Why buy an OPC franchise?

Imagine a business in which you build long-lasting relationships with retailers in your own special territory. Imagine offering a proposition that promises retailers no fixed costs, no ongoing costs - in fact no risks! Just profit, pure and simple.

Now imagine that same business is making you great money, month after month, year after year into the foreseeable future. Isn't it exciting to know that hundreds of OPC franchisees are already doing just that, right now, and making a success of their lives?

Become an OPC franchisee and make a success of your life by stocking retailers with a striking assortment of greeting cards their customers love.

The great thing is, because retailers pay nothing for the displays you provide, nothing upfront for the greeting cards, nothing for your delivery and restocking services, and nothing for the expert advice you give, your proposition becomes so attractive they'd be crazy not to take it! After all, there's no better business proposition than that which allows your clients to make something from nothing. And when retailers see the quality and style of the products, and discover there are no snags in the small print, they jump at the chance to have OPC greeting cards in store.

How do you make money? You profit from the sale of every greeting card on your territory. And over almost 20 years, it's a system that is tried and tested and proven to work well.

About Us

Since OPC launched in the UK in 1991, it has grown globally. There are now greeting card franchise networks in the UK, Ireland, Western Europe, Australia and the Americas making OPC the largest franchised distributor of greeting cards in the world.

Today, OPC supplies many thousands of retail outlets with its products, via a worldwide network of fanchisees.

Now that we've put our cards on the table and told you how OPC works, why not register below today, and find out how you can start to turn a profit from your own greeting card franchise.

Click here to request more information from Original Poster Company

Case Study 1

Rachel Kirk - Franchisee, Sheffield

Running one of the top five performing territories in the UK wasn't always what Rachel Kirk had in mind. Prior to that, she worked a nine-to-five job with little autonomy, and found spending quality time with her children was difficult. But eight years ago, the chance sighting of an OPC advertisement in a national newspaper ignited a chain of events. Today Rachel generates a profit of more than £40,000 a year running a business with a huge resale value - and she has all the flexibility she needs!

I saw the OPC franchise opportunity advertised in the Daily Mail. I'd already heard a lot about OPC in my previous job working for a recycling paper merchant that supplied OPC. I knew from the high level of orders OPC put in that it was a big company. I also knew that they had a very good reputation. On seeing the ad, I phoned them straightaway and learned that the Sheffield territory was up for sale. I expressed my interest, and OPC sent me a selection of their cards, along with some information about their company. I then did some of my own background research visiting local retailers to look at the card ranges in situ, and to find out what OPC was like to deal with.The feedback I got was really positive... the cards sold well, and the service the OPC franchisee provided was excellent. Everything seemed to fall into place, so I bought the business in 2000.

Since then I've seen many positive changes in the way the Support Office runs the business. Franchisees today benefit from more training than I had when I started out, and they are also made aware of exactly what's involved in running the business, such as how much stock is required.The level of stock I hold now is much higher than when I began, and this is really very important for new franchisees to know, as they will need to factor a decent sized stock room into their business plan. I work out of a converted garage, which is ideal. Another important thing to know is that there's quite a lot of moving stock around, so you need to be in pretty good shape - and you need a suitable vehicle. Sometimes I take deliveries of about thirty boxes, and I'll be moving boxes in and out of my car on a regular basis.

Day-to-day, a large proportion of my time is spent merchandising, which involves taking stock out of customers' shops, counting what's been sold and putting fresh stock back into the shop.The money I make is based on the difference between what I put in and what I take back each month. I also try to spend 20 percent of my time winning new customers.

The main issue for them is how much space they have available, but once you have a presence on the shop floor, and prove that you are reliable, it becomes much easier to install another card display. Once you know what you are doing, the OPC business is simply a matter of routine. I've never run my own business before, but I've discovered after eight years with OPC that the things I value most about the business are the autonomy and flexibility I have.

It takes time to get used to the responsibility of having nobody but yourself to answer to, and it can be difficult to switch off sometimes. But these are minor points compared to the freedom and benefits that come from running your own greeting card franchise.You've also got the potential to expand when you feel ready. At the moment, I'm selling around 12,000 cards a month, with a gross profit of around £40,000.

