Markus Keller, ceo of Cart La Companie des Arts, a leading Swiss-based greeting card supplier shares his views on the market as well as whether the Brexit decision has affected his business with UK publishers.
Your publishing partners: “We now work with a lot of UK publishers. My main UK suppliers being Louise Tiler, Louise Mulgrew, Rosanna Rossi, Blue Eyed Sun, Wendy Jones-Blackett and Paper Salad. I also work very well with Taurus Kunstkarten from Germany and Quire from The Netherlands.”
Life post Brexit decision: “Up until now there have been no negative changes at all as a result of the UK’s Brexit decision – in fact our business with the UK has rather increased. This is basically due to our strong position in the Swiss market underpinned by the supply of ranges from UK publishers.
We do keep our eyes and ears open to every political change, but as Switzerland is not in the EU and has enjoyed many decades of bilateral contracts with the UK we will not be the first ones to be touched by changes in import/export laws. ”
Market snapshot: “The Swiss card market is basically stable, and we benefit from our customers’ discerning tastes. The times where our retailer customers only looked at the prices are definitely over. They have realised that a large offer, covering every taste at a broad range of prices, is what their customers want.”
