Celebrating Henries winners ‘proud to work in such an amazing industry’
An industry that’s “proud to have each other’s backs” is a great way to describe greeting cards – and this year’s shining stars pulled out all the sequinned stops at The Henries Awards extravaganza to prove just how friendly it is.
Mark Callaby, Ohh Deer’s md, was particularly pleased as the publisher had only launched its first art range in January, so to take home the trophy at the ceremony on Thursday, 5 October, made the night at London’s Royal Lancaster Hotel even more special.
“I’m incredibly proud to work in such an amazing industry,” Mark told PG Buzz, “it’s great and how we all have each other’s backs even though we’re ultimately all competing.
“Jake, our London sales agent, suggested to us that we should do an art range as he thought Ohh Deer could do it really well. Come January we’d launched one, then we took home the award for it!”
In his sequinned suit Mark – seen collecting the award in the video below – was one of the many among the 500 attendees who fully embraced the Mardi Gras theme of the night – with an array of confetti bombs on their tables hosted by Windles Group, Loxleys, and G.F Smith to keep the fun happening – and plenty took advantage of Redback Cards’ Shine designs which adorned the menus, peeling off the sequinned patches shaped like the disco globe, a rainbow heart and Big Love logo to adorn their outfits.
For the first time each winner has received a wee video of their moment of triumph, some of which are included here. To see all the winners click here, and read on for more reactions from those now taking care of the 2023 trophies…
Redback owner Chris Stanley had a very shiny shirt which glowed as he hit the spotlight to collect an award from host and musical comedian Pippa Evans: “Amazing! Super thrilled to win the humour award! I’m really proud of all the team and couldn’t be happier.”
The gold, silver and bronze Best Service To The Independent Retailer awards are among the most coveted as the Cardgains-sponsored category is voted for by the shops so Dandelion Stationery owner Jo Wilson was absolutely delighted.
“What a night!” Jo told PG Buzz. “Thank you so blooming much to our bloody fabulous customers who voted for us in the Best Service category, absolutely over the moon to be taking home the bronze trophy.
“Any Henries nomination or trophy is incredibly special, but to bag a trophy in the service category means the world to our little team. We have an amazing team in our office and warehouse who work their socks off to give our fabulous customers a good experience – to have this recognised is incredible. We’re all chuffed to bits.
“We had a fabulous night celebrating with some wonderful industry friends and had slightly sore heads in the morning!
“Congrats to everyone who took home a trophy but also to all those bloody amazing creatives who didn’t get the trophy this time – being at this event always reminds me just how many amazing people are in the industry. I’m off now to stroke my trophy and have a nap.”
Noel Tatt md Jarle Tatt was made up at receiving the silver Best Service award: “It was genuine shock and absolute delight!
“Upon hearing the bronze award winner announced, I was convinced last year’s first and second award winners would take those again, so there’d be no need to rush to put my jacket back on. How happy was I to be proven wrong.
“Windles’ owner Bruce Podmore had been bigging us up throughout dinner, and had confetti in both hands ready to celebrate, so it was amazing not to let him down!
“I’m so pleased for all the Noel Tatt team, both at head office and out on the road, who really deserve this award. We have missed out on an award for a few years now, this is a very welcome return to the stage.
“I thought Pippa Evans was excellent, she’d done a lot of research prior to the night and made the evening interesting, relevant and funny.”
Stephanie Davies was crowned as Best Young Designer Or Artist and said: “To win this particular award, especially up against the most seriously incredible artists and designs, is truly an honour.
“I didn’t hear my name called at first and was gobsmacked when I saw my name on screen, I couldn’t stop shaking, it was the best adrenaline rush! It was the proudest moment of my career without a doubt, and I’ll never forget it.”
There was double delight for Dan and Yvette Clarkson whose Heyyy Cards business is only in its second year, and they earned a pair of Henries awards – Best Diversity & Inclusion Range and Best Male Range.
