12 August 2010: ASDA partners with niche card publisher
The supermarket chain ASDA has teamed up with niche publisher Davora Ltd to bring a fresh ethnic greeting card range to its customers for the occasions of Eid and Diwali.
ASDA, who already have a strong ethnic foods offering, will stock the cards in 40 stores across the UK. Noor Ali, ASDA's Ethnic Buyer commented "we know how important these festivals are for our customers and we want to make sure we are catering to all their needs. Davora's range of cards are a perfect complement to our existing range of ethnic food and non-food products and we are looking forward to stocking them".
"Greeting cards are an integral part of British culture and their popularity for ethnic occasions has been increasing dramatically over the last few years" said Rajeev Arora, director of Stockport based Davora Ltd. "We've been working with ASDA to bring high quality cards to consumers at the right price".
Eid is the Islamic festival celebrated at the end of Ramadan, the month of fasting. Diwali , known as the 'Festival of Light' is celebrated by the Hindu and Sikh communities. This year Eid will fall on 10th September while Diwali coincides with Bonfire Night on 5th November. ASDA will also stock Raksha Bandhan cards, which is another Hindu and Sikh festival celebrating the bond between brothers and sisters. Raksha Bandhan is on 24th August.
Over the last five years, Davora Ltd has become a leading publisher of cards for Asian, Jewish, Chinese and other minority occasions. They are preferred suppliers to a number of supermarkets and stores as well as many independent shops around the UK and abroad.
Davora, the specialist Ethnic Greeting Cards publishers, were invited to celebrate Diwali with the Prime Minister Gordon Brown at 10 Downing Street.
Rajeev Arora, Managing Director of Davora Ltd, and his wife Shruti attended the reception, the first of its kind to be held in the Prime Minister’s official residence, and presented Mr & Mrs Brown with a Diwali card from the Davora range. "It was a fantastic day, and it’s great that this festival is being recognised at the highest levels of our Government" said Rajeev.This is the first time we have had such a celebration in Downing Street said the PM to a gathering of prominent members of the Hindu and Sikh communities from across the UK, including Meera Sayal (Goodness Gracious Me), Anita Rani (BBC1’s Watchdog) and Labour Peer Lord Paul.
After lighting a Diwali lamp, Mr Brown called it an "historic event" and "a great day for Downing Street and a great day for Britain".
Davora's Greeting Card range was unleashed on an unsuspecting crowd at the Mela 2006, held at Birmingham's NEC (17-19 Nov 2006). The feedback from the public was astounding! Our humorous card ranges were a big hit with the public and even caught the attention of some celebrities, including Nitin Ganatra,Ameet Channa and Raza Jaffrey.
Apache Indian was tickled by our Christmas Card range, which was launched at the NEC Mela.
'The UK's Bollywood Ambassador' Honey Kalaria was pleased with what she saw at the Davora stand, as was Miss England 2006 Eleanor Glynn who paid us a visit, and commented on how much she liked our contemporary Diwali cards - she may even send some to her Diwali celebrating friends next year!
We also managed to catch up with the creator ofBollywood Legends dolls' creator Shameen Jivraj. Shameen knows how important it is to cater to the desires of the western based Asian community, a thought which resonates with Davora's philosophy.
We ran a free prize draw for anyone who signed up to our e-mail newsletter - and 3 lucky winners will be sent a Bollywood Doll of their choice.
The positive feedback we received from all who visited us, and seeing the smile that our cards put on peoples faces will keep spurring us on to produce more funky and fun designs.Thanks again to all of you for your encouragement!
What a fantastic idea! Brilliant - just what I need These Raksha Bhandan cards are so beautiful These are just typical of the comments we received at our stand during the Asian Lifestyle Show 2006 at London Olympia. The cartoon designs had people laughing and smiling all day. And with Raksha Bandhan just around the corner, our Rakhi cards were flying off the shelves faster than we could restock them! Thanks to everyone who visited us. Your feedback and praise has given us further encouragement to increase the range and continue producing fantastic designs. It was a great show for us, and we look forward to seeing you all again soon!
