Having already come up with the Tatty Teddy and Me to You greetings ranges, Stephen Haines has a new venture – Paloop. (Picture by Adrian Miller, 0868658)
THE founder of Tatty Teddy and the Me to You brand has set up a new Guernsey-based personalised gift business.
Stephen Haines, chairman of Carte Blanche Greetings, has lived in Guernsey for the past six years and has recently established Paloop, an online personalised gift service, which features the wide range of Carte Blanche products such as Tatty Teddy and much more.
Paloop is based at the former Moonpig premises in Garenne Park and has four staff.
Mr Haines said the new business, which he has funded himself, came about after he grew frustrated at what he saw as a lack of internet sales for Carte Blanche, which has a global retail turnover of £500m.
‘We have got a business plan together and I’m fairly confident it will work. I’ve gone into it with the same attitude as I do with everything else and that is that it’s going to work.
‘It mainly came about because Carte Blanche’s main business in Chichester has always been chasing its tail in terms of growth, but what has always frustrated me is what we have been doing with our website sales so at the beginning of this year I presented to the board, on which I’m still 70% shareholder, and said: “Give it to me and see what I can do with a brand new business and let’s set it up in Guernsey”.’
Mr Haines said he had a good relationship with Moonpig and that Paloop would not be competing with it. ‘We are essentially going to be a 3D version of Moonpig.’
And while Paloop, which is named after one of Mr Haines’s daughter’s old imaginary friends, will have its own website, it will also be accessible through the main Carte Blanche site that attracts two million visitors a month.
‘It means if they want to personalise something, they just have to click on the link. It makes sense to use it.’
Mr Haines, who was speaking to members of the recently-
revived Guernsey branch of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, added that while he found establishing a business in Guernsey a little frustrating at times he had been impressed with the calibre of staff he was able to appoint.
nÊCarte Blanche Greetings was founded in 1987, when Mr Haines launched his company with a portfolio of just 12 cards sold from the boot of his car.
It is now one of the UK’s most successful companies, boasting a portfolio of brands distributed in more than 60 countries.
The organisation employs 260 people worldwide.
Article posted on 10th November, 2009 - 2.30pm
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