Leading greeting card publisher and franchisor, Card Connection, has announced its franchisees for Hereford and Stratford, Dave and Di Tudor have grown their business by 31% in the past six months.

Card Connection franchisees, Dave & Di Tudor

The couple now supply Card Connection’s extensive range of quality greeting cards and accessories to more than 300 stores across their franchise territory.

“The past year has seen an increase in sales of 18% for Dave & Di Tudor’s franchise and this has accelerated to more than 30% in the last six months,” explains Michael Johnson, managing director, Card Connection. “The growth has been due to servicing additional national Card Connection accounts including Spar and Dave’s Discount stores but also new independent retail customers where Dave and Di have been able to offer better merchandising and display deals. The couple have also worked hard, supporting all Card Connection’s ranges within all the outlets they supply and this is really starting to pay off!”

“We joined Card Connection in 2006 and have been focused on growing the business,” confirms Di Tudor. “Dave is from a farming background so is not afraid of hard work. He will always go the extra mile to make sure our retailers are happy. We have also invested in new equipment to upgrade displays which have resulted in more sales as well as ensuring the full range of greeting cards, Party accessories, bottle bags and wrap are supplied to as many stores as possible.

“Our Card Connection business development manager, Andy Bull, has also been really supportive when it comes to work in the field,” continues Di Tudor. “He will think nothing of traveling several hours to accompany Dave for an early start on the Welsh Borders on a Monday morning and this has really helped us reap the rewards on the new business front.”

Card Connection’s franchisees use a proven system to place quality greeting cards and gifts in retail outlets on a ‘consignment’ basis. This means the stock and display equipment are installed on free loan to the retailer. This is one step beyond ‘sale or return’ as Card Connection customers never have to buy the stock initially, only paying for what they sell. Card Connection’s award winning merchandising service provided to retailers by local franchisees has proved popular with retailers all over the UK and Ireland including Card Connection’s key national accounts such as Spar, Nisa, Supervalue, Centra, Costcutter, Mace, Londis, Total and Shell.

Card Connection is part of UK Greetings, which is a subsidiary of the largest publicly owned greeting card publisher in the world and has limited vacancies for franchisees who are keen to run an expanding business. Suitable candidates would ideally have some management experience as, once established, and depending on the size of the territory, they could be expected to employ a small team, operate a small warehouse and have several liveried vans on the road.

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 £20k (+stock) with earnings potential in excess of £50k per annum.