seth Woodmansterne described as: “A little party at work to celebrate surviving 70 years as a business.”
Sharing his thoughts on social media, Seth posted: “I pinch myself daily that I get to work with such a wonderful team – serving our lovely customers, navigating the challenges together and building for the future. Fingers firmly crossed we have another few years in us yet!”
When Woodmansterne Publications’ founder Graham Woodmansterne, Seth’s paternal grandfather, made his first training film for the British troops serving in India during the Second World War little did he know that in 2023 his legacy would still be very much rooted in the visual arts.
Since he set up the business in 1953 on the site of the former Croxley Paper Mills, once owned by John Dickinson, the pioneer of paper manufacturing and inventor of both cardboard and the gummed envelope, Woodmansterne has had an in-house press which has become known as the Croxley Press.
With Graham having revolutionised the souvenir slide business through the development of his own process, when that market dropped off he and son Paul stepped up to use some of the amazing imagery from the slide archive on greeting cards, plus the beautiful Edward Burne-Jones stained glass windows in Oxford’s Christ Church.
At a time when 5x7in cards were the norm, the dynamic square designs turned the fine art card publishing sector on its head in the 80s and 90s with what was then viewed as a controversial approach to reproducing art, topped by prominent company branding on the front.
“We did come up against a lot of resistance to our desire to just feature an element of a masterpiece on the front of the card. We got round it with some institutions by featuring the artwork in its entirety on the backs of the cards,” said Paul Woodmansterne, Seth’s father and company chairman.
Woodmansterne now supplies 30million greeting cards a year to retailers of all sizes through its printing site at Watford and Magna Park distribution centre in Milton Keynes.
Over the years the company has expanded way beyond its art card disruptor label to become a mainstay strategic publisher, moving into licensed ranges, occasions and relations, along with the introduction of the Cardmix and The Proper Mail Company brands to cater for different consumer strands and additional retail customers, plus there’s the Caltime advent calendar arm, and brokerage service for multiples, small groups and indies through its W Select programme.
Continuing with its aim of using cards to reflect British culture and taste, Woodmansterne’s ranges cover the beauty of National Trust images and the humour of Punch cartoons through many contemporary designs to the magic of Quentin Blake’s illustrations, which are in the Henry Cole Classic hall of fame.
Woodmansterne’s company values – relationships first, be authentic, make it brilliant, grow or die, and enthusiasm and fun – are still very much to the fore and feature in the video below which was produced as part of the company’s 65th anniversary celebrations five years ago.
And, with numerous awards already in the trophy cabinet, the publisher has no less than seven nominations in The Henries Awards 2023 – Best Humorous Range, Best Licensed Card Range, Best Male Range (non-humour), Best Photographic Range, Best Relations And/Or Occasions Range, The Lynn Tait Most Promising Young Designer Or Artist and, perhaps most importantly, Best Service To The Independent Retailer – where Woodmansterne has featured many times since the awards were founded in 1997.
