Our Latest News

Henries Award Winners!

Huge congratulations to UKG who won two awards at this years Henries.

Alsion Callaway, Senior Product Development Manager – UKG Humour, collected Hanson White’s 'Best Humour Range' award for the hilarious Traces of Nuts and the company also scooped up the Gold Award for 'Best Service to the Independent Retailer', which was brought home by Tony Roberts, Director of Independent Sales.

As with every year it’s a fantastic achievement to be recognised at the Oscars of the Greeting Card industry, so well done to everyone involved in these much deserved wins.

Special Editions Summer Fete Fundraiser

Special Editions part of the UK Greetings family, held a fundraising day in August, collecting a massive £3240 for the Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice in Huddersfield.

On Wednesday 10th August 2011, UK Greetings Head Office became a country style gala, with a cake stall, tombola, raffle, trolley dolly tea service and other fun games for employees to get involved in.

The main event on the day was a charity auction, where ‘lots’, donated by local companies, went under the hammer. Prizes included a professional wedding photography package, ski-ing experience, private horse riding lessons, plus many more amazing contributions.

Jason Costello, Partnership Developer at The Forget Me Not Children Hospice explains: “The cost of keeping the hospice running is £4500 a day so this money will provide a whole days worth of care for our children and families”.

Boofle on the Web

“Grandad’s woolly cardy has seen better days, it was still soft and cosy, but a little bit frayed. There were holes in the elbows and just one button remained, but from this, Nanny was sure something else could be made. So she started to sew on that cold winter’s night, and Boofle was born, much to the children’s delight. Boofle was all that a snugglesome pup should be, loveable and cuddly and a best friend to you and me.”

…And now the super cute character from the Carlton brand has gone “webwide”.

“Made from 100% love and cuddles, lots of wool and a little button”, Boofle, who already has his own Facebook page, has now launched a brilliant interactive website, where you can jump through the magical mirror and visit Boofle’s Land, decorate your desktop with Boofle themes, and post messages directly to Boofle himself!!

Check it out now at www.boofle.co.uk

Marking 40 years of Mr Men

Forty years ago, Roger Hargreaves was asked by his son: “What does a tickle look like?” from this a round orange character with long wavy arms and a little blue hat was born. Mr Tickle was soon followed by almost 100 more Mr. Men and Little Misses.

UK Greetings, who have the license to produce greeting cards based on the Mr. Men Show, are re-launching their range to include the 40^th Anniversary logo, refreshing current product and introducing some new exciting designs.

The range retains the iconic visual identity of the characters - bright, bold, humorous and witty. The cards reflect the fresh, contemporary styles of the sensationally popular brand and the fondness felt for the diverse, relatable characters.

So watch out for the fantastic Mr Men and Little Miss designs and let the Mr Happy or Little Miss Sunshine in your life know you care.

UKG Win the licence for GLEE

As the Glee phenomenon continues to grow, UK Greetings announce they have secured the licence for the hit television sensation.

The Glee range will capture the key attributes of the programme, reflecting self-expression, energy and imagination with bold, stylised and fun designs associated with the award winning show.

The initial range consists of 16 eye catching, off square designs at price code 60, with glitter, foil finishes and sentiment which has been tailored around each characters catchy, sweet and occasionally sarcastic phrases.

Ben Cybaniak, Creative Manager at UKG says; “There’s great scope with the licence and UKG plan to keep building the initial range of 16 launch designs by adding age specific and seasonal designs with higher priced innovative designs to follow, include sound cards - incorporating all the hits from the series really bringing the designs to life”.

The range will launch in January 2011

Taylor Swift Launches Greeting Card Range

A range of Taylor Swift cards will hit the UK market in 2011, epitomising the GRAMMY winner’s values, personal flare and echoing the songstresses talent for song writing in the conversational editorial.

The top-selling country artist joined forces with American Greetings, working closely with their creative team to produce the range of cards, which is expressive, authentic, sincere, fresh and unique, appealings to consumers of all ages.

