Really Good and Soul has bolstered its sales team with the appointment of Fiona Burge as key accounts manager.
A few days into the new role, which sees Fiona looking after major retail accounts including Paperchase, John Lewis, Waterstones, Gift Universe, Notcutts, Sainsbury’s, House of Fraser, Boots and Scribbler for the card and gift group, she is already proving she is no stranger to the gift and greeting card sectors.
While her most recent role was as senior account manager with gift company, Apples 2 Pears, Fiona has seven years experience working with GBCC as well as running her own online and consumer focused gift company, B Gifted.
As her father is Peter Reichwald, founder of Great British Card Company (GBCC) who recently retired from the day-to-day involvement with the publishing company, Fiona grew up surrounded by greeting cards and learned the rudiments of business from an early age.
“I was nine years old when Dad started the company. His office was in our playroom and he communicated with Chris Wilcox [now GBCC’s ceo] in ‘the warehouse’ in from our garage, by baby monitor!” recalls Fiona.
Having worked for GBCC in her school holidays and through university, Fiona said gave her a great grounding in business which proved invaluable as her career progressed.
“I still love the smell of a greeting card warehouse – the cardboard and envelopes. It is strangely comforting.”
As for a top lesson she has learned from her Dad, Fiona cites: “The importance of understanding different people, how they work and what is important to them. Not every product suits every customer.”
Fiona is delighted to now be part of the Really Good/Soul team.
“I have always been a big fan of the company and have always held David Hicks [the company founder] in very high regard for how he has evolved the companies and the product portfolios.”
Fiona joins Really Good and Soul in what is a newly created position. Following the departure of Lisa Marcuccio (previously sales manager) at the end of last year (to join Wrendale), well known exec Sally Fielding came on board on a part time interim basis.
“Key accounts manager is a really important role for us and we needed to ensure that we employed the right person. We are delighted that Fi has joined us, ” commented Lisa Shoesmith, general manager.
