Retailers Still Have A Week To Enter The Retas 2020

“Now is not the time to be shy, it’s the time to shout about the good things,” stated Warren Lomax, joint managing director of Max Publishing, which owns and organizes PG as well as The Retas greeting card retail awards. “We have been bombarded with nominations from publishers, reps and agents all keen to champion greeting card retailers who really have excelled in the last year while the entries from retailers make fantastic reading proving how well-blessed we are with so many great businesses,” he added.

Retailers can download an entry form from The Retas’ website (www.theretasawards.co.uk/how-to-enter/) and post their entries or alternatively entries can be emailed with supporting imagery/material to PG’s editor Jakki Brown on jakkib@max-publishing.co.uk

Above: The Retas entry form which features imagery by Lianne Harrison, founder of Paperwhale Cards in keeping with the Finery of Greenery theme of the awards event this year.
Above: The Retas entry form which features imagery by Lianne Harrison, founder of Paperwhale Cards in keeping with the Finery of Greenery theme of the awards event this year.

The Retas winners will be announced at a wonderful afternoon event to be held at The Grosvenor House Hotel on Wednesday 8 July which will take on a ‘finery of greenery’ theme.

Above: The winners of The Greats gift retailing awards will be announced at a lavish event to be held at London’s Honourable Artillery Club (HAC) on Wednesday May 13.
Above: The winners of The Greats gift retailing awards will be announced at a lavish event to be held at London’s Honourable Artillery Club (HAC) on Wednesday May 13.

Meanwhile, there have been whoops of joy from those in the gift retailing sector as the finalists of The Greats Gift Retailer Awards 2020, a sister awards programme to The Retas, have been revealed.

“Once again, The Greats Awards have revealed the passionate gift retailers and gift departments who really get behind their shops, their products, their displays, their websites, their marketing, their social media, their communities and their local charities,” commented Sue Marks, editor of Progressive Gifts and Home magazine, a sister publication to Progressive Greetings.

“In a tough retailing environment, they have demonstrated their resilience, with many independents opening new shops over the past year, and all retail finalists showing their entrepreneurial flair in responding to a changing retail landscape,” adds Sue.

The Greats 2020 finalists are…

RETAIL EMPLOYEE OF THE YEAR 2020

Ella Bradbury, shop manager, Forget Me Not, Stubbington

Rita Huston, manager, Paprika, Chippenham

Alex Kingdom, manager, The Barn at The Hollies

Ellie Kennedy-Walker, manager, Hand Picked by Henrietta, Chapel-En-Le-Frith

Gina Pratt, sales advisor and assistant merchandiser, Orange Tree, Darts Farm, Topsham

Touhi Prime, area manager, Lark London

INDEPENDENT GIFT RETAILER OF THE YEAR – LONDON (INSIDE M25) 

The Indigo Tree, Streatham and Crystal Palace

InSpitalfields, Spitalfields Market

Northwood Cards and Gifts, Northwood

The Ark, Stoke Newington

Temptation, Temple Fortune

W. A. Green, Shoreditch

INDEPENDENT GIFT RETAILER OF THE YEAR – HOME COUNTIES, SOUTH & SOUTH EAST

All About Rose, Thame

Alligator Pear, Tadworth

Bay Tree Gifts, West Wickham

Five and Dime, Hertford

Metalyka, Stony Stratford and Leighton Buzzard

Zest, Crowborough

INDEPENDENT GIFT RETAILER OF THE YEAR – EAST ANGLIA

Abigails Lifestyle, Ingatestone

Ark, Cambridge

Amore, Woodbridge

Bells of Suffolk, Bungay

Buy The Light, Bury St Edmunds

Little Boat Gifts, Brightlingsea

INDEPENDENT GIFT RETAILER OF THE YEAR – MIDLANDS & WALES

The Celtic Company, Welshpool

Chi Chi Gifts, Lickey

Ian Snow, Machynlleth

Joco, Nuneaton

MOOCH, Olney, St Giles Street, and Towcester (concession: Bell)

