Cardfactory, a top UK greeting card and gift retailer, has opened its first store in the Middle East. This new store, located at the Bawabat Al Sharq Mall in Abu Dhabi, is part of their expansion strategy and comes after an exclusive partnership agreement with Liwa Trading Enterprises made earlier this year.
With this deal, they plan to launch roughly 36 stores across countries like the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Oman, marking Cardfactory’s push into international markets. Additionally, there are plans to open three more stores in Dubai and Abu Dhabi next month.
Enabled by the Group’s specialist in-house design and manufacturing capability, cardfactory’s range of greetings cards, celebrations essentials and gifts, will be tailored to the local market to offer customers a differentiated product range to meet a host of celebration needs at competitive prices.
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cardfactory’s entry into the Middle Eastern market follows the Group’s expansion into South Africa through the acquisition of SA Greetings in April, and the Group continues to target partnerships in its seven international target markets of the USA, Canada, the Middle East, South Africa, India, Australia and New Zealand. The agreements with Liwa and SA Greetings bolster cardfactory’s already established partnership credentials with existing UK agreements with Aldi, Matalan and The Reject Shop in Australia.
Syed Kazmi, Executive Director, Business Development at cardfactory, said:
“cardfactory is delighted to be partnering with Liwa on this highly exciting expansion in the Middle East, taking our international expansion into a new phase. We look forward to offering customers in the UAE great quality and value when celebrating all of life’s moments and are confident that our expertise and authority in greetings cards, celebration essentials and gifting will help us quickly become a well-loved brand of customers in the Middle East.”
Darcy Willson-Rymer, Chief Executive Officer at cardfactory, commented:
“We are excited to be opening our first stores in the Middle East as we continue to deliver on our ambitious ‘Opening Our New Future’ growth strategy. Our entry into the Middle East will underpin our position as a global competitor and help drive our transition to becoming the market leading omnichannel retailer of cards and gifts.”
