The abundant creativity of the UK’s greeting card publishers was put under scrutiny by 50 of the nation’s top retail buyers yesterday (August 1) as the judging for The Henries 2018 greeting card product awards took place.
Members of the extensive judging panel considered the relative merits of over 15,000 greeting cards, giftwrappings galore, as well as the submissions from the UK’s finest young artists and designers. The majority of the award categories are for card ranges that have been launched in the last year or for new additions to existing ranges. The Henry Cole Classic award is for ranges that have stood the test of time.
Reading like a ‘who’s who’ of card buyers, this year’s impressive Henries Judging Panel included buyers from Paperchase, Scribbler, WHSmith, John Lewis, Oliver Bonas, Between the Lines, Sainsbury’s, Fenwick, Longacres Garden Centres, House of Cards, Postmark, Moonpig as well as as host of leading independents from right across the retail spectrum.
“The industry did itself proud yesterday,” commented Jakki Brown, joint managing director of Max Publishing, which owns The Henries and Progressive Greetings. “We received more entries than ever before from publishers of all shapes and sizes which made it tough work for the judges, but they were more than up for it. It was a really uplifting day.”
Commenting from a judge’s perspective, Kim Lewis, buyer of Longacres said: “The Henries is a brilliant way of championing our publishers – from the largest to the smallest all being treated equally.”
Adding her endorsement, Carly Pearson, buyer for Sainsbury’s said: “I’m sure that in common with all the judges, I feel it is an honour to be a judge for The Henries. It is so inspiring to see all the newness in the industry.”
The judging process of The Henries involves all entries being mounted on boards, each of which is given a designated number, but the identity of the publisher is concealed. The entries were then put on display in their categories. Each judge was asked to select individually what they deemed were the best five entries in each category. These votes were then correlated with five points given to all first choices, four points to all second choices and so on.
The votes are currently being verified with the full list of product finalists to be announced in a PG Buzz ‘Breaking News’ by the end of today (August 2).
