February 20, 2009 // Franchising.com // Leading greeting card publisher and franchisor, Card Connection, has today announced that its Farnham franchisee– Latif Twigeri has also acquired Card Connection's Chertsey territory. This has resulted in Mr Twigeri taking over the distribution of Card Connection's extensive range of quality greeting cards and gifts to more than 100 more stores within his new region.
"I anticipate that there is still significant potential for further development of the Chertsey area," confirms Twigeri. "I have already hired an additional store merchandiser to help with the extra work load and am looking at taking on further staff in the future however, it is important to balance expenses and income in the initial stages of expanding a business."
Card Connection itself is one of the UK's largest card publishers and is the market leader in the franchised distribution of greeting cards. Using a proven system, franchisees place greeting card ranges in retail outlets on a 'consignment' basis. The award winning merchandising service provided to retailers by local franchisees is second to none and has established the company's excellent reputation especially within the convenience sector. Card Connection franchisees also supply the company's national account network which includes the likes of Netto, Budgens, Londis, Spar and Shell.
"Latif has an intuitive understanding of how to build a profitable business, explains Andrew Cutler, franchise and sales director of Card Connection. "Since joining Card Connection four years ago he has expanded his Farnham franchise significantly, creating opportunities to supply numerous new retail outlets. Therefore, the logical step to continue to increase the size of his operation was to purchase a neighbouring territory when it became available. Some of our most successful franchisees have found running a larger operation in this way has allowed them to take advantage of economies of scale and as a result increase their profit margins substantially."
Card Connection has limited vacancies for franchisees who are keen to run an expanding business. Successful candidates would ideally have some management experience as, once established, they would be expected to employ a small team, operate a warehouse and have several liveried vans on the road.
Because the franchise networks in the UK and Ireland are 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 £20,000 (+ stock) with earnings potential in excess of £50,000 per annum.
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