Buying group welcomes Pango Productions and Blade & Rose as new suppliers
Trade shows are known for making connections and PG Live came up trumps for Cardgains, leading to the buying group working with two new official suppliers.
Pango Productions’ fun cards, cute stationery and kawaii gifts for kids and the young at heart were spotted by the buying group’s md Penny Shaw at the specialist greeting card event in June as bringing something new and different to its retail members.
Pango is being launched to Cardgains’ independent retailer members – who account for around 1,000 rooftops – today, 10 August, along with the Blade & Rose cute children’s clothing brand, joining Artsy Mats’ quirky door and bath mats, along with the practicality of Price Stickers’ offering of all kinds of price and promotional stickers, as the latest official suppliers.
“We were approached at PG Live,” Cindy Pang, founder and creative director of Pango, told PG Buzz, “and really liked how the group works closely with their customers in both established suppliers and introducing new lines to them such as ourselves.
“This will hopefully tie in well with our growing stationery and gift range together with our existing greetings lines. We’ve just completed the onboarding process and everything has been really smooth. The team support has been great – we can’t wait to launch!”
Historically the buying group has only welcomed new suppliers at the start of the year, however its new more flexible strategy means relevant companies can be unveiled throughout the year and join the official suppliers list.
“I had a good look around at PG Live,” Penny told PG Buzz, “and a few publishers and suppliers attracted my attention, including Pango and it’s great that they’re coming on board, and and quickly too given our new flexibility.
“We try to introduce new product that isn’t already featured in our portfolio, and ask for members’ wish lists of suppliers – their opinions are really important as they’re obviously the retailers at street level who want to keep refreshing their offering to their customers. We don’t want to duplicate product ranges so are always looking for something different.”
Penny explained that Paperlink came on board in April following initial discussions at Spring Fair, after a further 10 suppliers had already been introduced in January, so the new approach is already giving retailer members an expanding choice.
But she stressed the importance of potential suppliers being established enough to service Cardgains’ 1,000-strong retail membership: “We need to ensure that new suppliers have a means of fulfilling member needs and orders. Orders could come thick and fast, so they need to be able to cope with that level of supply.
“I’m still following up with some others from PG Live, and also keeping an eye on some interesting ones who maybe need more time to get to a level where we can work together.”
Working with Penny and the team at Cardgains “is a joy”, said Blade & Rose founder Amanda Peffer, adding: “Their enthusiasm is infectious!
“Our product retails exceptionally well in an independent gift and card environment, and we recently joined Cardgains to help us to reach those retailers who are looking for something different, a gift that is both beautiful and practical and can be displayed in a small footprint or in that white space above wall units.”
Artsy Mats’ Lee Speakman said the company had joined after speaking with Cardgains’ management team over a number of years and to some customers, and he told PG Buzz: “It’s a really respected buying group with a solid base of retailers and a growing retailer base within gift which our product fits into perfectly.
“The team at Cardgains has been great to get Artsy out in many internal publications and e-shots to make sure our brand is quickly known to their members. And, for Cardgains’ members, we offer a reduced minimum order to support smaller spaces and allow the retailer to give Artsy’s gifty doormats a trial.”
And Price Stickers’ director Steve Lawrence explained the company’s extensive range of self-adhesive labels for just about anything, from pricing to packaging labels, make him think it would be perfect to join forces with Cardgains.
“A friend suggested we join the group as a great way to expand our business,” he explained, “enabling us to bring in more customers and see what new ideas would be possible by working with card and gift suppliers.
“It has been encouraging to see our advert in the newsletter among the other suppliers, we’re now regularly sending out sample packs and beginning to deal with new customers’ first orders. We look forward to the future working with Cardgains and its network.”
The Cardgains model works well for all, with retail members receiving a monthly composite invoice for all orders placed with official suppliers, and at preferable rates, while a single monthly cheque covering all orders placed by group members is sent to the suppliers.
