|
Card Factory
Card Factory plc 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 two retail websites and has mobile apps for both iPhone and Android. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange. History Origins to 2009 Dean Hoyle left school with no qualifications, having a self confessed greater interest in association football, football. With his wife Janet, from 1993 they began buying cards wholesale, and selling them from the back of their van at car boot sales and public open air events. In 1997, they opened their first shop under within the holding company Sportswift Ltd, purposefully choosing secondary retail locations which were cheaper. After opening a few stores, whilst Janet founded and headed up the internal design and print function, Dean concentrated on expanding the business, with a nominal target of 50 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Companies House
Companies House is the executive agency of the British Government that maintains the Company register, register of companies, employs the company registrars and is responsible for Incorporation (business), incorporating all forms of Company, companies in the United Kingdom. Prior to 1844, no central company register existed and Company, companies could only be Incorporation (business), incorporated through letters patent and Act of Parliament (UK), legislation. At the time, few incorporated companies existed; between 1801 and 1844, only about 100 companies were incorporated. The Joint Stock Companies Act 1844 created a centralised register of companies, enabled companies to be incorporated by registration, and established the office of the registrar; the Joint Stock Companies Act 1856 mandated separate registrars for each of the three Jurisdictions of the United Kingdom, UK jurisdictions. Initially just a brand, Companies House became an official executive agency in 1988. All P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
London Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cathedral. Since 2007, it has been part of the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG, which the exchange also lists (ticker symbol LSEG)). Despite a post-Brexit exodus of stock listings from the LSE, it was the most valued stock exchange in Europe as of 2023. According to the 2020 Office for National Statistics report, approximately 12% of UK-resident individuals reported having investments in stocks and shares. According to a 2020 Financial Conduct Authority report, approximately 15% of British adults reported having investments in stocks and shares. History Coffee House The Royal Exchange, London, Royal Exchange had been founded by the English financier Thomas Gresham and Sir Richard Clough on the model of the The Belgian bourse of Antwerp, An ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Initial Public Offering
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment banks, who also arrange for the shares to be listed on one or more stock exchanges. Through this process, colloquially known as ''floating'', or ''going public'', a privately held company is transformed into a public company. Initial public offerings can be used to raise new equity capital for companies, to monetize the investments of private shareholders such as company founders or private equity investors, and to enable easy trading of existing holdings or future capital raising by becoming publicly traded. After the IPO, shares are traded freely in the open market at what is known as the free float. Stock exchanges stipulate a minimum free float both in absolute terms (the total value as determined by the share price multiplied ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Huddersfield Town F
Huddersfield is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence into the similar-sized River Colne, West Yorkshire, Colne is to the south of the town centre which then flows into the River Calder, West Yorkshire, Calder in the north eastern outskirts of the town. The rivers around the town provided soft water required for textile treatment in large weaving sheds; this made it a prominent mill town with an economic boom in the early part of the Victorian era Industrial Revolution. The town centre has much neoclassical Victorian architecture. An example is , which is a Grade I listed building described by John Betjeman as "the most splendid station façade in England". It won the Europa Nostra award for architecture. Huddersfield hosts the University of Huddersfield and three colleges: Greenhead Coll ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charterhouse Capital Partners
Charterhouse Capital Partners is a London based private equity investment firm focused on investing in European mid-market companies valued between €200m and €1.5bn. The company targets investments across the services, healthcare, specialised industrials and consumer sectors. History Founded in 1934, Charterhouse Capital Partners is one of Europe’s oldest private equity firms. The firm's predecessors, then a division of Charterhouse Bank, began raising third party equity in 1976. In June 2001, the firm's management completed a management buyout from HSBC to become an independent investment firm. Notable investment activity In 2009, Charterhouse acquired Wood Mackenzie, selling its stake to Hellman & Friedman in 2012. In 2010, the company acquired Deb Group, a skincare product group, and sold its stake in 2015 to SC Johnson, reportedly earning a return of over 2.5x. In 2010, they acquired Card Factory, exiting its stake in 2015. In 2011, the company acquired ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Celebrations Group
Celebrations Group was a chain of British greeting cards stores. Most of their stores traded under the names of Cardfair and Card Warehouse. Celebrations Group was formed in 2006, when it purchased part of the Greeting Card Group from administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers. The company The company had 288 stores across the United Kingdom and employed around 1800 staff. It had a head office and distribution centre at Orton Southgate in Peterborough. Celebrations Group also fully owned the transactional website Calendar Factory. The company was formed in July 2006 following the dissolution of the Greeting Card Group Ltd which was itself an amalgamation of the Card Fair and Card Warehouse brands which had existed since the early 1990s as separate companies. Both brands were maintained following the acquisition of Card Warehouse by Card Fair in May 2003, with some towns having two stores on the same high street. This remained the case for a short time after Celebrations Group acquired ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greetings Card
