In a significant pairing of two leading greeting card retailing businesses, leading London-based mini group, Postmark has finalised a joint venture agreement with specialist greeting card multiple Cardzone with a mission to expand the former’s design-led retail concept.
And they are not hanging around, with the confirmed opening of two new Postmark units in Blackheath (in south-east London) and Wimbledon Village (in south-west London) over the next two months with more to follow, in the capital and beyond.
Cardzone (founded by Paul Taylor in 2005), has taken a 50% stake in Postmark’s future growth.
Postmark’s co-owners, Mark and Leona Janson-Smith are to continue to head up the business day to day, both for their existing four London shops (in Balham, Chiswick, East Dulwich and Greenwich) as well as any new ones under the Postmark brand, in order to safeguard the personality and curated product selection of quality paper products.
“Leona and I are very excited about this next step for Postmark. Paul has been a great supporter of ours over the years so when the opportunity arose to go into business together it felt like a natural move,” commented Mark Janson-Smith about the new business partnership with Cardzone. “Combining our passion for great paper products with the business acumen and systems of Cardzone means we can really push the Postmark brand forward. The last 18 months has been pretty dire for everyone in retail, but we are feeling confident about the future,” he added.
From Cardzone’s perspective, already a successful specialist greeting card multiple, with some 165 stores in its estate, the partnership with Postmark will take the company deeper into the premium side of the greeting card market.
“Postmark is a strong brand and one we have admired for several years now,” commented Paul Taylor. “The greeting card sector has been through huge upheavals over the last year, but we feel that this partnership is a positive step forward.”
Paul’s son, James Taylor (trading director of Cardzone) is also taking an equal share in the deal.
As James summed up: “This partnership with Postmark is taking us into new retail territory. The combination of the Cardzone business model and Postmark’s vision and ideals is an exciting one which we want to take to a whole new market, expanding a brand that customers will be excited to be part of and come back to time and time again.”
Top: Postmark’s Greenwich shop.