Taylor has stacked 13 million sales of her multi-platunum album, and it's the same heartfelt messages and emotion expressed in her music that will be portrayed in the greetings range.

The range, which will launch in January 2011, includes 12 bold, eclectic, contemporary designs at price code 60 and 4 fabulous sound cards featuring lyrics and music from Taylor, price code 550.

Cribs from Around the World

BBC broadcaster Libby Purves has loaned Dewsbury Minster her personal collection of Cribs and Nativity Scenes to raise funds for The Children’s Society, a charity which helps the most disadvantaged children across the country.

UK Greetings were honoured to be approached by Canon Kevin Partington of Dewsbury Minster, to create a Christmas card inspired by the exhibition, with all proceeds going to the Children’s Society.

The 125 cribs from around the world are on display at the Minster until February 2011, the card will be on sale at the exhibition.

Two Henries Wins for UK Greetings

Congratulations to UKG for their two well deserved wins at the 2010 Henries.

Amera Stanforth, Collage’s Creative Director of giftwrap, collected the Best Gift-wrappings Collection award for The World of Eric Carle. A range of gift dressings based on the children’s book The Hungry Caterpillar.

UKGs Independent Sales Director, Tony Roberts stepped up to receive the Silver award for Best Service to the Independent Retailer.

A huge well done must go out to everyone that played a part in the success of UKG. As with every year the competition was fierce, but we should be proud of our nominations and especially our wins.

FMN New Model Line Launch

Forget Me Not, part of the UK Greetings family, has launched its new model line introducing price clarity, quality and value.

The 692 designs in the range have price points starting from as little as 65p and 80% of the full offering is under £2.

The line offers 3 price spectrums and a reduced number of card sizes, resulting in clear skylines and consumer friendly displays.

FMN has developed an excellent brand identity through strong styling and cohesive colour themes, providing excellent value for money without compromising quality.

Henries Award Nominations for UK Greetings!

UKG as we have been nominated in the following categories for the Henries Awards 2010:

Best Photographic Range: RIBA - Camden Graphics

Best Cute Range: Lots of Woof - Carlton

Best Gift Wrappings Collection: Eric Carle - Collage

Best Licensed Card Range - National Railway Museum - Camden Graphics

Best Christmas Box or Pack: BHS Christmas - Special Editions

Best Service to the Independent Retailer

The awards ceremony will take place on Thursday 7th October at The Lancaster London Hotel where we hope to take home the awards for these fantastic nominations!

Gary Sykes, British Super-Featherweight Champion

Gary Sykes, Studio Assistant in the Dewsbury Studio successfully challenged for the British Super-Featherweight title in Huddersfield on 5th March 2010.

Cheered on by a throng of UK Greetings colleagues who took the trip to Huddersfield to watch Gary, as well as those who watched to fight live on Sky Sports, Gary emerged victorious as the new British Super-Featherweight Champion. Gary defeated Andy Morris on points in a thrilling contest, which now opens up many opportunities for him.

Since the fight, Gary has been undertaking a lot of PR work such as opening new gyms, making guest appearances and even meeting Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister.

Gary’s first defence of his title is against Femi Fehintola, which is a real grudge match as well as a local derby. Femi is from Bradford, and a couple of years ago said some not very nice things about Gary in the press! The fight will take place in Huddersfield and Gary would very much appreciate the support of his colleagues at UKG.

Congratulations must also go to Gary’s coach, Julian McGowan, Creative Director for UKG. Julian has coached Gary throughout his career and can now see the results of the commitment and dedication required to get Gary to the top of his game. Sky are describing Julian one of the top up and coming coaching talents and there has been high praise about Julian from no less of a person than Jim Watt boxing commentator and former boxing champion.

Special Editions' Team Building Day

Friday 16th April saw members of the Special Editions’ team visiting Ponderosa, Rural Therapeutic Centre, in Heckmondwike, West Yorkshire for a team-building day and to spend time helping out the non-profit organisation that focuses on bringing different local communities together.

Special Editions regularly hold cake-baking sales, raffles and auctions to raise money for local charities but this time they decided to donate their time to the local community.

