Cartamundi Group is a company based in

Turnhout Turnhout () is a Belgian municipality and city located in the Flemish province of Antwerp. The municipality comprises only the city of Turnhout proper. In 2021, Turnhout had a total population of 45,874. The total area is . The agglomeration, ho ...

, Belgium, that manufactures, produces, and sells board games, card games, collectible card games, packages, and

playing card A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a f ...

s through its manufacturing and sales subsidiaries. The name of the company in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

means ''cards for the world''. It is one of the world's largest playing card manufacturers. The company also maintains manufacturing facilities in

Canvey Island Canvey Island is a town, civil parish and reclaimed island in the Thames estuary, near Southend-on-Sea, in the Castle Point district, in the county of Essex, England. It has an area of and a population of 38,170.Office for National Statistics. ( ...

(UK), Altenburg (Germany), Saint-Max (

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

(

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

(India),

Sōka is a city in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 249,645 in 118,129 households and a population density of 9100 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Situated in the southeast corner of Sa ...

(Japan), and

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

(

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

, United States). In 2015, the company acquired

Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational conglomerate holding company incorporated and headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Hasbro owns the trademarks and products of K ...

's board game factories in

Waterford, Ireland "Waterford remains the untaken city" , mapsize = 220px , pushpin_map = Ireland#Europe , pushpin_map_caption = Location within Ireland##Location within Europe , pushpin_relief = 1 , coordinates ...

, and

East Longmeadow, Massachusetts East Longmeadow is a town in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States situated in the Pioneer Valley region of Western Massachusetts. It had a population of 16,430 at the 2020 census. East Longmeadow is southeast of downtown Springfield, pa ...

. In the early-to-mid 1990s, Cartamundi produced collectible card games for other companies. Their Belgian factory printed early editions of ''

Magic: The Gathering ''Magic: The Gathering'' (colloquially known as ''Magic'' or ''MTG'') is a Tabletop game, tabletop and Digital collectible card game, digital Collectible card game, collectable card game created by Richard Garfield. Released in 1993 by Wizards ...

'' for

Wizards of the Coast Wizards of the Coast LLC (often referred to as WotC or simply Wizards) is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games. It is currently a subsidia ...

, and Decipher, Inc.'s ''

Star Trek Customizable Card Game The ''Star Trek Customizable Card Game'' is an out-of-print collectible card game based on the ''Star Trek'' universe. The name is commonly abbreviated as ''STCCG'' or ''ST:CCG''. It was first introduced in 1994 by ''Decipher, Inc.'', under th ...

'' and '' Star Wars Customizable Card Game'', and currently prints foreign language editions of ''Magic''. English ''Magic'' sets are printed in Dallas.Trading card games - Magic: the Gathering
Cartamundi.

History

The company was founded in 1970 as a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and economic risk, risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four rea ...

among Biermans,

Brepols Brepols is a Belgian publishing house. Once, it was one of the largest printing companies in the world and one of the main employers in Turnhout (Belgium). Besides its printing business, Brepols is also active as a publisher. Formerly well known ...

, and Van Genechten. Cartamundi has established over a dozen international sales branches throughout the world since 1970; France in 1993, U.S. in 1994, the Netherlands and Sweden in 1999, Hungary in 2000, Singapore and Spain in 2002, Austria in 2005, Italy in 2010, and Turkey in 2011. The other branches were established through acquiring other companies. Cartamundi acquired AGMüller (Switzerland) in 1999, Altenburger und Stralsunder Spielkarten (Germany) in 2000, Spielkartenfabrik Altenburg (Germany) in 2002, Games & Print Services, Ltd (U.K.) in 2003, Dertor (Poland) and Copag (Brazil) in 2005, Yaquinto Printing Company (U.S.) in 2007, 50% of Parksons Games & Sports (India) in 2010, Marigó (Spain) in 2011, France Cartes in 2014,

Naipes Heraclio Fournier Naipes Heraclio Fournier S.A. is a well known Spanish playing card manufacturer based in Vitoria and which has its factory in Legutio (Spain). This company is property of the United States Playing Card Company, which is a subsidiary of the Turn ...

(Spain) and the

United States Playing Card Company The United States Playing Card Company (USPC, though also commonly known as USPCC) is a large American producer and distributor of playing cards. It was established in 1867 as Russell, Morgan & Co. and founded in its current incarnation in 1885. ...

in 2019.

References

External links

Official website
{{Non-sports trading cards Companies based in Antwerp Province Playing card manufacturers Trading card companies Manufacturing companies established in 1970 1970 establishments in Belgium Belgian brands