Leading greeting card publisher and franchisor, Card Connection, has today announced the launch of a colourful range of official Gaelic Athletics Association (GAA) licenced birthday cards. The GAA has promoted Gaelic games since 1884 and the new range will allow customers to send cards featuring the teams of their nearest and dearest.

“There are 31 new cards all designed and printed in Ireland,” confirms Michael Johnson, managing director, Card Connection. “We anticipate they will be really popular in the region for people to wish friends and relatives a very Gaelic Birthday!”

The new designs will be supplied to retailers throughout Ireland by Card Connection’s team of franchisees. Retailers are provided with stock and display equipment free of charge, only paying for what they sell. Card Connection franchisees visit retailers to re-stock and merchandise on a regular basis, ensuring displays are always looking fresh, up to date and appealing to consumers.

Card Connection has a strong presence in Ireland and franchisees supply many independent stores as well as national accounts including, Barry’s Of Mallow, Gala Retail Services, Mangans Wholesale, ADM/Londis, Musgrave/Daybreak and Topaz. In addition, Gabriel McGeown, Card Connection’s franchisee for Armagh and South Tyrone, has recently been selected as a finalist for the British Franchise Association’s Franchisee of the Year Award.

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 (€24.9780), +stock, with earnings potential in excess of £50k (€62,445) per annum.