Carte Blanche Greetings has appointed Simson Cards as distributor for its greeting card brands in Australia with Australian giftware distributor, Jasnor taking on the sales and distribution of Carte Blanche’s gift and plush lines.
As a result, CBG is to close its own Australian subsidiary that has been trading for the last five years.
This change of approach and move to a distribution model follows “a strategic review” of the Carte Blanche Group’s operations “both in the UK and Australia”.
From the start of January, Simson Cards will handle the sales and distribution of CBG greeting cards and packaging.
Commenting on Simsons, the Melbourne-based company that is run and owned by the dynamic husband and wife team, John and Bindi Simson, Carte Blanche Group’s commercial director, Gerard O’Mahony, said: “Simson’s energy for new and innovative product with that Australian ‘touch’ for colour and text appealed to us and we have great confidence they will help build business with our brands”.
Founded in 1980, Simsons has established itself as a leading supplier to the direct-to-retail, non-discount distribution channel.
Established in 2012, the Carte Blanche Australia business will cease selling and distributing on 31 December 2017 and Simson will assume effective control of the Carte Blanche brands from 1 January 2018. The Carte Blanche Australia office will be run by Carte Blanche Australia Chief Financial Officer, David Henderson, and remain open for a period after 1 January 2018 to complete the winding up of all commercial activities.
Thanking the CBG Australia team for working hard to “represent, maintain and build our brands in the market” Carte Blanche group chief executive Officer, Alister Marchant said: “We believe it’s the right time to build on this foundation and develop our brands further with a different model.”