I want to push that up to around 15,000 a month, which would gross me around £50,000. I've already got a merchandiser who works for me, and someone who helps to sort the cards in the stock room, so it shouldn't take long to reach my target.

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Case Study 2

Chris Tranter - Franchisee, Cornwall

With his elaborately sign-written vehicle sporting an H15 OPC private number plate, 37-year-old Chris Tranter is a man evidently committed to his Cornwall-based greeting card business. However, taking over the thriving area of one of the company's highest-performing franchisees, and improving on it, didn't exactly sound like a stroll along the beach. Yet within a year, Chris had boosted his new territory's turnover by 20 percent, and confesses to having loved every minute.

The best thing about running an OPC franchise is the lack of stress. As soon as I left school I started working in sales and sales management. Then I worked for a firm that sold conservatories for 15 years. I made it to the top of the company and was on an excellent salary. A multimillionaire investor bought the business, but despite a great deal of investment, drove it into ground. The experience of working for him, and trying to keep the morale of the employees up when I knew the company was going under, was incredibly stressful. But I stuck it out, and when the end did come I decided to take about eight months off, get my head together and decide where my future was heading.

During that time I found out from my partner's dad - who was friends with the previous franchisee - that the territory was up for sale. I'd been used to earning very good money and knew that, if I wanted to earn a similar income and remain in Cornwall, I would either have to start or buy my own business. So I got in touch with Steve and ended up going out merchandising with him, every day, for about a month. I saw the money that the business could generate, I liked what was involved, and so I bought the franchise from him in June 2007.

Today, I work out of the loft doing everything from picking and packing to merchandising. The loft has about 12 metres of racking, four shelves high, all full of cards. I probably hold a lot more stock than other franchisees, but I think it's important to buy the new designs and ranges because that's what sets me apart from the competition. When I took over from Steve, a lot of the stock was old, and some of the display stands needed replacing, so I spent about £13,000 sprucing things up. Now it looks fresh, inviting and professional, which makes a good impression on my new customers and helps build up the initial trust with them. As a new franchisee, the first couple of times you visit a customer, you're really just getting to know them. After that, the reliability and consistency of service are critical factors; if your customers can't rely on you then they might rely on someone else, which isn't what you want when you're trying to develop a business.

The week I started, I took on 145 accounts. Today I have 149 but I have replaced any that have closed plus increased by four accounts. They are working much more efficiently, mainly because I've encouraged my existing customers to take on more ranges.The year before I bought the franchise, one chain of convenience stores was selling around 17,500 OPC cards in a year, which I have managed to increase to 15,000 cards in just my first five months of trading. By going in, building trust and expanding my ranges in their stores, I added value to the chain to the point where they began to remove competitors'cards to make room for mine! Another time, I put an eight-foot display stand with full card options into a shop, and sales went from 80 cards a month to over 400 -I now have to merchandise that store every two weeks instead of every four! It's taken a lot of effort and financial commitment to get to this stage, but once the foundations of the business are place, it's really just a case of monitoring your stock.

The great thing about my OPC business is that it's only as stressful as I want it to be. I can choose to put in 14 hours one day, and then give myself a day off. Or I can fit an entire week's work into two or three days. However, it's important not to develop bad habits.You still have to work on the business, which takes ongoing effort, and remember to make friends, have fun and build mutually beneficial relationships with everyone you meet. Personally, I love the interaction with the public when I'm out and about. I have real fun and get plenty of opportunities to promote my services face-to-face without being pushy. With OPC, you don't need to do any kind of hard selling; it's all about building good relationships with my customers and their customers and providing an excellent service and quality products, consistently well. In the next year or so, I'd like to get the business up to 200 shops. If I get another 50 shops, bringing in an extra £50 per month, that will generate £2,500 per month additional net sales. At 57 percent gross profit per card, that equates to another £13,000 net profit per year. If I then get some of those shops selling 400 cards a month, then the money really starts to get serious.