Like with many business; planning for Christmas starts early for Greeting card publishers Card Connection. “We show our new Christmas ranges to our network a whole year before they go on sale,” explains the company’s Managing Director, Michael Johnson.

“It’s not just about proudly showing off all our new designs to our network of franchisees at regional meetings across the UK and Ireland,” continued Johnson, “It’s also a great time to focus their minds on the current year’s Christmas cards that they have already installed across our 12,000 stores and encourage them to merchandise those displays right up until Christmas Eve, both to maximise those sales and avoid any disappointed customers!”

With 12% of all greeting cards now being sold at Christmas, these sales are crucial. “The recent report from the

Greeting Card Association shows Christmas card sales now pushing the £177 million mark, so we work hard to make sure we that get our share of that lucrative market,” said Johnson.

For 2018 Card Connection have produced two card ranges, refreshing 100% of their Core Christmas card range

 whilst also offering a second stand-alone display of brand new designs in The Collection – their latest up-market range with a slightly higher price mix aimed at the more discerning customer.

“Our investment in expanding our model line for Christmas shows our commitment to our franchise network and to our customer base. Also, we don’t just stop at single cards,” explains Johnson; “We offer multipack cards, rollwrap, gift tags and festive-themed gift and bottle bags. Altogether, our Christmas ranges not only do fantastically for us, they also boost profits for the outlets by encouraging extra linked sales of gift items in-store. It really is Christmas for everybody!”

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 £35k + Stock + Card Connection fee with earnings potential in excess of £50k per annum.