Leading greeting card publisher and franchisor, Card Connection, has today announced it has extended its range with a series of eye-catching, new, handmade greeting cards.

The company, which has the largest franchised range of greeting cards adds a further 15 designs to its collection of more than 1,500 designs. The new cards include anniversary, baby, and summer birthday. Even a garden party bunting design is perfect for those who have a birthday around the time of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

“Distributed by our network of franchisees across the UK and available in retail outlets now, the exciting launch of these stunning new handmade designs has been timed to boost retail displays and maximise early summer sales,” explains Michael Johnson, managing director, Card Connection. “Lots of detail and flitter make them stand-out on displays and with the striking images and text designed for a broad appeal, we anticipate these new cards will become strong sellers.”

The new cards include two Wedding and Anniversary designs: the graphics feature brightly coloured hearts and a ‘Kate Middleton inspired’ lace wedding dress, topped-off with gems. In addition, two sweet, contemporary baby designs, with text and icons hanging on washing lines are finished with lots of flitter to make them stand out.

For general birthday female, there are five new summery designs including birds and bang-on-trend bunting plus the ever-popular contemporary text approach. Girly Car is pretty and pink with lots of foil and flitter, as well as funky patterns: a must for the young and young at heart. In addition Garden Party Bunting is perfect for those who have a birthday in the summer months. With this year’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations, it also fits right in with afternoon tea and cake!

For the men, two great new designs include: Go Nuts, featuring a cheeky pair of squirrels with wiggly eyes and holographic foil, and Score!: an updated football design with embossed foil and text. Additional new designs include a Marilyn Monroe card featuring a pretty bow and diamanté buckle plus several general birthday sends highlighted with embossing and flitter, foil and organza detail.

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.