Ponderosa enables the development of horticulture, agriculture and social skills and provides great therapeutic value to all its visitors. Every person who visits the centre benefits personally in some way, regardless of their age, abilities or disabilities. It gives an opportunity to raise the awareness of people as individuals, regardless of their restrictions or limitations and gives every visitor the chance to meet others from all walks of life.

Half of the Special Editions team worked with the resident animals, helping to feed and muck them out, whilst the other half of the team held a craft workshop where visiting children could make greeting cards. A lot of children visited and they all loved being creative, especially with all the cut-out shapes, pompoms, beads, jewels and ribbons that Special Editions took with them. They even caught a few of the parents having a go at making cards! All the boys wanted to make the spider card (pictured) and all the girls seemed to go for the jewelled cat card!

All of the Special Editions’ team members had a great day...even though some ended up a little smelly!

Wallace & Gromit’s Guest Appearance at Spring Fair

Wallace and Gromit made a cracking guest appearance at this year’s Spring Fair to draw the Cardgains’ Las Vegas Prize Draw competition to win a holiday of a lifetime. The draw was made on the Cardgains stand where Special Editions were showcasing their brand new Christmas 2010 Charity Collection including a brand new range of cards and gift dressings featuring Wallace & Gromit in support of Wallace & Gromit’s Children’s Foundation. There was bubbly to celebrate the launch and of course, plenty of cheese to go around!

All the proceeds from the sale of the Wallace & Gromit Christmas cards will be donated to Wallace and Gromit’s Children’s Foundation, a national charity that raises funds to improve the quality of life of sick children in local hospitals and hospices throughout the UK. The foundation supports a wide variety of projects including art, music, sensory and play therapy to enrich and enhance the lives of patients and supports families by helping to provide free family accommodation and pull down beds so parents can be near their children. The money raised through the sale of the Wallace & Gromit Special Editions Christmas range will make a real difference to help sick children across the country.

Creative Royal Mail Post Mark Phrases from UK Greetings!

Huge congratulations go to Julie Hardy, Editor and Caroline Snell, Senior Editor from UK Greetings, for their fabulous winning phrases that will be used as Royal Mail’s seasonal and general card sending postmarks! The GCA (Greeting Card Association) and Royal Mail teamed up to run a competition to gather some inspiring and creative phrases for the Royal Mail postmarks. The only stipulations were that the phrases must have a positive message and be up to nine words in length.

Julie and Caroline’s phrase, ‘Put the Happy into Easter – send a card’ will be used for the Spring Seasons’ postmark, which will have a two week time slot, appearing on six million items of stamped post a day, in the run up to Easter!

For general cards sending postmarks, their phrase, ‘Post some love – send a card’ will be used at some point this year so be on the look out for it!

Although there are no prizes as such, having millions of people read their phrases up and down the country is a huge prize itself!

Henries Success for UK Greetings!

Well done to everyone at UK Greetings that contributed to our fabulous success at The Henries Awards 2009 held in London on Thursday 8th October. The competition was as fierce as always with thousands of cards being entered in to this prestigious competition.

Our successes were, Best Cute Range for Bluebelle from Camden Graphics and Silver place for the Best Service to the Independent Retailer. A special thanks to all for their hard work in making these achievements possible.

Huge congratulations to Keith Auty, Group Marketing Director, who received the highly prestigious Honorary Achievement Award for his services to the greeting card industry. A much deserved award!

UK Greetings Earns FSC Chain of Custody Certification

Approximately 95% of all UK Greetings’ paper and board materials are now acquired from well managed forests and other controlled sources, ensuring we reduce our environmental impact. This has lead to us being awarded the prestigious FSC chain of custody certification.

FSC is an independent, non-governmental, not-for-profit organization established to promote the responsible management of the world’s forests. It provides universal standards, trademark assurance and accreditation services for companies and organisations interested in responsible forestry. Products carrying the FSC label are independently certified to assure consumers that they use environmentally sound material that are managed to meet the social, economical and ecological needs of present and future generations.