Port Erin's Mantons Cards has been selected as a finalist in Retas Awards for the UK's best greeting card shops.
Its the second major final this week for Mantons as they were named as finalists for The British Independent Retailers Association's 'Retail Team of the Year' on Tuesday.
"Coming just a few weeks after been named as a finalist in The Greats Awards for Best UK Gift Shop the Mantons team are thrilled to have been selected for another two prestigious national awards in the same week." commented owner Chris Beards.
"After winning this award as the UK's best greeting card shop previously, everyone at Mantons is delighted to once again be named as a Retas Finalist, especially as we are the only Manx company to ever achieve this honour. This is well deserved recognition for all our team's hard work and commitment to help our customers, which is something all of the us at Mantons take pride in."
"It is especially pleasing and motivating given the on-going re-generation work affecting currently affecting Port Erin and the fact that this year is Mantons 30th Anniversary." continued Chris.
The Retas Awards, now in their 13th year, were launched by Progressive Greetings magazine to recognise and reward the UK’s very best greeting card retailers from right across the retail spectrum. Greeting cards are sold in one in six shops in the UK, reaching the finals of The Retas is a notable achievement.
“The sending of greeting cards is an engrained part of UK culture, with the British public spending an unprecedented ?1.7 billion on greeting cards in the last year alone,” commented Jakki Brown, editor and co-owner of Progressive Greetings magazine, which organises The Retas Awards. “The nation leads the world in greeting card design and sends more cards per capita (30 cards per person) – and The Retas Awards celebrate the very finest greeting card retail stockists in the UK.”
All Retas finalists were decided as a result of an industry-wide poll of greeting card suppliers, reps and agents and validated by a panel of experts.
The Awards recognise and celebrate not only the top independent greeting card retailers but also the national chains. These dedicated awards for retailers have risen immeasurably in status over the last decade and are now universally acknowledged as being true accolades of excellence.
Since 2010 Mantons has won sixteen national awards including the British Independent Retailers Association's 'Independent Retailer of the Year', plus being named as one of the top 100 small businesses in the UK in 2015 and winning the BIRA Hero Award for fundraising and community work in 2016.
The winners of this year’s Retas Awards, will be revealed at an awards ceremony on Wednesday 12th July at The Dorchester Hotel in London, so everyone at Mantons will be hoping its seventeenth or possibly eighteen time lucky.
Photo - Chris Beards and Claire Hawley Scott collecting The Retas trophy.
