The winners of The Henries 2009 awards have now been announced!

This year The Henries attracted a record number of entries (1,865) submitted by more UK publishers than ever before (entries were received from 220 different companies).

A judging panel made up of 32 retail buyers considered each product entry in turn to come up with the five finalists in each category.

The Best Service to The Independent Retailer was decided as a result of an independent poll involving 750 retailers in which they were asked to nominate which three companies they deemed to have offered the best service over the last year.

The Henry Classic award is for ranges that have stood the test of time. Once a range has won this award they join the Henry Cole Classic 'Hall of Fame'.Previous winners are Forever Friends and On The Ceiling.

The winners have now been announced –

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The Entry And Judging Process

The hundreds of boxes, parcels, Jiffy bags and envelopes that arrived in their droves at PG offices in July, all marked 'The Henries' looked pretty uninspiring from the outside, but their contents told a completely different story.

These packages contained over15,000 greeting cards from over 220 different publishers - a record on two counts, both number of entries (1,865) and number of publishers entering - and the sheer quality, innovation and breadth of this year's entries were testament to the UK's greeting card pre-eminence.

Each Henries' entry, whether submitted by a multi-national company, a new start up one-man band publisher and everything in between, was treated equally in the judging process.

Each entry was logged onto the computer and assigned a number.

One card design from each entry was retained for archive purposes while the other cards in each submission were mounted onto their own large display board. A label was affixed to the top of each board that prominently showed the entry number as well as the RRP(s) of the range.

To overcome any preconceived ideas judges may have of publishers, the brand and company name of each submission was concealed.

What Ranges Were Eligible To Enter?

As always, The Henries 2009 was open to all UK publishers as well as UK-based distributors of ranges from overseas.

Publishers were invited to enter ranges that had been launched since August 1 2008.

For the purposes of entering The Henries 2009, a 'range' was deemed to be a collection of eight or more designs. Ongoing ranges could be entered provided that a minimum of six new designs had been introduced since August 1 2008 and in these cases publishers could only submit the new designs.

There were two exceptions to these rules. The Best Christmas Box or Pack award is for a specific item rather than a range while The Henry Cole Classic award (introduced two years ago) is for ranges that have stood the test of time and therefore the onus is on the whole heritage of the brand rather than just the new designs in the range.

Entry was free of charge and publishers could enter as many categories as they wished, with as many entries in each category as they wanted. The same range could also be entered into a number of different categories, if the publisher so desired it.

The Category Breakdown

Collectively The Henries awards recognise all aspects of greeting card publishing as well as the allied product areas of giftwrapping and, for the first time, calendars. The list below details how many entries there were in each category for this year's Henries with comparative figures for the preceding six years - shown in brackets.

Most Promising Young Designer - 31 entries (2008: 31, 2007: 32, 2006: 25, 2005: 44, 2004: 36,2003: 42)

Best Cute Range - 72 entries (2008: 76, 2007: 70, 2006: 85, 2005: 112, 2004: 108, 2003: 66)

Best Spring Seasons Range - 174 entries (2008: 201, 2007: 186, 2006: 249, 2005: 158. 2004: 194, 2003: 220) incorporating:

Valentine's Day Range - 71 entries (2008: 72, 2007: 67, 2006: 74, 2005: 65. 2004: 77, 2003: 69)

Mother's Day Range - 47 entries (2008: 65, 2007: 61, 2006: 86, 2005: 43, 2004: 71, 2003: 69)

Easter Range - 15 entries (2008: 18, 2007: 14, 2006: 28, 2005: 17, 2004: 22,2003: 36)

Father's Day Range - 41 entries (2008: 46, 2007: 44, 2006: 61, 2005: 32, 2004: 24, 2003: 46)

Best Trend, Fun Or Graphic Range - 224 entries (2008: 190, 2007: 165, 2006: 148, 2005: 188, 2004: 181, 2003: 154)

Best Humorous Range - 120 entries (2008: 95, 2007: 78, 2006: 74, 2005: 105, 2004: 108, 2003: 66)

Best Art Range - 111 entries (2008: 98, 2007: 79, 2006: 80, 2005: 87, 2004: 53, 2003: 60)

Best Handmade or Hand-Finished Range - 114 entries (2008: 112, 2007: 112, 2006: 129, 2005: 147, 2004: 163, 2003: 133)

Best Words or Sentiments Range - 49 entries (2008:61, 2007: 55, 2006: 57, 2005: 61, 2004: 46, 2003: 45)

Best Children's Range - 102 entries (2008: 88, 2007: 85, 2006: 82, 2005: 95. This category was only introduced in 2005)

Best Relations or Occasions Range - 195 entries (2008: 148, 2007: 180, 2006: 160, 2005: 156, 2004: 154, 2003: 153)

Best Wholesale Range - 54 entries (2008: 43, 2007: 48, 2006: 45, 2005: 46, 2004: 45, 2003: 66)

