Leading greeting card publisher and franchisor, Card Connection, has today confirmed that Redditch franchisee, Subramaniam Suganthan (Sugan), has increased the size of his franchise buy purchasing the recently marketed Leicestershire territory. He now takes on over 110 additional retail accounts and will distribute and merchandise Card Connection’s extensive range of high quality greetings cards and accessories with the help of a full-time picker/packer and merchandiser.
“Card Connection franchise territories don’t become available every day!”explains Sugan.“When I heard that my neighbouring colleague and franchisee Mark Miller and his wife were planning to emigrate to New Zealand, I knew the opportunity was too good to miss! Mark has run the Leicestershire territory which also covers Coventry, parts of Derbyshire and Northamptonshire, for eight years so I know I am stepping into a good, viable business. With the help of my part-time merchandiser, who has now become full-time, we will carefully manage the handover and in the future see how we can further develop the business.”
Prior to becoming a self-employed franchisee with Card Connection Sugan was a commission operator for petrol forecourt and before that, a manager at a leading forecourt food outlet. Sugan explains: “As a previous customer I was aware of the company as a local franchisee delivered greetings cards to the forecourt where I worked. Since joining at the end of 2014, I am pleased to confirm that Card Connection is one of the best organisations I've worked with!
“The team are particularly approachable, organised and always aims to solve any minor issues straight away,”continues Sugan.“My positive experience with the clever business model, the team, plus the fact that I have been able to grow the Redditch area by 6% in my first year, meant I was confident to go-ahead with the purchase of the new area immediately.”
Sugan will now deliver and merchandise Card Connection’s range of high-quality, popular greetings cards and accessories to a mix of independent stores, as well as national accounts such as Costcutter, WH Smiths Motorway Services, NISA, BP and Spar. The card ranges are placed in retail outlets on a ‘consignment’ basis which is one step beyond sale or return, as the retailer never has to buy the stock initially, only paying for what they sell. The award winning concept has enabled hundreds of franchisees to become self-employed, running successful businesses over the past two decades.
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.
