April 20, 2009 // Franchising.com // Leading greeting card publisher and franchisor, Card Connection, has today announced that its Platinum franchisees have seen an increase in sales, on average 13% up, compared with the same period last year, despite the economic downturn.
"A Platinum franchise is the name we give to a larger or double-sized territory," explains Andrew Cutler franchise and sales director, at Card Connection. "The results of our strategy to encourage franchisees to take advantage of the economies of scale of running larger businesses, is already proving to be particularly successful.
"Up until last year Card Connection operated a simple business model where franchisees distributed our quality greeting cards and gifts to retail outlets throughout the country and this provided an excellent living for our franchisees," continues Cutler. "However, we knew that our most successful franchisees employed a small team of staff to pack and distribute cards from a warehouse, using liveried vans. By actively encouraging our franchisees to run their businesses in this way, many have significantly improved their profit margins despite the widely publicised recession."
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 supplies numerous national accounts, which include the likes of Welcome Break, Total, Budgens, Londis, Spar and Shell.
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.
Card Connection is one of the UK's most successful card publishers and is the market leader in the franchised distribution of greeting cards.
The company was established in 1992 and became a Full Member of the British Franchise Association in 1995. It now distributes greeting cards to around 15,000 outlets through its network of franchisees.
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