A greeting card is a piece of card stock, usually with an illustration or photo, made of high quality paper featuring an expression of friendship or other sentiment. Although greeting cards are usually given on special occasions such as birthdays, Christmas or other holidays, such as Halloween, they are also sent to convey thanks or express other feelings (such as condolences or best wishes to get well from illness). Greeting cards are usually packaged using an envelope and come in a variety of styles. There are both mass-produced and handmade versions available and they may be distributed by hundreds of companies large and small. While typically inexpensive, more elaborate cards with die-cuts, pop-ups, sound elements or glued-on decorations may be more expensive. Hallmark Cards and American Greetings, both U.S.-based companies, are the two largest producers of greeting cards in the world today. In Western countries and increasingly in other societies, many people traditi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
PricewaterhouseCoopers
PricewaterhouseCoopers, also known as PwC, is a multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is one of the Big Four accounting firms, along with Deloitte, EY, and KPMG. The PwC network is overseen by PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited, an English private company limited by guarantee. PwC firms are in 140 countries, with 370,000 people. 26% of the workforce was based in the Americas, 26% in Asia, 32% in Western Europe, and 5% in Middle East and Africa. The company's global revenues were US$50.3 billion in FY 2022, of which $18.0 billion was generated by its Assurance practice, $11.6 billion by its Tax and Legal practice and $20.7 billion by its Advisory practice. The firm in its recent actual form was created in 1998 by a merger between two accounting firms: Coopers & Lybrand, and Price Waterhouse. Both firms had histories dating back to the 19th century. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grant Thornton
Grant Thornton is a multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the seventh-largest in the world by revenue and the sixth-largest by number of employees. The network consists of independent accounting and consulting member firms that provide assurance, tax, and advisory services to privately held businesses, public interest entities, and public sector organisations. Grant Thornton is composed of member firms affiliated with Grant Thornton International Ltd., a private company limited by guarantee, incorporated in England and Wales. Grant Thornton is a not-for-profit, non-practising, international umbrella membership entity, and has no share capital. Member firms within the Grant Thornton network operate in 147 markets employing around 73,000 personnel for a combined global revenue of US$7.5 billion. History 20th century The earliest origins of the name date back to 1904, when the UK firm of Thornton and Thornton was formed in Ox ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maplin Electronics
Maplin Electronics is the trading name of an online retailer of electronic goods in the United Kingdom and Ireland launched in 2019, using the brand of the former company Maplin Electronics Limited, which operated from 1972 to 2018. The original Maplin company operated many retail shops and an extensive mail order service, online and by telephone; in June 2017, there were 217 Maplin stores. On 28 February 2018, Maplin went into administration and all stores permanently ceased trading in June that year. The brand of Maplin was acquired by a new company, Maplin Online Ltd., on 31 May 2019, later renamed Digital-First Retail Limited, still trading as Maplin. The new company sells similar products to Maplin Electronics Limited, using the Maplin website, branding and trading name. No physical Maplin shops have been opened, and the legal obligations of Maplin Electronics Limited, such as warranty support, were not assumed. History Founding Maplin Electronic Supplies was established ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clinton Cards
Clintons, previously branded as Clinton Cards, is a chain of stores in the UK founded in 1968 by Don Lewin and best known for selling greeting cards. It also sells soft toys and related gift products. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE Fledgling Index. In May 2012 the company entered administration and following the closure of 350 branches, the company was bought by American Greetings. The company fell into administration in 2012 and 2019 and was purchased both times by companies owned by the Weiss family. Clintons was 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. In March 2024, Clintons was acquired by Pillarbox Designs, parent company of the similarly-sized greetings card retailer Cardzone and gift ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Holding Company
A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share capital, stock of other companies to create a corporate group. In some jurisdictions around the world, holding companies are called parent companies, which, besides holding Share capital, stock in other companies, can conduct trade and other business activities themselves. Holding companies reduce risk for the shareholders, and can permit the ownership and control of a number of different companies. ''The New York Times'' uses the term ''parent holding company''. Holding companies can be subsidiaries in a Subsidiary#Tiered subsidiaries, tiered structure. Holding companies are also created to hold assets such as intellectual property or trade secrets, that are protected from the operating company. That creates a smaller risk when it comes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
