T-Rex sets up buyout for 3D card company with debut relaunch at PG Live
There’s a special delivery set for at PG Live as the June trade fair will see the launch of Otter House’s new brand – Special Delivery 3D cards!
And it’s all thanks to a small boy’s love of dinosaurs as Kirsty Guy, managing director at the Exeter-based publisher, bought one of Special Delivery’s T-Rex designs for her grandson, which he absolutely loved and put the company on her radar.
Fast forward a few months, and Otter House has now bought the Special Delivery business from Mark Jamieson, who founded and ran the business with wife Susan in Brighton.
It was “when speaking to a distributor in the US,” that alerted Otter House sales director Graham Goodhead was alerted to Special Delivery’s potential when speaking to a distributor in the Us but, he explained: “We didn’t know a lot about the company at that time and it went no further.
“Kirsty then purchased a T-Rex card from the range for her grandson and he was over the moon with it as he’s mad about dinosaurs. In the meantime, we’d heard Mark was looking for a possible buyer for the Special Delivery brand and so our conversations started back in October 2024.
“Having spoken in-depth to Mark, he was passionate about keeping involved in the brand and especially in the construction element of the cards going forward.
“While discussions were ongoing we suggested a couple of garden bird designs that would work well for Otter House, and Mark went ahead and produced two designs that have now become two of the bestsellers. From this our conversations grew, resulting in Otter House acquiring Special Delivery.”
Graham added that Otter House is not looking to change the overall concept of the 3D range but are are looking to add more designs to the portfolio and take it in other directions which Mark could not accomplish on his own.
He said: “Mark will still have an involvement on the brand, make-up and construction of the cards and the hope is we can challenge him over the coming years to help us develop the range past its current constraints.”
At what will be Otter House’s first-ever appearance at PG Live, which runs over Tuesday and Wednesday, 3-4 June, at London’s Business Design Centre, the publisher will relaunch Special Delivery to the market, alongside Splimple and its Alison’s Animals brand which was acquired in 2023.
On display at the show – to register to attend PG Live click here – will be a newly-designed spinner with a unique header card displaying eight of the Special Delivery cards which will be supplied through Otter House’s warehouse facility with stock managed by the team of 17 account managers.
