Really Good and its sibling company, Soul have taken the decision not to supply any of the brokerage schemes, on purely commercial grounds. Really Good and Soul will be out of all brokers’ selections at the end of the year.
“We have been supplying all the major brokers – UKG, Hallmark, W Select and GBCC – for years, but the current costs of participation means that at very best we break even, which is just madness,” David Hicks, founder of Really Good and Soul told PG Buzz.
“I have always liked new ideas and when it was first introduced brokerage represented some fresh thinking – enabling major retailers to offer their customers a choice of publishers’ designs, while for the publisher it allowed access to retail accounts that would otherwise not be available to them. It is just that the maths does not add up anymore,” adds David.
He points out that multiple retailers’ differing requirements for how they would like cards to be supplied, be it wrapped, unwrapped or clasped, adds further to the costs.
“While I full support the push by some retailers to stock naked or near naked cards it does also mean that we need to have multiple picking lines to accommodate the different requirements, which ties up stock and space. Our decision to pull out of brokerage will cut our turnover, but add to our profits which can then be put into product development and supporting our retail customers,” elaborates David.
David however highlights that he remains “open-minded to any new variations on brokerage or alternative ways of supplying retailers with greeting cards.”
Top: David Hicks, founder of Really Good and Soul has taken the decision to pull out of brokerage.
