Following several months of discussions, it has been confirmed that, as of October 1 this year, Words ‘n’ Wishes is taking over the sales and distribution of Quitting Hollywood products to the independent retail sector.
Words ‘n’ Wishes has expanded its salesforce to 24 agents (including two agents who have recently moved across from Quitting Hollywood) to provide an even better service to independent retailers.
As of the start of next month independent retailers will be able to place orders for both greeting card publishers’ brands with the same agent and with the cards being dispatched from Words ‘n’ Wishes’ Wigan warehouse.
Explaining the rationale behind this significant development, Richard Edmondson, commercial director of Quitting Hollywood said: “The industry’s market dynamics are changing, we were keen to find a way to get more of our heritage humorous card brands out into independent retailers.” Words ‘n’ Wishes was right at the top of Richard’s ‘wishlist’ as the publisher to work with, due to its “enviable reputation for service within the independent sector”, its extensive salesforce as well as the complementary product portfolio, discussions were sparked back in February.
Rod Brown, joint managing director of Words ‘n’ Wishes could see the synergetic opportunities. “Since we launched the company in 2011, the philosophy behind our successful growth and development within the independent retail sector has been to offer the market quality verse and sentiment design aligned to outstanding service with added value.
Therefore, the opportunity to add 30 years of `specialist humour’, from a respected publisher, such as Quitting Hollywood exclusively for the independent retailers can only enhance our overall offering.”
Under the new arrangement, the Words ‘n’ Wishes salesteam will be offering a streamlined ‘the best of the best’ Quitting Hollywood portfolio of 120 designs, including designs from the Paw Play, Twisty and QH ranges, some of which have been developed very specifically for the independent retailer.
Elaborating further, Richard says that the additional volume the relationship with Words ‘n Wishes will deliver “will allow us to develop product specifically for the Independent channel as well as more regular updates for our heritage brands.”
