A Nottingham greetings card company which started in a back bedroom in Colwick is celebrating 25 years of business. And is still going strong despite a 20% increase in the price of paper.
The family-run company is recognised as one of the leaders in the industry and the team is celebrating its 25th year in business. Although it began in a back bedroom in Colwick, the company moved into its current location on Weekday Cross in Nottingham. The business now employs 32 people including a team of seven designers who develop the award-winning cards.
This year, the company was awarded three awards at The Henries, an industry award ceremony which recognises the best in the greeting cards industry. It is often playfully referred to as 'the Oscars of the greeting cards business'. When it comes to awards, James shared that one of the proudest moments for him with the business was when it won the Queen's Award in 2018. He said: "My personal moment was winning the Queen's Award in 2018 as I put a lot of work into that. You have to have three or five strong positive growth years and be exporting British products overseas to qualify. There is also a big application process, lots of hurdles that you have to jump over.
"A lot of our stuff starts with a hand-drawn or hand-painted original piece that is then scanned in and we work from that," he said. "There is a lot of talent that goes into it. We also work quite far in advance so we are on par with the fashion industry. They work a good year ahead of themselves so it's impressive from a design and future planning perspective as you have to predict what is going to be hot this time next year.