American Greetings Takes On Almost 400 UK Stores

CLEVELAND-American Greetings Corp., a $1.7 billion company, has now entered the retail store business with the acquisition of most of Essex, England-based Clinton Cards PLC. The locally based firm will take over almost 400 of the Clinton stores, as another 350 of Clinton’s stores have already been closed due to bankruptcy.

American Greetings was one of Clinton’s biggest suppliers. However, the UK firm collapsed after being unable to pay back creditors, including American Greetings, which had purchased Clinton’s senior secured debt for about $56 million. American Greetings then bid about $37 million of the debt for the remaining Clinton open stores, which were deemed “viable, ongoing business” assets, according to a company statement.