Eulinid Stevenson, ceo of Henderson Greetings and Waterlyn, which distributes many UK publishers’ products in Australia, has recently been awarded the Business Woman of the Year Award in the VANA industry awards, which are organised by the newsagency body in Victoria.
“After being tested in many ways through 2020,” Eulinid said she felt incredibly honoured to be presented with the award at a recent gala event. “Enormous thanks to the VANA Ltd board for advocating so hard for newsagents to remain open during lockdowns and for this special recognition.”
Ever gracious in her modesty, Eulinid revealed that she “felt quite selfish receiving this award – I have so much support from my husband and family at home,” before going on to pay tribute to her “work family” as well as retail customers. “The team at Henderson Greetings are simply the best. They’ve banded together and along with our suppliers and customers, continue to demonstrate outstanding resilience, commitment and genuine care for one another. This is definitely an award for us all to celebrate – not just me.”
Eulinid also extends her gratitude to publishers on UK shores. “Without doubt our UK publishers have played a major role in our success. So many of our designs are sourced from the UK and the way our product offering is evolving has been noticed by the industry and appreciated by our customers. Coupling industry leading designs with support for our local printers has been the perfect match,” believes Eulinid.
Among Waterlyn’s UK publisher partners are Alex Clark Art, Bug Art, Flametree, Glick, Hearts Designs, Janie Wilson, Lagom, Megan Claire, Museum & Galleries, Paper Rose, Paper Salad, Pigment, Redback Cards, Stephanie Dyment and Tache while Simon Elvin and Nigel Quiney designs feature in Henderson’s everyday selection
While international travel is not easy in and out of Australia, due to Covid-restrictions, Eulinid was pleasantly surprised by the attendance at the recent Reed Gift Fair in Sydney at which Waterlyn exhibited. “The fair was a genuine success for us and the publishers we had on show.”
Sharing her take on the overall trade situation, Eulinid said: Consumer sentiment and retail figures are quite stable over here which is quite remarkable when you consider what we’ve all been through. Federal government stimulus packages have helped Australia significantly.”
Specifically on the card front, Eulinid added: “Wedding cards are flying out the door now that restrictions have eased. Seasonal sell-through figures have been surprisingly good and some of our newer ranges have taken off much better than expected, such as Love Unlimited’ by Pigment, our Care collection in support of RUOK day and our Heart of Gold release of luxury designs.”
Read Eulinid’s global perspective on how the newsagency sector maintained greeting card supply to the public in Australia during Covid (https://www.pgbuzz.net/global-perspective-whats-happening-in-the-australian-card-sector/)
