IMPERIAL INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIP WITH THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES

Imperial International, one of the fastest-growing housewares companies in the UK, is launching new ranges of licensed products and also strengthening its sales operation for the independent cookshop sector.
The independent sector is the fastest-growing area of Imperial’s business, increasing at an impressive 30 per cent year-on-year, and it now represents a key focus for the company

Additionally the company offers a number of dedicated brands for the independent sector. These include Leifheit, Soehnle, Wesco, Spirella, Axis and BBC Good Food.

Imperial believes its latest licensed product launches will appeal to cookshops, and it devoted an entire stand at the recent Autumn Fair to new licensed themes. The company is capitalising on the current popularity of wartime themes. The National Archive was established in 2003 with the merger of 4 government bodies -  the Public Record Office, The Royal Commission of Historical Manuscripts, Her Majesty’s Stationery Office and The Office of Public Sector Information. A new licensing agreement with The National Archive gives the company access to over 1,000 years of the nation’s records. In total the collection comprises 2,200 terabytes of storage in digital archives – the equivalent of 33 billion A4 documents.

Included amongst the 11,000,000 historical, government and public records are a number of well-known wartime posters. Harking back to the wartime spirit of endurance and endeavour, these include ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’, which is set to feature on product ranges including mugs, kitchenware and textiles from Imperial in the coming months. The ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ theme was developed by the Ministry of Information in 1939 for public use in the event that Britain was invaded. Since that never happened the poster remained unreleased and undiscovered until a copy was unearthed within the last decade. 

“Character and theme licensing have been important elements of our business ever since we introduced the first Ready Steady Cook products in 2004” says John Newcomb, commercial director at Imperial. “These were quickly followed by the V & A, BBC Easy Cook and BBC Good Food and now this year’s innovations, including Spiderman and The National Archives. These ranges tap into consumer enthusiasm for popular themes, they invigorate the category and add huge interest at the point of sale. It is an area which we intend to develop further in the future in partnership with our cookshop customers.”

ENDS

Press Contact: Debbie Hardwick, Marketing Manager, Imperial
Phone: 0116 291 9999
Mobile: 0780 285 5000
Email: dhardwick@imperialgb.com
Web : www.imperialgb.com