Our Story
For more than 100 years we’ve been proud to create products that help people connect. As part of the American Greetings family, we’ve grown to become the market leading, direct-to-retail publisher of greeting card and social expressions products in the UK.
About Us
We’re one of the largest direct to retail publisher of greeting cards and social expression products in the UK, so you’ll find our products in most high street specialists, independent retailers and major supermarkets.
Along with our sister company John Sands, we’re part of the American Greetings family, the largest privately owned greeting card publisher in the world.
Sales and Services
When you work with UK Greetings, you get more than just great product!
UKG have a passionate and knowledgeable Sales and Merchandising team whose aim is to deliver the best service to our customers.
They work tirelessly maintaining displays, managing installations and promotions, ordering stock, conducting store and compliance audits, and generally just being on hand with advice and support to optimise space and grow sales.
Our customers trust and rely on the knowledge and experience of our teams.
Strategic Display Planning
Achieving the perfect display isn’t something you can leave to chance, there’s a lot more to it than you might think!
At UKG we plan the perfect display for our customers – carefully tailoring them to their needs by taking into account sales data, demographic information, caption balance, price points and design.
Card Connection
Card Connection, part of the UK Greetings group, were established in 1992 and are market leaders in the franchised distribution of greeting cards, operating a Franchise Network which supplies to over 12,000 outlets across the UK and Ireland.
Click here to find out more.
Award Winning Customer Care
We’re very proud of our Customer Care team! Winning the prestigious Henries Gold award for Service to the Independent Retailer 5 years in a row doesn’t happen without truly dedicated people.
Our Pledge:
- We aim to make every contact a positive experience for our customers
- We’re committed to achieving exemplary service
- We seek and embrace new ideas
- We’re committed to making a difference
- We’re committed to a successful future
International
Together UK Greetings and American Greetings have one of the largest and most talented creative teams in the industry. The International Operations Division is responsible for leveraging this tremendous combined asset around the world.
- We publish cards in more than 20 languages.
- We distribute social expression products in more than 70 countries.
- We market social expression products into distributors and retailers throughout the English speaking world and beyond.
- Our best-selling art and copy reaches other markets through licensing agreements in Europe, Africa, Asia Pacific and Latin America.
To find out more about the various brands available through American Greetings and UK Greetings, drop us an email international@ukgreetings.co.uk
From The Heart Retail Programme
If you’re looking to start a greeting card business we’d love to work with you! We can help you to build an exciting and bespoke solution to suit your requirements and budget - whatever the size, scale or stage, we’re here to help.
Here at UK Greetings we have a lot of knowledge and experience and will work with you on concepts, planning and implementation, from beginning to end.
We provide various project categories to suit individual business needs.
Click here to view our From the Heart brochure.
History
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Jacob Sapirstein
In 1906, young entrepreneur Jacob Sapirstein had only $50 in his pocket, but a wealth of ambition.
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Penny postcards
He took to the streets of Cleveland, Ohio, selling penny postcards from a handcart.
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Largest card company
These postcards made a pretty penny, as Jacob’s business became the world’s largest publicly owned, direct to retail greeting card, personal expression and gift company, with a whopping worldwide sales of $2 billion!
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American greetings
It wasn’t only hair that expanded in the 1980’s, as American Greetings bought 3 UK card giants, Rust Craft, Celebration Arts Group and Andrew Valentine.
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Carlton Cards
The companies refused to ‘relax’ (much to Frankie’s dismay) and merged in the late 1980’s to form Carlton Cards Ltd.
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UK Greetings
Through the late 1990’s and 2000, UK companies continued hopping aboard, resulting in the creation of UK Greetings, the holding company for American Greetings interests across the pond.
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UK Portfolio
The UK portfolio soon became a who’s who for famous brands, including Hanson White, Carlton, Camden Graphics, Gibson, Special Editions and Collage.
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Legal Entity
On 1st March 2008, UK Greetings Ltd came of age, as the legal entity of all American Greetings operations in the UK.
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Card connection
That same month, UKG welcomed a new addition to their ever-growing family - Card Connection, the UK’s largest and most successful comapny supplying cards on a consignment basis.
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Watermark
Watermark joined UK Greetings in 2011.
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Disney
In 2013, UK Greetings wished upon a star (and worked very hard, too) to gain the Disney licence.
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RHS
UK Greetings secures prestigious RHS license.
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Star Wars
UK Greetings partnership with Disney goes stratospheric with the addition of the Star Wars licence.
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Clayton, Dubilier & Rice
American Greetings announced it has signed a stock purchase agreement with investment firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice