Wholesalers given support from the major publisher
Leading wholesale publisher Simon Elvin is making a “substantial” additional investment in the wholesale sector by launching a dedicated value for money standalone stock control brand called Greetings.
What prompted the Greetings launch was Hallmark’s decision to exit the wholesale sector earlier this year, thereby taking away Hambledon Studios’ Gold stock control option for wholesalers and their customers.
“We talked to our wholesale customers who were concerned by the loss of Hambledon Gold. I didn’t feel we could just sit back and do nothing so we undertook to create Greetings,” Simon Elvin explained.
He stresses that the new brand is very much in addition to the publisher’s existing wholesale brand, not instead of.
“The Greetings collection has been created very much with the card shop in mind. The Greetings collection has been created by a totally different design and editorial team and does not make any mention of the Simon Elvin name,” he said.
The new Greetings collection, which launches into wholesalers in August, comprises 300 designs across four price points and sizes, which could fill a 16’ display. The majority of the designs are Code 50 (5”x7”) with several Code 75s (9”x6”) and two larger formats to cover special captions.
While this is not the first time Simon Elvin has published a range under a different brand for the wholesale sector, the scale of Greetings signifies considerably more investment.
The Simon Elvin brand will continue its strong publishing programme, launching ranges every two months that are available from wholesalers.