{"id":23730,"date":"2023-07-28T13:35:32","date_gmt":"2023-07-28T13:35:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/?p=23730"},"modified":"2023-07-28T13:35:32","modified_gmt":"2023-07-28T13:35:32","slug":"card-factory-in-middle-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/2023\/07\/28\/card-factory-in-middle-east\/","title":{"rendered":"Card Factory opens first Middle East store"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!-- VideographyWP Plugin Message: Automatic video embedding prevented by plugin options. --><br \/>\n<span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Ramping up its expansion, UK&#8217;s largest specialist <a href=\"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/2023\/07\/05\/joi-gifts-joins-moengage\/\">greetings card<\/a> retailer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cardfactory.co.uk\/about-us\/aboutus.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Card Factory<\/a> has launched its first store in the Middle East, at the Bawabat Al Sharq Mall in Abu Dhabi.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The shop is part of the retailer\u2019s franchise agreement with UAE&#8217;s Liwa Trading Enterprise, a subsidiary of Al Nasser Holdings<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Card Factory&#8217;s CEO, Darcy Willson-Rymer, said: \u201cWe are excited to be opening our first stores in the Middle East as we continue to deliver on our ambitious \u2018Opening Our New Future\u2019 growth strategy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201cOur entry into the Middle East will underpin our position as a global competitor and help drive our transition to become the\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/blog\/2023\/05\/card-factory-profit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">market-leading<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0omnichannel retailer of cards and gifts.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The deal between\u00a0<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">greetings card specialist<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0and Liwa, announced in May, will see Liwa open about 36 stores with Card Factory\u2019s fascia across the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">In April, the retailer acquired South African-based SA Greetings to boost its global presence.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Established in 1987, Liwa operates 20 international brands, with 250 stores in the GCC.<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">According to Market Reports, the greeting cards segment is projected to continue growing due to the surge in demand from major applications industries.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Macroeconomic factors such as global economic expansion, rapid urbanisation, growing middle-class population and the increased spending capacity of consumers will drive the growth.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To drive its global expansion, UK-based greetings card retailer Card Factory has opened its first store in the Middle East, at the Bawabat Al Sharq Mall<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":23732,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[1506,3252,3966],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23730"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23730"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23733,"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23730\/revisions\/23733"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}