Anka Verlag’s owner shares a German and Hungarian viewpoint
As part of an ongoing series, PG Buzz grabbed its passport to check in with some of the leading greeting card distributors and publishers in various part of the world to find out how the card trade has been in their respective areas.
Here, Anka Verlag’s owner Marius Szanto shares his international perspective of the Germany and Hungarian market, where he trades in cards and musical gift products…
What has the last year been like?
“When we look at the actual economic and political situation in Europe and the world, 2022 was a difficult year in most countries. The aftermath of Covid, the Russian-Ukrainian war, the resulting energy shortage, soaring inflation and the uncertainty they have all caused for all of us were the major challenges of 2022, and they are by no means over.
“If I had to pick one word it would be ‘uncertainty’, not knowing what’s going to happen even in the next few days, let alone long-term. Even so, taking all these negatives into account and from what I also hear from colleagues, 2022 was surprisingly good for most of us in the greeting card and gift industries.
“Anka Verlag’s business falls into three main areas – supplying greeting cards in Germany, musical gift products in Europe and being one of the major suppliers of gift items to the former Royal Palace of Gödöllő in my native Hungary.
“My 2022 turnover was almost back to the pre-Covid level of 2019 and 50% up on 2021, which was a very difficult year. My sales of Christmas cards were not as good as I’d hoped as many customers still had stock from the previous two years and some, unfortunately, fell victim to the hard times and had to close down.”
What have been the ups and downs
“Naked packaging of greeting cards does not seem to have been accepted in Germany and traditional packing in plastic sleeves prevails.
“On the music side developments have not been positive. Many smaller music stores closed down, the requirements of choirs and orchestras for scarves, ties, vests and cufflinks diminished because of the cancelled performances due to the Covid regulations. and the Frankfurt Music Fair, the largest music fair in the world where I exhibited for almost 30 consecutive years, ceased to exist. The opera shops of the Budapest and Vienna Opera Houses closed down for refurbishing and will reopen later this year.
“General developments in Hungary have not been unlike many other European markets, primarily because of Covid. The Royal Palace of Gödöllő that I supply is one of the major tourist attractions of the country and the fact there were no tourists coming for the best part of two years also took its toll.
“However, they are now more or less back on an even keel, tourists have started coming again and expectations for 2023 are relatively high. I also supply some greeting cards to the Palace. I had two sets of 20 postcards made especially for them with portraits of Elisabeth (Sisi) as Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary.
“The retail price of greeting cards in Hungary is low compared to most Western European countries which makes it difficult to sell non-indigenous cards there. A further stumbling block is the VAT rate in Hungary is 27%, the highest in Europe.”
What are your hopes and dreams for 2023
“My hopes and expectations for the coming year in all my ventures are highly optimistic and positive. I look forward to visiting trade fairs again, primarily in England and Germany, as was my custom before Covid, and I’m particularly looking forward to PG Live in London in June 2023!”
Many other international views appeared in the February edition of Progressive Greetings magazine which can be read online here, or you can subscribe here to receive the magazine by post each month.
