Industry stalwart John Charlton pays tribute to Don Lewin
Following the sad news on Friday, October 25, of the death of Clintons’ founder Don Lewin, revered industry stalwart John Charlton had been in touch with PG to share his personal memories of the man.
John was chairman of South African Greetings until April last year when it was acquired by Cardfactory, and his many years of industry experience includes being non-executive chairman of International Greetings and, prior to that, was senior vice-president of American Greetings together with being CEO of UK Greetings.
Here John, who for a short period in 2023 prior to his recent illness was non-exec chairman of the Cardzone retail group, looks back on the four decades since he first meet Don: “I was obviously much saddened to read that Don had passed away at the great age of 91. Many people in our industry will have their memories of Don and I just thought I should share my own personal memories and recollections of Don.
“I’ve not met face-to-face with Don for a number of years, but we communicated or spoke once or twice each year. The last time was at the start of this year, when Don was enquiring about my health, since he’d heard that I had recently been diagnosed with bowel and liver cancer.
“In my opinion, the greetings card industry in this country would not be where it is today had it not been for the vision, aspirations and ambition of Don.
“It must be around 1985 that I first met Don, which was a few years before Clinton Cards floated on the Stock Exchange. I’d then only just entered the greeting card industry, having previously spent my entire career in the corporate world of Plc companies – gosh, what a change that was!
“I had become a shareholder and MD of a small company specialising in humorous greeting cards called Hanson White. Clinton Cards was then an important customer of HW and, as Clintons grew, so did HW.
“There is no doubt that specialist companies such as Andrew Brownsword, Carte Blanche, Emotional Rescue, Collage and, indeed, our own company HW – not to mention the growth of organisations such as Hallmark and American Greetings in the UK – would not have prospered or grown, had it not been for the drive for growth being shown by Don and his family, Clinton and Debbie, to expand Clinton Cards.
“Indeed, it was the growth in Clintons and the increased retail distribution that it gave to the specialist card and gift companies that enabled many of these companies to eventually sell their businesses to the benefit of its shareholders. Accordingly, the greetings industry and many of the small companies supplying the market owe much of their growth to the development of Clintons under Don and his family.
“There is no doubt that Don, like most successful entrepreneurs, demanded much from their employees and their suppliers. He demanded and gained great loyalty from his staff and suppliers but, in return, he was very loyal to those that supported him and his company.
“My recollection of Don is how he cherished nice things – his love for those wonderful Rolls-Royce cars, his houses in Chigwell, his iconic Broad Oaks and villas in Portugal, dining at The Ritz, just to mention a few. I am mindful of his generosity, his fabulous parties and functions that he threw.
“We all know that in some respects it all ended in tears, but let nobody take away from the fact that the industry and many of the people within it owe much to Don and Clinton Cards.
“Let me end by sending my deepest and sincere condolences to Rose, Clinton, Debbie and all Don’s grandchildren – apart from Don’s drive for business, his love, passion and wellbeing for his family was outstanding.”
