cardfactory, the Wakefield-headquartered retailer of greeting cards and gifts, has entered the US gifts and celebration essentials market with the $25m acquisition of Garven Holdings and its subsidiaries.
Garven trades as Garven Design and Cadence Packaging and is a leader in the design and wholesale of gifts and celebration essentials, based in Minnesota.
Garven has an established customer base of general and speciality retailers which will allow cardfactory to further explore design and buying synergies, alongside opportunities to introduce its own ranges into the US wholesale market.
Chief Operating Officer, Anne Schulze and Chief Financial Officer, Walter Jungbauer will continue to manage the Garven business.
Darcy Willson-Rymer, cardfactory Chief Executive Officer, said: “The acquisition of Garven is an important strategic milestone in our partnerships strategy. Together with our separate wholesale supply agreement covering over 1,100 stores across the US, it establishes a physical presence in the US market.
“Over a number of years, Garven has built a reputation as a trusted brand known for its quality products and impressive design capabilities, with Anne and Walter building an excellent customer proposition. We are excited to welcome the Garven team to cardfactory and look forward to building upon their existing commercial relationships, as well as forging new ones.
“International partnerships are a key component of our growth strategy. This acquisition is a key step in delivering the growth from partnerships as we guided at our Capital Markets Update in May last year. Garven represents an exciting opportunity for cardfactory to build scale in the world’s biggest celebration occasions market.”
