Simon Warren-Gash
Chairman

After a successful career in the commercial banking sector, Simon became involved in franchising in 1989. Shortly thereafter Simon saw the opportunity to create a high quality greeting card franchise and founded The Original Poster Company in February 1991. Simon’s initial investing partner/director remains as a non-executive member of the Company’s Board of Directors to this day.

Following many years as Managing Director of the Company, Simon has now handed over day to day control of the business and continues to work full time on the business as Company Chairman.

Mark Thompson
Managing Director

Mark entered the greeting card industry in 1989 joining Carte Blanche Greetings. During his seven years there he gained a good grounding in many aspects from display planning, merchandising, sales and sales management. He left to join Britannia Products who were later bought by Hallmark Cards, continuing in sales team management and eventually moved into National Accounts within the merged group.

In 2004, Mark joined OPC as their National Accounts Manager and soon involved himself in many aspects of the business, whilst learning about the franchising industry. In 2007 Mark was promoted to Sales and Marketing Director and became Managing Director in 2008.

To this day, the growth potential of the OPC franchise and greeting card brands remain at the heart of Mark’s drive and ambition for the business.

Martin Parks
Art Director

Martin heads up our creative team developing successful, innovative, new product.

He has 21 years experience as a graphic designer and art director, 14 of those specialising in greeting card design and production. Martin worked in advertising and corporate identity design, before moving to the Greeting Card industry.

He joined OPC in April 2002 after 5 years as Studio Manager with Paper Rose, a leading UK greeting card publisher, and became a Director and shareholder in October 2004.

Mark Robinson
Financial Controller

Mark joined OPC as Financial Controller in November 2009.

After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant in 1993 Mark worked in public practice until moving to an industry role in 2004.

Whilst in public practice Mark was involved in a wide range of industries and involved in all aspects of accounting, taxation and reporting. After leaving public practice Mark moved to Cumbria joined a nuclear decommissioning company as their financial controller.

Richard Cage
International Sales Manager

Having worked in a Sales & Marketing environment for his entire career, Richard brings a wealth of experience in Sales Management, Training and Systems Architecture.

His experience is gained from a variety of markets including running his own Sales and Marketing Company, working for blue chip FMCG organisations such as Whitbread Take Home PLC and the past six years in franchising with OPC.

Richard works with our International Master Franchisees making sure they have the skills and tools to be effective in their own markets. He understands OPC and can always translate his experience into positive, pro-active help.

Sue Baker
National Sales Manager

Sue joins OPC following an extensive career in direct selling, spanning over 15 years, implementing sales strategies and leading teams to achieve dramatic improvements in sales and profitability.

In 2009 Sue formed her own Business Consultancy, working predominantly with startup companies; utilising her experience and creative skills to devise and implement compensation, attraction and engagement strategies

Prior to this Sue was Sales Director with Avon Cosmetics with responsibility for increasing market share and sales growth within Ireland. She worked in conjunction with commercial marketing, the supply chain and partnered and engaged with the field organisation to ensure consistent delivery of the business plan.

Other roles within Avon included responsibility for identification, design and implementation of training and development interventions across UK and Ireland.

Sue is passionate about building empowering relationships with people so they may fulfill personal goals whilst developing their own successful business.

Kim Richardson
National Accounts Manager

Kim has worked in the greeting card industry for many years, firstly Hallmark Cards for 18 years, and then Gemma International, (children's licensed products), for 13 years.

During that time she looked after many different national accounts – high street multiples, toy shops, department stores and supermarkets. At Gemma, she also managed the National Accounts and Merchandising departments.

Since joining OPC in 2008, Kim has dealt with various account types such as convenience stores, garden centres, buying and symbol groups, plus running tradeshows. She enjoys the diversity of being part of a franchise company and working alongside franchisees developing our mutual business.

Kerry Sherriff
Operations Manager

A wealth of experience in IT, administration and office management across a variety of industrial sectors has proven to be invaluable in Kerry's role since joining OPC in 2003.

Her primary responsibility is administering OPC's in-house IT network including the on-line bespoke extranet which provides on-line ordering, reporting and communication facilities for the international and UK/Irish franchise network. The extranet also allows employees to perform various business critical operations concerning production, image rights management, sales leads and real-time stock management.

Kerry also manages the company's own and international branded Master websites as well as content manages all on-line franchise resale advertising.

She also acts as liaison with the company's warehousing and distribution partner on behalf of the local and international network.

Patrick Sugrue
Production Manager

Patrick began his greeting card career in production with Royle Publications in 1989 staying there for eight years before moving on to Paperlink as Production Manager for a similar time period.

In 2005 he joined OPC also as Production Manager helping the Production Department produce many exciting new ranges over the last 5 years. He works very closely with a number of UK printers and suppliers to ensure the highest quality standards are maintained for OPC’s cards, envelopes, point of sale material and display fixtures.

Paul Butler
Business Development Manager
Northern Region

Paul joined OPC in October 2008 having spent nearly 20 years in retail management with Jessops, the photographic high street retailer.

During Paul's time with Jessops he was responsible for over 150 stores and has gained a tremendous amount of experience in promoting excellent customer service, developing staff management and maintaining high store standards.

Paul also has experience of running a small business having managed his own for 3 years. He therefore understands the difficulties and the rewards of owning a profitable small business and most importantly how to generate opportunities and maximise sales with existing customers.

Colin Harris
Business Development Manager
Eastern Region