Leading greeting card publisher and franchisor, Card Connection, has recognised a retailer for the highest increase in sales of Mother’s Day cards. North East Convenience, based in South Shields, recorded a 28% increase in sales compared to last year, following an effort to link purchases and provide a prime spot for a special Mother’s Day card display.
Andrew Henderson, regional sales manager Card Connection explains: “We have been sole card supplier to North East Convenience for a number of years and our franchisees work with more than 30 stores in and around Newcastle and Sunderland, from Blyth in the North to South Saltburn-By–Sea in the South, supplying and merchandising greeting cards for all occasions. To encourage retailers to maximise the opportunity that seasonal events such as Mother’s Day present, we ran a competition to see which store could achieve the highest increase in sales.
“Franchisee, Andy Thompson, visited the store to meet and congratulate both Linda Oliver, store manager and Alison Hutchinson area manager and acknowledge their hard work. Both Linda and Alison were delighted to win the competition and came into the store on their days off to meet Andy.”
Andy Thompson, Card Connection franchisee commented: “Although the retailer is one of the smaller stores on the estate, Linda works with me and makes a special effort to help create a seasonal display at the front of the shop with the cards in a top spot. This attention to detail really makes a difference and sales figures reflected this.”
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. Since the franchise network in Ireland and the UK is complete, the available opportunities for franchisees joining the network 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 £12,5k + Stock + Card Connection fee with earnings potential in excess of £50k per annum.
Territories currently available include: Middlesbrough/Sunderland, Edinburgh/Scottish Borders, Stirling, Fife, South West Ireland, Brighton, Plymouth, Bath, Northampton, Liverpool and Macclesfield.
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