His boyish looks may belie, but industry favourite David Orr (pictured above), the former GCA president and Simon Elvin’s operations director for the last 24 years is all set to retire next week (26 May) after 40+ years in the industry. David plans to make the most of it, by having lots of fun time with his grandchildren and gorgeous wife Evelyn (who spent many years as part of the Windles team, so knows and understands the lure of the greeting card sector).
“I so love this industry and feel incredibly lucky to have spent the last four decades as part of it,” said David. “I began my career in the greeting card trade working with Simon Elvin, when I joined Image Arts in 1977 and ran a stock control line we installed in Woolworths, before ending it on a high as operations director of his amazing company. You could not ask for a better boss. Not only is Simon a master of everything he does, but is just a great, generous and thoughtful person.”
In between Image Arts and Simon Elvin, David also spent 19 years in senior management positions with Kingsley Cards, which he also greatly enjoyed.
As for the key industry changes David has witnessed over his career, he cites “the increasing role supermarkets have played as greeting card retailers, the rise of the online players, as well as emergence of new publishers, facilitated by digital printers,” as three significant developments.” As for what has kept him engaged for so many years, David is in no doubt: “The friendliness, mutual respect and fact that everyone really plays their part in getting this very special product into the consumer’s hands.”
Paying tribute to his colleague, Simon Elvin told PG: “Having worked with David in the 1970s at Image Arts, I was delighted when he joined Simon Elvin in 1996. With all his years of industry experience he has done a great job for us ever since. David has been responsible for overseeing the production of hundreds of millions of cards for us, including regular trips to the Far East, and for motivating our staff to give their all over the past 20+ years. It goes without saying that we will really miss him. You can’t replace David! So, we’ve restructured existing team and David is confident they will handle everything OK without him.”
