Clintons, previously branded as Clinton Cards, is a chain of stores in the UK founded in 1968 by Don Lewin and known for selling greeting cards, together with

soft toys A stuffed toy is a toy doll with an outer fabric sewn from a textile and stuffed with flexible material. They are known by many names, such as plush toys, plushies, stuffed animals, and stuffies; in Britain and Australia, they may also be cal ...

and related gift products. It was listed on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...

and was a constituent of the

FTSE Fledgling Index The FTSE Fledgling Index comprises companies listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange (LSE) which qualify as eligible for inclusion in the FTSE UK series but are too small to be included in the FTSE All-Share Index. There is no liquidi ...

. On 9 May 2012 the company entered administration and following the closure of 350 branches, the company was bought by

American Greetings American Greetings Corporation is a privately owned American company and is the world's second largest greeting card producer behind Hallmark Cards. Based in Westlake, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, the company sells paper greeting cards, electr ...

. The company fell into administration in 2012 and 2019, and was purchased both times by companies owned by the Weiss family. Clintons is managed by Eddie Shepard, from American Greetings’ subsidiary, Schurman Retail Group. Starting in July 2012, the company began the gradual introduction of a new store design and logo, which removed the previous ‘Clinton Cards’ branding, replacing it with the new ‘Clintons’ name.

History

Clinton Cards, Commercial Street, Leeds (12th April 2014)

Clinton Cards was founded in 1968 when Don Lewin OBE opened his first shop in Epping,

Essex Essex () is a Ceremonial counties of England, county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the Riv ...

. The business grew to 77 shops by 1988 and was then successfully floated on the

. In 2004, the company purchased the

Birthdays A birthday is the anniversary of the birth of a person, or figuratively of an institution. Birthdays of people are celebrated in numerous cultures, often with birthday gifts, birthday cards, a birthday party, or a rite of passage. Many rel ...

chain of card and party shops for £46.4million, but placed the subsidiary into administration in 2009, subsequently buying back 140 of the 332 stores. In May 2012, the company's main supplier

bought £36 million of Clintons debt from its main lending banks, and immediately called in the debt for payment. Clinton Cards was unable to make the payment and entered administration on 9 May, with Peter Saville, Simon Freakley and Anne O’Keefe of Zolfo Cooper LLP, appointed as Joint Administrators of the Company. A week later 350 branches were closed, including all the Birthdays branches, and the remaining 397 stores were purchased in June 2012 by US based American Greetings' subsidiary Lakeshore Lending Limited. In October 2012, 12 stores were sold to rival

Card Factory Card Factory is a retailer of greeting cards and gifts in the United Kingdom founded in Wakefield by Dean Hoyle and his wife Janet. The first store opened in 1997, and by 2020 the company had over 1,000 stores. The company also operates tw ...

References

External links

*{{Official website, https://www.clintonsretail.com/ American Greetings Retail companies of the United Kingdom Retail companies established in 1968 1968 establishments in the United Kingdom Companies that have entered administration in the United Kingdom

History

See also

References

External links