With the start of the year, Top Drawer and Spring Fair seeing a wealth of new ranges making their debut, PG Buzz asked Sally Matson, owner of Red Card, Petworth what of this newness has sent her heart soaring. She was not backwards in coming forward…
“Our top sellers since the start of the year have been Redback’s hilarious Holy Flaps range, which has recently added new captions, and also its new reversible sequins Shine range, of which are already on our second order.
Cardology’s amazing 3D cards are new to us and have gone down a storm as they are unique and offer something for everyone, with designs ranging from Land Rovers to gin to unicorns.
I first saw Deadpan’s cards at last year’s GCA’s Dragons’ Den and they have been a new year top seller at Red Card. The company launched new captions at Top Drawer, which have been a great success. The dry humour is very clever and a welcome addition to our occasions’ offering.
The trend of card companies licensing their bestselling ranges to other companies to produce different products really works for us and enables us to build ‘stories’ around the shop. Our first purchase at Top Drawer were the new Rosie Made a Thing mugs from McLaggan Smith and they have been so successful that a further range was released at Spring Fair, which we also bought. Glick launched Rosie Made a Thing giftwrap and bags at Spring Fair, and the wrap and bags based on Redback’s Cloud Nine range, both of which are flying out. Redback has also licensed its Cloud Nine brand to Transomnia and so at Spring Fair we bought some lovely Christmas products from this range. From a retailer’s point of view, these partnerships are beneficial to everyone as they mean quality products are being produced by the specialists in their respective fields and we are able to expand our offering of bestselling card brands. It also provides a link between suppliers and extends that family feeling that is so lovely about the greeting card and gift industry.
Five Dollar Shake’s colourful new Magic, Music & Moonbeams range, which also has the most amazing selection of gift bags and wrap to match, has been a focal point for our new year displays, as have Heather Marten’s beautiful English Graphics cards, notebooks and prints. This card range is my current top favourite as they really are just so beautiful.
We started ordering from Toasted Crumpet at PG Live last June, initially just the cards but have now expanded our offering with some of the beautiful bone china mugs and jugs and again, this expansion of the range has been really successful; the artwork is so pretty.
And I have to mention Bluebell 33’s ‘Love Where You Live’ new bespoke cards, which are fab – we ordered the whole lot at Spring Fair.”
Top: Sally Matson on The Art File stand at Top Drawer.