Wonder Stuff, Treorchy

INDEPENDENT GIFT RETAILER OF THE YEAR – SOUTH WEST

The Cats Whiskers, Bishops Cleeve; Polkadot, Keynsham

Cilla and Camilla, Beaminster, Bridport, Sherborne

Highworth Emporium, Highworth

Lulu Loves, Stubbington

Paprika, Bath and Chippenham

Swagger, Chipping Sodbury

INDEPENDENT GIFT RETAILER OF THE YEAR – NORTH & NORTHERN IRELAND

Brian Hunter, Limavady

Hand Picked By Henrietta, Chapel-En-Le-Frith

Hares & Graces, Hull

Kemps General Store, Malton and Whitby

Pure Inspiration, Ramsey

Within Reason, Sheffield

INDEPENDENT GIFT RETAILER OF THE YEAR – SCOTLAND

Ewe & Me + Ewe Too, Grantown on Spey

The Keekin’ Glass, Prestwick

The Old School Beauly, Beauly

Liquorice Tree Gifts, Glasgow

Pippin, Edinburgh

Starlings, Kirkwall

BEST NEWCOMER: SOUTH & WALES 

Bill & Berts, Colchester

Ginger Nut, Lynton

HOLD, Brighton

Oliver’s Brighton, Brighton

Sunshine & Snow, Bideford

Raven Lifestyle, Tavistock

BEST NEWCOMER: MIDLANDS, NORTH & SCOTLAND

The Bean Hive, Kettering

The Dotty House, Gateshead

For The Love Of The North, Whitley Bay

Giftilicious with Thorntons, Nuneaton

Peony Lane Interiors, Wombourne

The Wild Ginger, Ansdell

BEST SPECIALIST MULTIPLE GIFT RETAILER

Between The Lines (15 stores)

Brocante (4 stores)

Gifted (4 stores)

Lark (5 stores)

Smart Ideas (7 stores)

Utility (4 stores)

BEST NON-SPECIALIST RETAILER OF GIFTS 

Brodie Countryfare, Brodie

The Hollies, Little Budworth

La Cookshop, Seaton Burn

Lanerscost Tea Room, Abbey Farm,  Brampton

Loch Levens Larder, Kinross

Overton Gallery, Overton

BEST DEPARTMENT STORE RETAILER OF GIFTS

Atkinsons of Sheffield, Sheffield

Barkers Home, Northallerton

John Lewis & Partners

One Forty, Cranleigh

Selfridges, London

Strickland & Holt

BEST GIFT RETAILER OF JEWELLERY & FASHION ACCESSORIES

Bay Tree Gifts, Wickham

Bijou, Buckie

Greenwood & Co., Saintfield

Jewel, St Andrews

Medusa Gems, Southport

MiMi, Hartley Wintney and Wokingham

BEST LIFESTYLE OR HOMEWARES RETAILER OF GIFTS

Daisy Lanes, Rayleigh

Dear Grace, Colchester

The Emporium Interiors, Clitheroe

Orange Tree, Darts Farm, Topsham

Skinny Whistle, Quorn

White Rhino, Hastings

BEST GARDEN CENTRE RETAILER OF GIFTS

Bernaville Nurseries, Cowley Bridge

Blue Diamond Group

Klondyke Group

Longacres Group

Ruxley Manor Garden Centre, Sidcup

Smith’s Garden Centre, New Denham

BEST MUSEUMS OR VISITOR ATTRACTION GIFT SHOP

Kew Garden Gift Shop, Kew

National Portrait Gallery Gift Shop, London

North of England Zoological Society (Chester Zoo)

RHS Garden Wisley Gift Shop, Wisley

Science Museum Gift Shop, London

ZSL, Whipsnade

BEST IN-STORE OR WINDOW DISPLAY 

The Celtic Company, Welshpool

Cornucopia, Worcester

The Emporium, Clitheroe

Garsons, Esher

Highworth Emporium

Rhubarb Home/Rhubarb Gifts, Malvern

BEST RETAILER INITIATIVE 

Highworth Emporium, Highworth (for its Shop Local Christmas raffle and Visa ad initiatives)

The Hollies (for its two pre-Christmas visitor days)

Jo Amor, Tiverton (for its Jo-A-Story online children’s bedtime storytelling initiative)

Joco, Nuneaton (for its Christmas video and Letter To Santa initiatives)

MOOCH, Northampton, Olney, Towcester (for its cark park charges initiative)

Papilio at Heritage, Thornbury (for its Junior Retail and Makaton initiatives)

BEST SUPPLIER MARKETING AWARD

Ashleigh & Burwood

Chilly’s Bottles

Katie Loxton

Joma

Marmalade of London

Stoneglow

Wild Things

Wrendale Designs

BEST SERViCE TO THE INDEPENDENT GIFT RETAILER

Ashleigh & Burwood

Enesco

Gisela Graham

Heaven Sends

Joe Davies

Lesser & Pavey

Nemesis Now

Straits Trading

Widdop and Co

Wrendale Designs

Tickets to both The Greats and The Retas are available from event organiser Clare Hollick e: clare@keystonecomms.co.uk tel: 01733 294524. Tickets can also be reserved online via the Max Box Office.

Top: Retailers still have a week to enter The Retas 2020.

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