Leading greeting card publisher and franchisor, Card Connection has announced its senior management team have now marked 100 years’ combined service working at the Company!
“In today’s fast-paced business environment, it is remarkable that six senior people have remained in the same industry for so long, let alone with the same organisation!” confirms Michael Johnson, managing director, Card Connection. “Our longest serving executive is our IT Manager Jackie Wheeler who started as a customer services co-ordinator with Card Connection 20 years ago! Jackie has also worked in our National Accounts department and IT & Operations.
“Sales Director, Stuart West, this year celebrates 19 years with Card Connection while Kevin Vaux, Card Connection’s chairman has worked for our parent company UKG for 19 years. Shaun Bateman our acting Senior Creative Manager joined Card Connection 14 years ago, while Sandra Pavitt Operations Manager is a relative new-comer of just 12 years! It is this overall wealth of experience that we draw on daily, to enable us to support our franchisees to run their own successful greeting card distribution businesses all over the UK.
“However, it is not only our senior staff that have enjoyed a sustained relationship with Card Connection,” continues Johnson. “The average time our franchisees stay with us is almost ten years (9.8 years) with two long-standing franchisees soon to hit a quarter of a century with us!
“Personally, I have worked at Card Connection for the past 17 years and believe the longevity of staff and franchisees alike is down to a happy and motivated team,” explains Johnson. “Everyone is valued and their opinion counts. In addition, our greeting cards are a real and quality creative product that connects people. For the most part, they genuinely make senders and those that receive them happy. Yet even our sentiment cards are a token of thoughtfulness. I know I echo the thoughts of many of our extended team and franchisees, when I say we all continue to look forward to many more years working with Card Connection!”
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 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 £12.5k + Stock + Card Connection fee with earnings potential in excess of £50k per annum.
Territories currently available include: Fife, Edinburgh/Scottish Borders, Stirling, Brighton, Plymouth, Bath, Northampton, Liverpool, Macclesfield and South West Ireland.
For further information about franchises for sale, please see: www.card-connection.co.uk