“I honestly don’t think I’ve been so shocked to win anything in all my life!” Yvette exclaimed. “Right before the ceremony we’d stopped outside to look at the finalists’ boards, and had been discussing how high the standard was this year and how lucky we were to make the finals.
“When they called out Heyyy cards I think we both just looked at each other in disbelief until one of us shouted out ‘we won’!
“Without a doubt it one of the proudest moments we’ve ever experienced, particularly knowing the votes came from such an amazing group of retail judges. Just fantastic!
“By the time Best Male came around we were still trying to get our heads around the fact we had won one award… when they called out Heyyy Cards for a second time it was literally a dream come true.
“We are so unbelievably proud to win as we’ve really worked hard this year to develop a lot of different designs that could appeal to a male audience.
“Safe to say Dan didn’t stop grinning from ear to ear all night and I had to prise the trophies out of his hands when he fell asleep next to them at the end of the night. He’s been carrying them around the house all weekend!
“We absolutely loved being part of the awards this year, it was lovely to see awards going to a number of small companies and artists as well as the established publishers that we aspire to follow in the footsteps of. What an amazing industry we work in to all cheer and support each other, it’s very humbling.”
And it was a wow moment for Kingfisher Cards md Paul Urban: “Waiting while the contenders for your category is announced is weird – doubt, hope, resignation, expectation, all within a few seconds then…wow!
“It only really starts to sink in when you’re on stage with all the other winners for the winners’ photo. It’s a great feeling and a fabulous night.”
Woodmansterne art director Ian Blake loved the night’s theme and said: “To win a Henry is always such a fantastic achievement, so having Eleanor from our Emma Bridgewater licence attending her very first awards ceremony and winning the Best Licensed award was simply the icing on the cake. So proud for Eleanor to have experienced our wonderful industry in its finest.”
After 40 years in cards, Cath Tate has been to many of the 28 Henries events and still thoroughly enjoys the whole experience: “Many thanks for organising another wonderful awards evening. They’re always amazing to go to, great company, great food etc – even though I have ended up wearing some pretty daft clothes to some of them!
“I was really overjoyed to get The Henry Cole Classic award for the Photocaptions range that I’ve been working away on for some 25 years now. It finally made it all worthwhile! I was well chuffed on the night and am now a well chuffed cardie!”
At Five Dollar Shake, designer Becky Mann and the team are absolutely thrilled: “Hearing Stargazing being called as winner of Best Relations And/Or Occasions Range, was such a euphoric moment. Every single one of us at Five Dollar Shake has played a part in producing our gorgeous hand-glittered range and we should all feel incredibly proud of our achievement.
“I was very honoured to be asked to receive the award and I hope to see many more awards in our studio in the future! Thank you for our Henries trophy and for a truly wonderful evening.”
The Best Traditional Words & Sentiment category was won by UK Greetings, and creative director Frances Billington commented: “Words and sentiment are at the heart of our business and so much care and skill goes into finding exactly the right words for every card, so we’re thrilled to be recognised for this award!”
Raspberry Blossom’s Rebecca and Mark Green really embraced the mardi gras theme with a gorgeously tactile silver dress and fabulously sparkly suit.
Rebecca said: “It’s a night for the card industry to come together and celebrate not only how wonderful and talented everyone is, but reflect on how hard we all work and what a great industry we’re part of. It’s truly incredible.
“And what makes it even more incredible is winning an award! We won the Best Children’s category and, for Mark and I, this category means so, so much. Our two children inspire our collections and we push ourselves and our business for them. So this award is for our little Ophelia and Reuben.
“What a night full of sparkle! Mark is still buzzing from all the love for that shiny suit!”
“A huge thank you for the amazing work at The Henries Awards 2023,” commented Alljoy Design co-owner Ling Ji who is shown in the video above with sales agent Richard Pass collecting his award from Simon Woolridge, divisional sales director of category sponsor EBB Board.
