Leading greeting card publisher and franchisor, Card Connection, has today announced the launch of its new Valentine’s Day greeting card range. 36 eye-catching designs will be available various price points throughout the UK, supplied to retailers by Card Connection’s team of dedicated franchisees.

“Each year, our in-house design department completely refreshes our Valentine’s range,” explains Michael Johnson, managing director, Card Connection. “This year we have a perfectly balanced selection of design styles and price points to suit a range of tastes; from elegant classics, to humour and verse. The cards are supplied and merchandised on a consignment basis to retailers across the UK, this means retailers only pay for what they sell and display equipment and stock is supplied on ‘free loan’ to retailers.

“Our franchisees who deliver the cards are trained in merchandising to optimise the look of displays and ensure consumers are tempted by our offer,” continues Johnson. “By essentially handing over the ‘category management’ of greeting cards to Card Connection, retailers are safe in the knowledge they are maximising the potential of this important revenue stream.”

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 Budgens, Londis, Spar, Costcutter, Nisa 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.