News: New owner for Rotherham's Clinton Cards store

The joint administrators of retailer, Clinton Cards have concluded the sale of this business to Lakeshore Lending Limited, a subsidiary of American Greetings Corporation. The sale comprises the brands and assets of Clinton Cards and 397 stores, including the outlet on College Street in Rotherham town centre.

American Greetings Corporation is a creator and manufacturer of greetings cards and was a major supplier to Clinton Cards in the UK. Clinton's was the UK's largest specialist retailer of greetings cards and related products with in excess of 750 stores and 2011 revenues of over £360m across its two retail brands, Clinton Cards and Birthdays.

The deal will preserve approximately 4,500 jobs across the UK but the final number of stores acquired will be dependent on negotiations with landlords at each respective location.

In May, Zolfo Cooper, the administrators, announced that all Birthdays stores will close along with approximately 200 Clinton Cards branded stores. American Greetings bid around £24m for the remaining stores but the Birthdays unit at Parkgate and the lease of the former store in The Old Town Hall have not been bought. It is anticipated that the remaining assets will be liquidated and proceeds will be used to repay Clinton Cards' creditors, including American Greetings.

Zev Weiss, chief executive officer at American Greetings, said: "We are pleased to welcome these stores, the Clinton Cards brand, and the approximately 4,500 employees as members of the American Greetings family. As mentioned before, we believe that properly managed, and with the appropriate capital structure, Clinton Cards can be both an important and profitable retailer in the specialty channel of distribution over the long term.

"The separation of the acquired assets and business from the legal entity in administration is an important first step of this process. We have also lined-up a leadership team to run the new UK subsidiary that has extensive specialty retail channel experience."

Peter Saville, joint administrator and partner at Zolfo Cooper, added: "We have always been of the view that despite an intensely competitive retail environment and what proved to be excessively ambitious expansion plans in recent years, there was a strong underlying business contained within Clinton Cards.

"The significant number of credible expressions of interest we received for the business we have sold today, from both trade and financial buyers alike, is testament to this fact. We would like to thank the staff for their dedication and patience throughout what has been an understandably difficult time for all concerned and we wish both them and the new owners of the business every success for the future."

American Greetings website

Clinton Cards websiteImages: American Greetings

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News: Rotherham Birthdays store to close

The Rotherham store at Parkgate of national greeting card retailer, Birthdays, will close, administrators confirmed yesterday.


The store is a subsidiary of Clinton Cards Plc which entered administration last week. Zolfo Cooper, the administrators, announced that all Birthdays stores will close along with approximately 200 Clinton Cards branded stores, adding that exact locations, timings and employee numbers will be confirmed shortly.

Rotherham has a Clinton store on College Street in the town centre.

The Group is the UK's largest specialist retailer of greetings cards and related products with in excess of 750 stores and 2011 revenues of over £360 million across its two retail brands, Clinton Cards and Birthdays.

Clintons was founded in 1968 and is listed on the London Stock Exchange. It has a significant high street presence and employs over 8,000 full time and part time staff.

The stores that are set to close are located throughout the country and employ approximately 2,800 full time and part time staff.

The Birthdays store opened at Parkgate in 2008 as a concession in the Pure Party unit alongside Game and Thorntons, two retailers that have also had financial struggles.

The store closure programme will begin during next week and continue into June.

Peter Saville, joint administrator and partner at Zolfo Cooper said: "Recently, Clintons has been faced with extremely challenging trading conditions, particularly in its Birthdays subsidiary, where the combined cost to the Group in terms of acquisition cost and accumulated losses is estimated to have been in excess of £130m since 2004.

"Given the sheer size of the Clinton Cards retail estate and the overall performance, we were left with no alternative to today's difficult decision. I am hopeful that the action we have taken will allow us to preserve value in the core underlying business, thereby allowing us and potential buyers to focus on a profitable and viable retail estate going forward."

Clinton website

Parkgate website

Images: birthdays.co.uk

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News: Clinton Cards celebrates National Apprenticeship Week

Recognising the importance of investing in people, Clinton Cards Group is launching its EDI-accredited Retail Diploma, NVQ and Apprenticeship programme during National Apprenticeship Week 2010 (Feb 1-5), providing ongoing career development opportunities to thousands of staff across more than 800 stores.

Over the past three years the retailer has focused on both building and recognising staff skill sets across the business. This strengthened commitment to work-based learning has resulted in employee turnover figures improving by 14% since 2007. With 85% of Managers having over three years service, helping to create consistent, high-quality customer service in all stores.

19 year-old sales assistant Lauren Keeling joined her local Birthdays store in Rotherham in March 2009. In just ten months she has learnt new skills in customer service, till operation and stock taking and even helped to open and train new staff at a local Birthdays Pure Party Store.

Lauren, said: "I started out in retail after finishing school three years ago just to earn myself a bit of money - I didn't realise what a fun and challenging environment it is to work in. I really get a buzz out of talking to customers and helping them, so if you are a people person then retail is a great career to get into.

"There are so many opportunities to learn new skills at Birthdays which is great as I can become even better at my job and earn more money. Helping to open a brand new store was a great experience and has encouraged me to further my training with the new Customer Care NVQ later this year."

Annette Middlebrook, Group HR Director at Clinton Cards Group, added: "At whatever age or route people take to join our company, there are comprehensive and appealing career prospects available to them whether they are established professionals or school-leavers.

"People are surprised by this, as many typically start out in retail with a Saturday job or part-time work for a bit of extra income. The challenge for us is educating and motivating them to consider retail as not just a job but a long-term career."

Clinton Cards website

Rotherham

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