The Stationery Awards are in their eighth year, but this year was a first for two new categories recognising Retailer and Designer contributions to the stationery industry.

The winners for this year’s Awards, which aim to recognise and benchmark good practice and innovation in the retail stationery sector, were announced at an informal drinks evening held after the first day of Stationery Show London.

Representatives from Award sponsors AT Cross, GO Stationery, Craft Business and The Giftware Association, along with a selection of the Supplier and Retailer judges all took part to help announce the winners.

2019 WINNERS – SUPPLIER STATIONERY AWARDS
Several suppliers had a good Awards evening, picking up a couple of wins each – Quadrille won both the Diaries, Organisers, Calendars and Licensed Stationery categories, whilst ExaClair’s new gift wrap range by Clairefontaine also collected two awards, including the Judges’ Choice. It was also great to see a LaunchPad winner, Makers Cabinet (formerly Brahman Design) winning the Desk Accessories category.

The judging panel this year included Katy Golden, head of gift at the Great British Card Company, Chris Lambert, founder of rapidly growing subscription box service Scrawlrbox, Sarah Laker, owner of Marple Stationery Supplies and figurehead for this year’s National Stationery Week #StationeryShopSaturday campaign, Sidonie Warren, co-founder of Papersmiths, Mark Hayhurst, sponsor and editor of Craft Business, Debbie Wigglesworth, paper Passionist from consultancy The Paper Collaborative and Abigail Ball, deputy stationery buyer at Fenwick.

2019 WINNER – DESIGNER STATIONERY AWARD

The Stationery Designer of the Year Award, sponsored by GO Stationery was won by Laura Jackson, of Laura Jackson Design.

Laura trained in Jewellery Design & Silversmithing at the esteemed School of Jewellery in Birmingham and then embarked on a career in luxury fashion. She spent eight years in design and development at several high-profile international brands in Birmingham and London, before embarking on a nine-month exploration around Asia and the Pacific.

Inspired by her travels she now designs a range of homewares and interior products, all of which are made in the UK.

https://www.laurajacksondesign.com/
The team at GO Stationery selected Laura’s submission saying:

“A bold, striking, commercial and very versatile winning design - fully adaptable with endless opportunity. Laura clearly knows stationery and proposed the top two selling formats.

“She also went the extra mile and proposed a print specification and price and therefore not only entered with a design concept but has taken it all the way to manufacture ready!”

2019 WINNERS – RETAILER STATIONERY AWARDS
With the support of sponsor A T Cross, five new retailer categories were added to the Stationery Awards this year for the first time. It was a great evening for Sidonie Warren, co-founder of Papersmiths, which picked up two category awards! Sidonie was also part of this year’s Supplier Award Judging Panel – which she ‘enjoyed immensely’.

The judging panel for the Retailer Awards included Kerri Middleton, MD of Busy B, George Wilkinson, MD of Nuco International, Jane Reucroft, founder and Chloe Bayles, head of wholesale at A Gift From The Gods, Rebecca Saunders, independent retail and e-commerce consultant, Michael Owen, co-founder of Lime Stationery & Art and Gemma Bassett, marketing manager at Sinclairs and a Star Choice in the Thirty Under 30 stationery initiative.

Judges’ comments about the Retailer Winners included:

Best Customer Initiative (Instore or Online)

“This is a really innovative idea and I am impressed by the way they have built a community of followers that are engaging with the products and with each other. A super way to encourage creativity.”

Best POS/Merchandised Display of Stationery
“A visually impactful and unique window - I particularly like the focus on the own brand products.”

“A great approach to merchandising Valentine's Day products instead of the usual hearts and balloons - you can see the amount of planning and work that went into this.”

New Store of the Year

“Exciting new stores with an array of indulgent displays for any stationery user. I love how the stores feel like mini exhibition spaces, making all stationery feel like art and to be cherished. Wonderful!”
“The new stores are just as exciting as I had hoped! I love the attention to detail - flooring, lighting, fixtures, colours and visual merchandising are just brilliant.”

Best Non-Specialist Stationery Store

“Really impressed with the engagement for customers and the results they have driven… they are making themselves a real stationery go to destination.”
“This is a true industry success story and their commercial results are impressive. From ranging to visual merchandising to marketing, their offer is truly best in class.”

Best Specialist Stationery Store

“A fantastic store and great offering - a lot of marketing activity generating interest in our sector and engagement with iconic brands!”
“They have adapted to the changing retail environment and built up an impressive 46K online reviews. Their introduction of brand ambassadors seems to have been positive…”

“They are fantastic UK success story. I admire their focus on being the best within the category and commitment to (and creation of) industry events that support the sector as a whole. I am impressed by the well-rounded business that has been built, with a focus on building long term relationships with suppliers and customers.”