Closure of indie chain, five years on from his namesake stores’ demise.
Almost five years to the day of Clinton Cards going into receivership (before being bought out by American Greetings), its namesake, Clinton Lewin’s next greeting card retailing venture has also fallen on tough times, with the administrators having been called in.
Clinton had joined the Clinton Cards’ card retailing business that had bene founded by his father Don Lewin, as soon as he left school over 30 years ago. He remained a director of the company until it went into administrative receivership and was acquired by American Greetings.
Badly affected by the company’s demise, he considered doing something other than cards, but realised that “it was in his blood” so started iCandy Cards & Gifts.
Clinton had grafted hard to build up iCandy Cards & Gifts to a group of 14 card and gift stores that traded in the south east, in Essex, Hertfordshire and Suffolk.
However, facing no other option, he was forced to call in the receivers this week. As a result, four of the 14 iCandy stores are to close immediately, resulting in 22 job losses. The remaining 10 stores (and 80 jobs) will remain open with a buyer actively being sought for the business.
Clinton Lewin opened the first of his iCandy stores before Christmas in 2012, positioning them as a middle-upmarket retailer. The product mix and pricing went down well with customers and the business expanded to 14 stores over the next five years.
It was never Clinton’s intention to build a huge chain, but his initial intention was to expand into a sizeable regional group. “I don’t want iCandy to be massive – but growing it to around 30 stores would enable us to benefit from some economies of scale, while still being able to react quickly to the needs of our customers,” Clinton told PG back in 2013.
He was never interested in selling low value cards at iCandy, though accepted that Card Factory do it “annoyingly well”. As he pointed out back at the start of the iCandy journey: “There have always been cheap cards on offer, it is just that when Clinton Cards started they were sold on market stalls. Now, they are being sold in Card Factory shops on the high street, but there is still real opportunities for retailers selling a strong range of well designed cards and gifts.”