Best Christmas Counter Range - 114 entries (2008: 110, 2007: 132, 2006: 115, 2005: 103, 2004: 113, 2003: 142)

Best Photographic Range - 99 entries (2008: 95, 2007: 106, 2006: 98, 2005: 107, 2004: 102, 2003: 53)

Best Retail Calendar - NEW AWARD - 62 entries

Best Licensed Card Range - 75 entries (2008: 74, 2007: 53, 2006: 62, 2005: 38, 2004: 58, 2003: 50)

Best Christmas Box or Pack - 151 entries (2008: 98, 2007: 139, 2006: 105, 2005: 114, 2004: 282, 2003: 128)

Best Giftwrappings Collection - 84 entries (2008: 56, 2007: 57, 2006: 58, 2005: 78, 2004: 52, 2003: 53)

The Henry Cole Classic Award - 31 entries (2008: 27 2007: 26 This award was only introduced in 2007)

Grand Total - 1865 entries
Over 220 different card publishers entered The Henries this year, far more than ever before.

Who Judged The Henries 2009?

The entire responsibility of judging the entries to this year's Henries lay in the collective hands of the judging panel. As ever, the judging panel comprised leading greeting card retail buyers, from right across the retail spectrum. The panel included buyers from large specialist chains, medium-sized groups, independent card shops, supermarkets, department stores, garden centres, bookshops and even an online shop.

The 2009 Henries Judging Panel

Suzie Abel, buyer for Jarrold, Norwich
Sara Allbright, assistant buyer - stationery for John Lewis Oxford Street
Joanne Askin, non-food buyer - seasonal events, fireworks, greeting cards and giftwrap for Waitrose
Carole Baker, director of Pedlar's Gold, Swaffham
Rachel Barnes, owner of Dragonfly Cards & Gifts, Knaresborough
Sarah Chew, seasonal single card buyer for WHSmith
Yvonne Cooper Grant, owner of Pack of Cards, Henleaze
Gillian Cowell, card and stationery buyer for Haskins Garden Centre, four garden centres
Donna Davies, card buyer for Tesco
Henri Davis, card and stationery buyer for The National Trust, 200 shops
Karen Ebers, owner of Something Special, Oxted
Madeline Fletcher, buyer - related products for Waterstones
Graham Fraser, owner of Alba, Oban
Tracey Gasson, buyer for British Bookshops/Sussex Stationers, 35 shops
Kathryn Grayson, buyer for Martin McColl's
John Hall, owner of Write Here, Shrewsbury
Louise Helyer, owner of Evelyns of Stubbington, Fareham
Stacey Helyer, owner of Stacey's, Fareham
Zoe Hiles, card buyer, Fenwicks Newcastle
Eliot James, buyer for Scribbler, 16 shops
Michelle Lovell, owner of To Be Established, Islington
Annie Lovstav, card champion for To Be Established, Islington
Jayne Mahoney, manager of Pedlar's Gold, Swaffham
Tish Mehmet, junior card buyer for Paperchase, 100+ shops
Branca Neto, card champion for John Lewis, Oxford Street
Deborah Parr, owner of Graffiti, Brighton
Gemma Parris, assistant buyer- cards for Paperchase - 100+ shops
Michelle Pickup, assistant regional buyer for Calendar Club
Dax Smyth, buyer - gift and leisure for Squires Garden Centre, 11 garden centres
Elizabeth Walsh, owner of Good Wishes, Bidford on Avon
Beverley Wilkinson, partner of St Anne's Post Office, St Anne's
Hannah Wilkinson, card champion of St Anne's Post Office, St Anne's
Nigel Williamson, partner of House of Cards, six shops in the Home Counties

The Judging Process

The judging for all the product categories, as well as Most Promising Young Designer or Artist took place on a single day, at The Woodstore, a bar and restaurant adjacent to PG's London offices (where they used to make London buses!).

The criteria for judging were:

- Quality of Design
- Quality of print, production and manufacture
- Appropriateness for the market sector at which it is aimed
- Value for money

Each member of the judging panel considered each entry, not on what the individual buyer would sell in their shop(s), but against the above criteria.

So what happened on the judging day? Each judge was provided with a clipboard containing a judging form for each category. All entries were put on display category by category. The judges considered all entries in each category, individually selected the five entries they deemed the best in that category. They completed their judging form by writing the corresponding entry numbers (which appeared at the top of each board) in order of merit in the relevant boxes on the form. Pam Burriss (of PG's Henries' event organiser, ESP) acted as an adjudicator. Points were awarded accordingly; five points were assigned to those entries judges felt were the best in the category down to 1 point for their fifth choices. The points from all the judges' forms were then correlated to arrive at the winner and the four other finalists

The judges were shown which entries had made it through to the finals in each of the categories, but they were not told which of these scored the highest to make them the winners.

The winners will be revealed at The Henries awards event on October 8 at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London.

Max Publishing, United House, North Road, London N7 9DP | tel: 020 7700 6740 | www.max-publishing.co.uk