Territory originally purchased back in 2006 by Simon’s father Bob Parker who passed away earlier this year. He ran the territory as a family affair until 2014 when Simon took over the reigns.
Once Simon took over, he looked to make some changes within the business making it more efficient, this allowed for all calls to be completed over less days.

During Covid which initially took Simon off the road but once he had put some safety protocols in place with PPE and once the lock down was lifted, he was able to trade safely again. His Picker at the time then decided to retire early due to shielding her family. This could have put Simon in a difficult position, but he decided to take this opportunity to add extra efficiencies to the business. He purchased a bigger van to work directly out of, so no new picking staff were required and that vastly reduced his overheads.

December 2023, Simon was kindly managing Macclesfield a company owned territory on behalf of Card Connection and saw the potential of increasing overall profits. Simon decided that there was room to do more so he went on to purchase and expand the Shrewsbury/Stoke on Trent territory to include Macclesfield back in May 2024.
Simon now runs his larger territory with help from his mum and a further merchandiser Elizabeth.
Simon commented “It has been a hectic time since taking on the additional territory. Just getting to grips with new customers and learning the most efficient routes to store was tough. I am still trying to get into some sort of regular routine.”

I guess the main question everyone will ask is if all the changes to the business and extra work and are worth it? “Well to be totally honest the jury is still out as it is still relatively early days. What I can say is that Card Connection have been amazing, they have supported me all the way including rolling up their sleeves to help me merchandise my stores which has been a great help and taken some of the pressure off. Looking forward I can see that the hours I am putting in will settle down and sales are booming so my overall profits have greatly increased which was a large part of the reasoning to expand. So, as it stands it was the right business decision to make and totally worthwhile.”