Message from the
Editor Paul Hughes editor, Gifts Today
The fi nal countdown W
hy is the fact that there are 100 shopping days to Christmas considered newsworthy? Every year
this milestone gets mentioned in breakfast news programmes and newspapers. Many of my friends fi nd it a worthy subject to report in tweets or Facebook status updates. Why is 100 days such an important number? Why doesn’t the 50-day marker get equal coverage? I suppose it is because everyone likes a
nice round number – you certainly don’t get a postcard from the Queen on your 99th birthday. In any case, I am probably only thinking about this because the gift industry (in a very real sense) spends the entire year counting down to Christmas, so 100 days seems like a fairly arbitrary landmark. Certainly, in the months of January
and February (when Christmas is the last thing on the minds of the general public), most of us in the gift industry decamp to various trade shows and look to buy or sell ranges for the next festive season. Now that the countdown is in double digits, many wholesalers are designing or buying their ranges for Christmas 2011. T e autumn trade shows marked the
last opportunities for retailers to stock up on Christmas goodies and exhibitors reported largely positive results. Autumn Fair and Top Drawer claimed increased attendance from last year and, although organiser Clarion Events admitted that attendance was not as high as hoped, was said to be pleased with the launch of the London Gift Fair.
Jewellery company Pandora took a
diff erent approach to the autumn trade show season by withdrawing altogether and paying for key buyers to fl y out with them to Monte Carlo. Next year the company is reportedly planning a cruise (talk about a captive audience!). Many of you will be wondering
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why many gift exhibitors do not do the same! However, it is only a company with Pandora’s clout and profi t margins that could aff ord to show off its new ranges in this way. It is certainly an interesting success story – from a single Copenhagen shop to a global jewellery brand in under 30 years. Has the market for charm bracelets (and Pandora in particular) reached saturation point? We asked a selection of jewellery insiders for their thoughts in this month’s Trade Talk feature (page 46). In other news, two UK towns received
diff erent (unfortunate) accolades thanks to surveys. T e leafy university town of Cambridge was reported to be the worst “clone town” in the UK by economic think tank nef, with a high street full of major multiples and soulless identikit shops. We asked retailers in Cambridge for their thoughts – most agreed that the centre of Cambridge is fairly bland but the area covered by the survey was too narrow. See our Grass Roots feature starting on page 16 for more feedback. Another study, published by T e Local Data Company in early September, revealed that Altrincham is Britain’s bleakest ghost town, with more than 30% of its stores boarded up and vacant. It has surprised many I have mentioned it to – Altrincham is considered to be a fairly affl uent Manchester suburb. If anyone wants to leap to the town’s defence, please send me an email or give me a call.
A breaking news story of some
signifi cance (to those of you selling cards at least) is the acquisition of Wishing Well Studios by Carte Blanche for an undisclosed sum. T e new owners claim that the excellent customer service that Wishing Well was famed for will not change in the slightest. For more on this (and other stories), visit our new website:
www.gifts-today.co.uk. T e site is growing by the week - please take a look!
The views of the contributors expressed in this journal are not necessarily those of the publisher. Comments, letters and criticism are welcome.
Contents Regulars
02 News 04 People & Licensing News 06 GA News 08 Exhibitions News 24 Jewellery News 48 New Products
Retail
10 Brian Wiseman 12 Ali Mafi 14 Jeremy Piercy
16 Grass Roots Cambridge clones
25 Rachel Parkin
34 Retail Interview Horsfall & Wright, Berkhamsted
46 Trade Talk The Pandora principle Special
18 Gifts for Men Male orders
22 Intelex The heated toy specialist
26 Fashion Accessories Essential non-essentials
30 BoxMart The complete package
32 Gift Packaging Full coverage
38 Photo Frames Get in the picture
40 Edible Gifts Get stuffed
44 Top Drawer & the London Gift Fair A return and a launch
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info@lemapublishing.co.uk
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