1,000 Greeting Cards Jobs Axed

Greeting Card Group has been sold to a management buyout team led by Alan Fort in a deal that will save 1,500 jobs, administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers said today.

The new business will still be run by the current chief executive of Greeting Card Group, Milton Guffogg, while Mr Fort becomes the new chairman. The sale saves 1,500 jobs and just under 300 stores across the UK as well as the firm's head office in Peterborough.

When the company collapsed into administration two weeks ago, it had 470 branches employing more than 2,500 people. Two-thirds of the stores have been profitable.

The group is the second-largest card and gift retailer in the UK after Clinton Cards, and trades under the Cardfair and Card Warehouse brands.

The greeting card market is worth around £2bn and Greeting Card Group's core stores have been and are expected to continue to be successful, the administrators said.

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