| |
 |
Vintage Cards and Creations
The company was established in 1983, by two
Pune entrepreneurs, Anil Kapur and Rajesh Vaishnav.
The company was born out of an initial investment
of Rs 400. The first factory that was started by
them was at one of their houses. Only in 1985, did
the company change from a hobby  business
to a full fledged business and the company reached
a turnover of Rs 7 lakhs that year. Till the early
1990s the company was doing a turnover of Rs 70
lakhs.
Then came the real boom for the company, the US
based Hallmark Cards Inc. chose Vintage Cards and
Creations as its Indian operations partner. The
company became the sole licensee for Hallmark in
India in 1992. The company that started with a small
office in the late 80s now occupies a large 18,000
square feet space.The real boom for the company
came when Schroders, a British venture fund, invested
Rs 14 crores in the business. Using these funds,
the company opened a new factory in Goa.
The real work started when the brand Hallmark needed
a working over. Though the brand was the leader
all over the world, it too required a showcasing
to the uninitiated Indian customer. To initiate
the process, the company started a chain of Franchisee
stores in the country. The stores were given a better
ambience, so that the customer could browse through
the large number of products dispalyed at the store.
The concept of Hallmark franchisee stores was born
in 1995, each of these stores had beautiful interiors
and attentive sales personnel. Each of the franchisee
outlets has been designed as per the stringent design
standards laid down by Hallmark Cards Inc. The designer
support for the same has been given by Vintage Cards
and Creations Pvt. Ltd, who train the interior designers.
The company offers regular marketing and brand management
support to the franchisee.
Today the company has over 300 Hallmark Franchisee
stores which are over 100 towns all over the country
in the SAARC region. The company is increasing this
number by about 75 stores per year. The company
is looking at touching about 500 stores soon. The
Hallmark brand is also being distributed by 5000
multi brand stores.
Vintage Cards has entered into very carefully chosen
global alliances. It has entered into an alliance
with Mattel to manufacture, sell and distribute
cards and acessories under the Barbie brand. Last
year, the company tied up with the Cancer Patients
Aid Association to establish a foothold in the corporate
segment. The cards are today the preferred choice
of the corporate segment in the country.
|
|
|
|
|
|
