Swan Mill Group – owner of Ling Design, Penny Kennedy, and The Great British Card Company (GBCC), and well known by its brand name Swantex – is very pleased to announce the purchase of The Gifted Stationery Company(Gifted).
Gifted was owned by Nigel Parr and is a Bath-based business founded in 2007, which supplies a full range of calendars, diaries and stationery products to UK retailers and charities, plus a large number of overseas customers. In 2024 it launched children’s lifestyle accessories ranging from backpacks, pencil cases, meal boxes, and water bottles under its new Hey Hugo brand.
Swan Mill Group CEO David Byk said: “We are very excited to bring Gifted into our portfolio, as we see the products and offer as entirely complementary, and in most cases incremental, to what we do. I’m really pleased that Nigel is staying with the business and he will be key to its ongoing success. We will continue to run Gifted as a standalone business in Bath with Nigel in charge, and he will be able to lean into the rest of the group where necessary.”
“We are very excited to bring Gifted into our portfolio, as we see the products and offer as entirely complementary, and in most cases incremental, to what we do”
Nigel commented: “Bizarrely, David and I met at Heathrow many years ago when our plane to Hong Kong was cancelled and we were both on our way to The Canton Fair. We are the only two mad people I’ve ever come across who think it’s a good idea to land in HK, and then take three buses into China, and a taxi to a hotel in Guangzhou – arriving unshowered nearly 24 hours later to be at the Fair as quickly as possible.
“We worked out that we were both staying at the same hotel, so we decided to race each other to the hotel in China from Heathrow – and the loser buys the beers. We still disagree about who bought the beers but at that point I worked out that we have a business ethos in common.
“When I decided last year that it was time for me to contemplate the journey to my retirement after 17 years building the business, one of my key objectives was to find the right home for Gifted; where I had confidence in the company having the correct skillset, resources and aligned outlook. I was very pleased that David was interested in buying it, as I knew we could work together, and I very much like what the Swan Mill Group does. I look forward to working with its UK and Far East teams.”
David added: “The Gifted brand is well known for the more than 500 dated products which it runs each year – which is absolutely new to us. And while GBCC now has a strong stationery offer, the Gifted one has a significant point of difference and will thus be incremental to the group.
“In addition, we are excited about all the opportunities we can develop together through our networks with Hey Hugo. In total it currently runs over 1,000 SKUs, and we see this – and its expertise to supply these categories bespoke for our customers – as a real boost to our total offer. We really believe the very talented Gifted team can have a strong future within the Group.”
