Leading greeting card publisher and franchisor, Card Connection, has announced its franchise for Bury St Edmunds and Kings Lynn has added to his territory.
Former sales executive and maths teacher, Michael Hayes (pictured on the left), has taken over a further 50 stores in his area expansion, which now means he takes over the supply and merchandising of Card Connection’s range of more than 1,200 quality greeting cards and accessories to around 200 retail outlets in the region.
“My franchise territory now includes more of Suffolk and Norfolk incorporating the towns of Stowmarket and Diss over to the Suffolk coast,” confirms Michael Hayes. “I originally started with 110 retail clients in 2009 and have grown the franchise to 150 but wanted to get to a nice round figure of 200 as soon as I could and purchasing the extra area has enabled me to do this!
“To manage the increased business, my part-time employee who helps me pick and pack the greetings cards ready for delivery, has increased her hours, which means I can spend more time on the road,” explains Michael. “I used to visit about six stores per day and now will aim to increase this to seven or eight.
“My mathematical background has been helpful when it comes to analysing sales to see which greetings card designs are selling best,” continues Michael. “Planning out call routes is also important and I really enjoy this aspect of the role. Liaising with customers face-to-face is particularly satisfying and I also like the creative aspect of merchandising the card displays. In-fact I enjoy everything about my Card Connection franchise!”
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.
