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THIS holiday season over 130 million greeting cards bearing the crest of Burgoyne Inc. will be painstakingly selected and happily received. That number is 20 percent higher than last year, according to James F. Burgoyne, president of the company his grandfather founded in Philadelphia in 1907. Sales of Burgoyne Christmas-season cards represent enough business to keep two facilities totaling 175,000 square feet operating for all 12 months of each year. Headquartered on Byberry Road in the Northeast, Burgoyne has a relatively new second facility, located in Lower Southampton, Bucks County.
Jim Burgoyne sees his company as a standard bearer "at the forefront of greeting card fashion." He referred to the distinctive high quality associated with all the Burgoyne lines as the corporate raison d'etre. A tour through the main plant confirms that Burgoyne cards are individually inspected and counted directly by employees. "My name's on every card," said the president, and that's supposed to tell it all. "It's not an inexpensive card."
Although Burgoyne is an historical contemporary of Hallmark, the two companies diverge in their marketing strategies. Burgoyne is happy with its niche and has no desire to compete. with giant card companies in what the Burgoyne president called "alternative card markets."
The alternative market celebrates any occasion one can think to celebrate, and expresses any sentiment one can want to express, said Burgoyne. That alternative market includes cards like those he personally received recently when his cat died. This market includes cards like one Burgoyne described that pictured two gingerbread figures, one missing a nibbled piece from its head, offering this message: "Sorry I bit your head off."
It is Christmas, however, not the "alternatives," that marks the big event in the greeting card industry every year. Seasons greeting cards, ("May I just say Christmas cards?" requested Burgoyne), constitute over 99 percent of the Burgoyne Inc. business.
DISTRIBUTION: Burgoyne explained that the challenge in the greeting card industry is not in the design of the cards. "It's actually an easy business to get into," he said. "The more difficult aspect -- the real challenge -- is distribution." The company president compared the greeting card industry to...