Swathe of openings prove UK public really does love cards
Greeting card retailers are cutting a swathe through the current difficult retail landscape with Cards Direct, Card Factory, Postmark, and Lark all expanding by opening new bricks-and-mortar stores – along with WHSmith’s first new Curi-o-city brand outlets.
Cards Direct has two openings, in Solihull and Wolverhampton, to shout about over the past couple of weeks, taking its estate to 47 alongside its online operation since the independent retailer was founded in 2012 with the purpose of “making people smile”.
Of the Solihull unit retail operations manager Mark Watkins said: “Formerly a bank, this has been our biggest conversion and fit-out to date, but the finished store definitely makes it worthwhile.
“Our latest store opening happened last weekend in Wolverhampton. This was another big transformation from a former Next store, complete with giant staircase, to this sleek, bright and inviting addition to Dudley Street.”
Postmark’s integration of eight of the now-defunct Paperchase chain’s sites continues apace with King’s Cross and London Bridge Network Rail sites unveiled on Tuesday, 18 April, exactly a week after the Battersea Power Station store was opened.
Mark Janson-Smith, who co-owns the seven-strong greeting card and stationery retailer with wife Leona, and they are joint owners of the new Postmark-branded store expansions with Cardzone, said: “Thank you for such an amazing welcome to London Bridge and King’s Cross Station – life is a whole new adventure for us but we’ve been so well looked after and have had such lovely comments all the opening day”
The Postmark team has been working flat out since the move was announced in mid-March, with the company taking over the Battersea unit and two other stores plus five Network Rail outlets in London’s Victoria Station, London Bridge, Waterloo, Kings Cross and Birmingham New Street, which marks its first venture outside the capital, and they’re all expected to be open by the end of this summer to more than double their estate.
Mark added: “It’s an extremely exciting time for Postmark. We’re delighted to be able to grasp this huge opportunity to grow our brand and offer even more members of the public our curated mix of quality greeting cards and stationery.”
Curi-o-city is WHSmith’s new premium gifting brand launched with stores at Gatwick Airport’s north and south terminals on 16 March, and London’s St Pancras station earlier this month, and group ceo Carl Cowling commented: “We welcome Curi-o-city to the WHSmith Group, our new concept store, featuring locally-sourced premium gifting ranges and iconic brands.”
The new brand was only announced at the start of March, to offer upmarket stationery and greetings alongside gifts and souvenirs, as the 230-year-old retailer looks to move into the gap left by Paperchase’s demise – it is also on track to open 15 new UK stores across all its retail channels in the year.
Just two months after announcing their first independent lifestyle, gift, and greetings boutique outside London, Lark co-founders Dominic and Priya Aurora-Crowe have debuted their new Woking store in the Victoria Place shopping centre.
They said: “Expanding our brand has always been a goal of ours, and we’re so proud to be opening our first location outside of London.
“As a family-owned business, our values are centred on a sense of community, affordability and accessibility for everyone, which we strive to represent through our brand, and we believe our new home in Woking reflects this.”
And on Saturday, 15 April, retailing giant Card Factory opened a second outlet in Evesham, to increase its 1,000-plus store estate even further.
Confirming the existing Bridge Street site will stay open alongside the new one in The Valley shopping centre – which had over 400 entries to the Facebook post-a-pic-of-your-most-recent-celebration competition it ran to celebrate the opening, with a prize of a hamper of Card Factory goodies worth £50 hand-wrapped by staff member Cerys – the company posted on social media: “Two stores in one town? We do look after you! We’re thrilled to help celebrate all life’s moments.”
