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 greeting card manufacturer in the UK. Join us as we tell you a little more about ourselves, our story, and our services.
About Us
As one of the largest direct to retail publisher of greeting cards and social expression products in the UK, you’ll find our products in most high street specialists, independent retailers, and major supermarkets. We stock many thematic products from Marvel to Disney, and we really do have something to make everyone smile.
We pride ourselves in being one of the leading greeting card manufacturers in the UK. We are also part of the American Greetings family, one of the largest greeting card publishers in the world.
Sales and Services
When you work with UK Greetings, you get more than just great product!
UK Greetings have a passionate and knowledgeable Sales and Merchandising team whose aim is to deliver the best service to our customers.
Our team works tirelessly to maintain displays, manage installations and promotions, order stock, and conduct store audits. You can trust them to always be on hand with advice and support to optimise space and grow sales.
Strategic Display Planning
If you are a greeting card supplier, achieving the perfect display isn’t something you can leave to chance. There’s a lot more to it than you might think!
At UK Greetings we plan the perfect displays for our customers — carefully tailoring each display 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. To this day, they remain the 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 put customer service at the forefront of our greeting card manufacturing company, and our customer care team constantly represent our values and make us proud! Our team has won the prestigious Henries award for Best Service to the Independent Retailer 8 years in a row — now that just doesn’t happen without truly dedicated people.
Our Pledge:
- We aim to make every contact a positive experience for our customers
- We are committed to achieving exemplary service
- We seek and embrace new ideas
- We are committed to making a difference
- We are committed to a successful future
International
Together, UK Greetings and American Greetings have one of the largest and most talented creative teams in the greeting card industry. The International Operations Division is responsible for leveraging this tremendous combined asset around the world.
We aim to keep our greeting cards supplier company globally active by doing the following:
- 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 are here to help you build an exciting and bespoke solution to suit your requirements and budget — whatever the size, scale or stage, just get in touch!
Here at UK Greetings we have a plethora of knowledge and experience. We will work with you on concepts and your planning and implementation, from beginning to end. We also provide various project categories to suit individual business needs.
Click here to view our From the Heart brochure.
Customer Account Webshop
- Shop our entire product catalogue
- Place orders from your display
- Track through to delivery and view order history
- Access statements upon request
- Benefit from exclusive promotions
To view the UK Greetings Webshop portal watch this video.
Get in touch with our Sales Enquiries team to open an account.
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 company 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
