Best friends expand Anoela Cards’ ‘cultural phenomenon’ with British website launch
Mirroring customers’ identity and celebrating their culture has seen Nigerian greetings brand Anoela Cards launch here in the UK with a new website following on from a publishing deal with Moonpig.
Run by best friends Leona Adesanya and Ify Ike-Nwabuoku, the girls set up the publishing business as “a fun, black-owned, female-owned and new-age greeting cards company taking the black community and African diaspora by storm” in their home city of Lagos back in 2018.
Leona told PG Buzz: “What began as a small greeting card brand that was born out of a need to cater to people of colour, soon turned into a cultural phenomenon back home in Nigeria. Millennials and the Gen Z community finally felt they had a brand that mirrored who they were, what’s important to them and that celebrated their culture at every opportunity.”
Black Luxury was the first curated collection from Anoela, featuring only five designs but, Leona added: “It became the sell-out greeting card template that we didn’t know we needed – with imagery that’s focused strongly on West African silhouettes with a luxury aesthetic, this collection instantly became a hit among millennials and Gen Z in Nigeria.”
Soon Anoela Cards was publishing seasonal collections with over 50 designs in each, with products available in the company’s own shop in Lagos, and the demand for its unique designs grew in the UK, especially within the African diaspora. Last year’s publishing deal with Moonpig made the designs more accessible to the British audience, and they also became available in the USA and Australia.
Billing themselves as “the best friends saving relationships since 2018”, Leona said: “Now, we’ve experienced even more growth, and are excited to announce the launch of our second website, in our second home – the UK.”
The site gives UK customers the opportunity to shop from over 1,000 designs, and more than 30 collections, with access to unconventional categories such as break-ups and wine-lovers.
Top: Ify and Leona have expanded their brand from Nigeria to the UK
