Leading greeting card publisher and franchisor, Card
Connection, has today announced that Simon Parker has officially
taken over the Shropshire Card Connection franchise from his father
Bob, who ran the business successfully for 8 years. Bob
Parker will continue to help out, while Simon is out on the road
supplying their retail customer base with Card Connection’s
extensive range of quality greetings cards and accessories.
“I’ve worked with my dad in the franchise for a number of
years and have now taken over most of the administration and
customer facing work,” confirms Simon Parker. “This is an
exciting opportunity for me and I am really looking forward to the
future. Currently, there are some growing trends in the
industry such as: ‘thank you teacher’ cards and also the
introduction of the slightly risqué Mrs Brown’s Boys birthday cards
which have proved hugely popular. It will be fascinating to
see how the sector develops over the next few years and how I can
further develop the franchise.”
Michael Johnson, managing director, Card Connection comments:
“We are delighted that the Parkers’ franchise will remain ‘in
the family’. We have a number of couples who are very
successful franchisees and some who also employ other members of
their family which means they are working with people they trust.
By building up a franchised business and creating a legacy, a
unique opportunity is created for the younger generation in what
can be an otherwise pretty tough job market.”
Card Connection which last year celebrated its 21st year in
operation as a franchisor is one of the UK’s largest card
publishers and is the market leader in the franchised distribution
of greeting cards. The business’ unique model of consignment
sales has resulted in a strong brand and established reputation
which has been proven over many years. Through its
franchisees Card Connection supplies about 12,000 retailers
throughout the UK.
Card Connection is part of UK Greetings, which is a subsidiary
of American Greetings Inc., one of the largest greeting card
publishers in the world and has limited vacancies for franchisees
that are keen to run an expanding business. Since the
franchise network in the UK is complete, the available
opportunities now consist of acquiring an already-established
territory from an existing franchisee. These vary in price
according to their level of development, but start at £7k + Stock +
Card Connection fee with earnings potential in excess of £50k per
annum.
