“Abacus is at a nice stage in its development. Best
sellers
We’re a consistent player and we’re going to Abacus Card was set
up by the owners of
build on that strength and continue to offer a
a seed company, so
it's appropriate that
range of ‘best sellers”
since summer 2008
the evocative image of
a garden shed shown
here has been the
company's best seller.
That’s not to say Abacus isn’t moving business is paramount. Mawhinney is already
Whether it's a
forward – far from it. The business is not looking to replace the loss of the Celebrations refl ection of the new interest in the Good Life or a
pulling back on product development or business and admits that the days of double
refl ection of Abacus' strength in garden centres,
marketing and is developing new ranges and digit growth are over for the time being.
extensions to existing ranges like its humorous “We need to come up with excellent
the design has been selling extensively across both
Frank collection. product but be smarter and more cost- independents and multiples month on month.
Cunningham was joined back in 1992 by effective in the sales side too,” he says.
Also in the list of top ten designs is another
Sales Director, Alan Mawhinney, who had been Cunningham and her creative team are also
seconded over from Mr Fothergill’s Seeds to hard at work sniffi ng out new directions and
horticulturally-themed design of roses in a vase, "It's
work on the launch of Abacus. working directly with retail customers on the
one of a few designs that have been selling really
“I had one foot in Abacus and the other development of bespoke designs, including
well for around 15 years," says Marketing Director,
in Fothergill’s,” says Mawhinney. “So I took a new range in conjunction with a national
responsibility for garden centres and national retailer with 300 stores.
Bev Cunningham. "They're very classic and very
grocery accounts like Tesco plus Symbol Naturally, Cunningham is wary of giving
romantic."
groups like Londis and Spar which all took too much away but GT can confi rm that the
seeds. designs, which were originally shelved by the
“Initially we weren’t able to spread our directors, are fully ‘on-trend’ and could prove
net very wide and it was diffi cult to sign up a winner.
independents so we took distribution where It’s this approach to exploring new
we could.” avenues, both creatively and in retail that is
Not surprisingly Abacus was very strong in really paying off for Abacus and fuelling the
garden centres and its original range of Florals development of the brand.
sold well in that sector. But Mawhinney and And despite 17 years with the business
Cunningham were determined to spread their Cunningham is still getting a buzz from the
appeal wider into the mass market and not get creative challenge. “Isn’t it great how greetings
trapped in the garden centre niche. cards can refl ect trends,” she says. “There’s
“Garden centres are still very strong for a lot going on right now in society, lots of
us,” says Mawhinney. ‘They’re a very resilient changes in attitudes for instance that are
business and very lucrative – there’s just not throwing up opportunities for us as designers
enough of them!” and producers of greetings cards.
These days Abacus’ sales network is “It’s also good to be able to champion
broken down into 10 regions based on greetings cards and do something to stop
population density – served by a dedicated this card bashing we are seeing in the
team of employed sales reps and one sales media. We need to twist it to promote card
agent. sending because the younger generation are
Abacus has also gained signifi cantly from communicating through things like text and
its relationship with buying group Cardgains Facebook.”
and rates itself as one of the top six performing For the future, both Cunningham and
suppliers in the scheme. Mawhinney have the job of bringing the Clare
“It’s given us access to around 500 Maddicot brand into the mix.
independent stores, which is very useful when “Maybe we wouldn’t have bought Maddicot
there are 15 – 20 publishers the same size in this environment,” admits Cunningham. “But
out there as us all chasing the same market maybe it’s been our saving grace because it
share.” has galvanised everyone here and made us
With the loss of the Celebrations chain, think about how we are going to build on our
which Abacus had a long and ultimately success.”
fractured association with, the need for new
Greetings Today 29
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