Long-time sales manager set to retire after 44 years in greetings business
It’s a wrap for Neil Matthews as the long-time Artebene sales manager and agent is to retire after 44 years in the greeting card world.
Neil is stepping down from his day job at the end of this year, having started as a rep at WN Sharpe – which was a bit of a change from his original work as an apprentice toolmaker and metallurgist!
After WN Sharpe Neil stayed in the industry, taking on roles at Gordon Fraser, Andrew Brownsword and Hallmark before joining Artebene in 2009, two years after the German-based giftwrap, accessories and stationery company opened its UK arm.
“The Artebene team has been incredible to work with over the last 15 years,” Neil told PG Buzz, “I’ve fulfilled many roles, worked with some inspiring people and learned a lot about this business, which hopefully I have passed on to other people – certainly navigating through the Brexit and Covid years were both challenging, but we did come out the other side.
“I’m still working as sales manager until the end of the year and will oversee the transition for the next step in the Artebene development, and whoever takes over the role, but I will miss the annual Spring Fair catch up with all the cardies from the industry.”
Neil’s immediate plans are “to play as much cricket as possible with the Devon 70s – body permitting! – spend some time with our family horses, and an extended visit to our daughter in Australia is definitely on the cards, while still keeping an eye out for what’s going on in the industry”.
Looking out old photos Neil found one of a Gordon Fraser sales meeting in the early 90s, and laughed: “Everyone is wearing suits and ties! I don’t think you’d be at any sales meeting nowadays where that’s the case, it’s so much more relaxed now.
When prompted for other ways the industry has moved on, Neil highlighted: “One of the biggest changes is communication, now you can contact anyone in the world, find any order, use your phone as an office with little paperwork, all at your fingertips.
“When I first started as a rep the only way to communicate with anyone before the original brick mobiles was to find a telephone kiosk, call the operator and reverse the charges to your company or have an endless supply of coins!
“They were groundbreaking days, and so much fun, but we always worked hard and partied hard.”
