International success on the cards for greetings firm

A West Yorkshire greeting and gift card retailer has further international expansion in its sights after a strong start to 2018.

Love Layla was started by entrepreneur Stacey Dennis from her kitchen table in 2015 and has grown rapidly, becoming a £1m turnover business.

The company is also exporting with its first franchise successfully established in Australia.

Love Layla’s 500-strong design range attracts an international customer base as well as interest from some of the UK’s largest card retailers. The company has used social media to grow its audience and continue driving sales. It now has over 680,000 followers on Facebook and sells directly to the consumer through its website and eBay.

The business, which employs seven people, has moved to larger scale premises in Pontefract in order to meet growing demand for its products ranging from risqué greeting cards, balloons, cheeky wine labels and wrapping paper.

Founder and owner Stacey Dennis said: “It’s been a whirlwind couple of years and everything has happened so quickly. It feels great to be bucking market trends and to be doing so well around seasonal times such as Christmas and Valentine’s Day. It would seem that our tongue in cheek designs have established quite a following carving out a new market for the traditional greeting cards and appealing to younger buyers in particular. It’s very exciting to have such healthy sales and to have our first franchised business in Australia too. Hopefully, we can build on this in the future.”

Financial advice for the investment and expansion was provided by West Yorkshire chartered accountants, Hentons.

Pav Bagri, a partner at Hentons, said: “Love Layla is a very exciting, progressive business which is flying in a sector that has struggled of late. With the continued talent and ambition of Stacey as the driving force behind this impressive performance and excitingly, lots of interest from customers all over the world, I have no doubts that a very bright future is on the cards for Love Layla.”

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