Hope for Shropshire stores as Clinton Cards saved

Nearly 400 Clinton Card stores – including five in Shropshire – were today snapped up by an American greetings cards firm in a deal saving 4,500 jobs.

Ohio-based American Greetings, which had previously been one of Clinton’s biggest suppliers, will take on 397 stores after the retailer collapsed into administration a month ago. The chain has stores in Telford and Bridgnorth.

It has three other sites in Shrewsbury.

Administrator Zolfo Cooper had already announced the closure of around 350 stores, costing the jobs of nearly 3,000 full and part-time staff.

Staff at stores in Telford and Shrewsbury this afternoon said they had not yet heard what the takeover would mean for their shops.

American Greetings said the final number of shops which would remain trading once the takeover had been finalised would depend on talks with landlords at each location.

The company placed itself in pole position to buy the chain after it moved to acquire Clinton’s £35 million bank debt, making it a preferential creditor and giving it a strong position in sale talks.

The US company’s UK Greetings operation, which is based in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, has the brands Camden Graphics, Hanson White, Forget Me Not and Xpressions and supplies outlets including major supermarkets.

American Greetings chief executive Zev Weiss said: “We are pleased to welcome these stores, the Clinton Cards brand, and the approximately 4,500 employees as members of the American Greetings family.

“We believe that properly managed, and with the appropriate capital structure, Clinton Cards can be both an important and profitable retailer over the long term.”

Clinton recorded a pre-tax loss of £3.7 million in the 26 weeks to January 29, compared with a profit of £11.7 million in the previous year, and warned that the second half of the year would be below expectations.

The group was the UK’s largest specialist retailer of greetings cards.