Paper Tiger Edinburgh

Opening a new shop like our new Paper Tiger in Stockbridge needs a whole village to make it happen. Earlier this week I posted about my team, and their capability to add two new shops in the space of just 14 months. We have doubled our physical footprint in Edinburgh, and we had a lot of help to do it. In this post I want to focus on the people we work with to get the products and ranges onto the shop floor in Paper Tiger. We work with a wide array of illustrators, printers, producers, makers, manufacturers, designers, wholesalers and agents. We visit trade fairs throughout the year, from ones on our doorstep to far flung foreign lands. We put a shift in, and it is a team effort to get the selection right, the presentation right, and having the right team on hand in the shops to sell the stories and the product details that make our range unique on the High Street. In our opening week in Stockbridge, we have sold products from over 100 different suppliers. Over the course of a year, we will sell products from well over 150 separate sources. Some of those people currently work for Paper Tiger, or have worked for Paper Tiger. Some are on the other side of the world, some are on the other side of the street. Some of them have worked with our business for decades. And decades. Some of them are brand new this month. We have found them, they have found us. There are cards on our shelves from people we met at their first ever trade show. We have seen tiny acorns grow into mighty oaks. Their support for us is magnificent, and something I personally value a great deal. In the past few months I have been overwhelmed by the desire to see us succeed in our new location. Thank you. For more than 43 years, we have played a small part in the stories of so many businesses across the worlds of greetings cards and stationery, and in home and gift. I love to see people and brands that we have worked with moving onto the High Street, or growing into huge stands at the trade fairs. I get a huge buzz from remembering a first sighting of the potential and promise of a company or an individual, starting out on a 1m x 2m trade fair stand. I hope and believe that the suppliers, wholesalers and agents that we work with appreciate the efforts that we make to make their products work for Paper Tiger, for themselves, and ultimately for the customers in our shops. Are you one of our suppliers? Tag yourself below and say hello! Tell me your memories of working with Paper Tiger. I celebrated my 27th Paper Tiger anniversary a few days ago, but some of you might even pre-date me!

I took a trip around a sun drenched Edinburgh today, spending time in all four Paper Tiger shops, checking in on preparations for the month ahead. The Festival, Fringe and the Edinburgh Military Tattoo all start on Friday. We also have the Foodies Festival on our new doorstep in Stockbridge. The autumn school term starts in two weeks time in Edinburgh, so we're sharpening our pencils on the Back To School displays. It takes a lot of effort to maintain consistency across four shops, and keep the momentum going across different postcodes and customer profiles. I am very fortunate to have a team of people working in Paper Tiger who bring talent, knowledge, experience, diligence, flair, style, humour, skill, patience, and an appetite to do better work. It has been lovely seeing the customer reaction in the new Stockbridge shop, hearing positive comments, and enjoying the congratulations from so many different people. Those well wishes and admiring comments are a result of a great deal of effort from the whole team at Paper Tiger. At the beginning of July, in the depths of shopfitting work, I wrote 'MAINTAIN MOMENTUM' in my diary, because I was worried that Stockbridge would be a distraction for the team. The team have been able to maintain the momentum. Stockbridge has opened succcesfully, and the other three shops have had their best July ever. My tigers are the best Tigers. 🐯

Paper Tiger is now *OPEN* in Stockbridge! Come along and visit us at our new shop on Raeburn Place! Firstly, I want to thank my team. Without my very special Tigers, this business would not function. Everyone who works at Paper Tiger Edinburgh has played a part in delivering this new shop, and I am a very proud employer today. Secondly, we are nothing without our customers. The support we have had locally and across the city is absolutely incredible. Paper Tiger has been trading in Edinburgh for 43 years this month, sprung from the Studio One business founded by John Johnson back in 1966. Our customers are loyal, and they expect a lot from us. We work hard to deliver the standards that they expect from us every single day. The response from shoppers on Raeburn Place in recent days has been truly emotional for me! Thirdly, we cannot do what we do without the support and encouragement of our suppliers - the illustrators, artists, printers, makers and manufacturers, who make it possible to deliver the unique retail experience we seek to offer in our shops. Thank you all for making this work for all of us. We are delighted to be trading in Stockbridge. The area resonates for many, many reasons, and we are looking forward to working with our neighbours to ensure that the area thrives for many years to come. Finally, there are many other people have worked very hard to make this happen, Business doesn't work without excellent advice and support, and I will be making a separate post to credit the professionals, advisors and contractors who have made this possible. Today, I am savouring the moment. The sun is shining on our new shop, I can see happy customers in store. I'm pinching myself. Retail is a wow. 🐯

It's a sign! 🐯 Today, we put our name over the door at our new shop in Stockbridge! We've taken another big step forward as the contractors finish off their work, and we begin to get ready for our opening day. We will be updating again on progress very soon! #papertiger #shoppapertiger #stockbridge #edinburgh #scotland #newshop #retail

A high speed, high impact dash around Progressive Greetings Live yesterday at the Business Design Centre, racking up a stack of orders with suppliers old and new. PG Live is a great opportunity to catch up with the greetings card community that help to make Paper Tiger a success, and trade fairs are an invaluable way to keep abreast of the market, learn about future plans, and make sure we bring the best designs to our customers. Our travel plans were disrupted on the way to London (thanks, BA) and on the way back to Edinburgh (Thanks, DLR), but the aftershow cakes from buns from home on Camden Passage also made our trip worthwhile. Thanks to the fellow retailer on the POET AND PAINTER LTD stand who tipped us off! Sorry I missed you Jakki Brown, but you and the team at Max Publishing (London) - Multimedia + Events put on another great show! We spent our winning tickets with Rosie Tate at Cath Tate Cards and with Dominic and Heidi Early at Earlybird Designs, but my colleague Megan and I also had time to chat (just about) with dozens of other colleagues and friends in the industry. In no particular order, it was great to catch up with Sarah Jackson, Richard at Hype Associates, Ged Mace, James Mace, William at The Archivist, David Falkner, Jo Nicol, 📓 Mark Callaby, 📓Harry Ferrin, lucy creed and James Stevens, hope you have all had a productive couple of days at the Show.