“What you guys at PG do to promote the greeting card industry is absolutely fantastic and really motivating everyone in this industry. It was an honour to be a part of it.
“Thank you for the photos and video, they’re just perfect – it brought back all those great memories from the event and I can share it with my wife Jiawen too.”
There was a second trip on to the stage for Louise Mulgrew, who collected the Best Christmas range in her own right then her designs clinched the award for Glick in the Best Giftwrappings category. Glick’s md Becky Dobson commented: “It was an absolutely fabulous night, one of the best actually! I thought the atmosphere was great – a real feel-good evening.
“We’re absolutely thrilled to win! Humbled, honoured and excited to win among such great talent in the gift wrap category and thrilled to be bringing back a trophy to the team at Glick HQ.”
And Louise added: “Winning the Christmas award was the cherry on top of a wonderful evening and I was completely shocked to be the winning Giftwrappings range with Glick.
“The Christmas range is very special to me as I take so much time each December to work on a range that’s both festive but also subtle and hopefully a little bit magical. I was super lucky to be invited to sit with Postmark, one of my longest-time customers, and it was such a fun table and they all gave me a huge cheer when my name was read out! I’ll really treasure this Henry and the memories of a special evening.
“I was super shocked and surprised that my range with Glick was selected. I put a lot of love and care into translating my Animalia designs into the repeat format for the bags and wrap, and working with Glick is always a joy, so it was a special one to be a part of.”
“We are chuffed, chuffed, chuffed that the panel voted our luxury box collection as the best Christmas Box Or Pack,” Ling Design md Davyd Byk said.
“Christmas is Ling’s heartland and, for us, this award is the big one and a great accolade from the trade for our luxury box collection which all the team has worked so hard on.
“For me, it was worth buying a new jacket, bow tie and even some snazzy socks – which sadly couldn’t be seen – as my take on Mardi Gras to mark the fantastic night and a great celebration after a huge week which started with the BBC TV visiting us in Gloucester to talk about the GCA’s #cardmitment campaign.
“The next day was all together a lot less energetic but at least we had a Henries award to keep us company!”
And finally, there’s David Greaves who is still celebrating being the recipient of the Honorary Achievement Award – and the Emotional Rescue co-owner can be seen accepting the trophy in the video above.
“I don’t have any issues making a pitch to an audience of any size,” David said, “I’ve been doing so for over 40 years. I enjoy it but was a little overcome by the unfolding events.
“Firstly, the guys at Emo’s faces as you started the build-up, was a picture. They were clearly proud and very pleased. Most of the business was there, which was great, and I’ve worked with some of these people for a long time and they were a big factor in my going back to the company so the award genuinely felt like it was for all of us.
“Then, when I turned to say a few words, I was astonished and humbled by how many people had stood up, some of whom I would not have expected it from. Polite applause is the minimum expectation on an occasion like that, but it was much more than that and some seriously capable people were on their feet! I was a little bowled over.
“I’ve been doing this for a while, it’s great fun and I’m very fortunate. I’m very proud of my colleagues at Emotional Rescue. If I’d had time to prepare, in addition to Jennie Rutter, Toni Cresswell and Elaine Gibson, I would have thanked Brett Smith, Paper Salad and our suppliers. I’d have mentioned Tony Spooner who set up Emotional Rescue, welcomed me 32 years ago as a partner, and was a brilliant marketeer.
“I’m pleased never to have missed The Henries and proud that we won 27 years ago and proud of four nominations this year and that we’re still winning 27 years later!
“Cheesy or not, I would have thanked our customers. I love a good cliché and, trust me, we’re only ever as good as they are!
“I’ve been stunned by the very kind emails, texts, WhatsApp, LinkedIn and Facebook posts that now number well over a hundred. Customers, suppliers, and the trade generally have been very, very kind!
“That was quite a night, only curtailed by an ear infection, antibiotics, and a relatively early night. Who said drugs and alcohol don’t mix well?”
