Photobox Group Greetz latest acquisition

Photobox Group has acquired Greetz, the Dutch greetings card and personalised gifts giant, which it expects to increase sales of greetings cards across the group to up to 25 million this year.

Greetz has sales of 7.5 million cards in the Netherlands and has seen rapid growth in recent years – up to 25% year-on-year. It expects to double its 2015 revenue by the end of 2018.

The deal for the Amsterdam-based business was announced on Wednesday (22 August). Greetz will run alongside the Photobox, Hofmann, PosterXXL and Moonpig brands.

“The greeting cards market is ripe for disruption,” said Photobox Group chief executive Jody Ford. “The UK market alone is worth £1.75bn and 90% of the market is still offline, so there is huge potential for online to grow.

“Much like Moonpig in the UK, Greetz is a loved, household brand, offering customers a highly emotive, personal and convenient way to share special moments and occasions together.

“The UK and Netherlands are the two main greetings card markets in Europe and we now have leadership positions in both.”

Ford anticipates the enlarged group will sell up to 25 million cards in 2018.

With a customer base numbering around 10 million people across 15 countries, Photobox Group reported £325m in revenue for the year to 30 April 2017 and recently moved to new headquarters at the former Daily Mirror printworks in Clerkenwell, London, at a cost of £20m.

In June, it was announced that womenswear brand Finery’s founder Nickyl Raithatha would join the group as managing director for Moonpig, working alongside the 400 Photobox employees at the London base.