Piccadilly’s reputation for excellence is well-established in the US market, specialising in creating high quality guided journals and sketch books. This is a significant acquisition for Hinkler, aligning with strategic plans for growth in North America and bolstering the Company’s presence in the stationery industry on a global scale.
Founded by Terry Hailwood over 25 years ago, Piccadilly has since been led by his son, Simon who served as Vice President for over 15 years before taking over as Piccadilly CEO in 2019. Simon and his team have been instrumental in developing innovative products and adapting a business model that has evolved to efficiently serve some of the largest retailers in the world.
We are thrilled with this acquisition it’s brought trading moment with key aspirational customers we have been striving to serve for decades. The delicate art of transitioning key accounts seamlessly for the buyers including Walmart, Target USA and Meijer to Hinkler vendor numbers is now complete along with onboarding the suppliers. What’s wonderful about Piccadilly business is its efficiency and streamlined nature of their outsourcing.
Stephen.Ungar — CEO at Hinkler
Hinkler are pleased to announce that Simon and his team will continue to lead Piccadilly, leveraging Hinkler’s infrastructure, systems, and resources to drive further success.
For the longest time we have been trying to diversify our manufacturing outside of China and whilst coming close on a few occasions the logistics and critical mass hasn’t been there to move to other potential countries. All of Piccadilly’s current product line is manufactured out of Vietnam with incredible manufacturing capabilities. I was fortunate to tie in a trip to Vietnam late April with Simon the CEO and meet the key trading partners. It was terrific after 3 gruelling months of negotiations over clauses in the long form agreement to have a week to delve into product, manufacturing, and plan out more of what the future together will bring.
Stephen.Ungar — CEO at Hinkler
As Hinkler embark on this new chapter, more details about the exciting opportunities that lie ahead will be announced soon.
Simon has a wonderful team and its been a pleasure onboarding them over the last few weeks transitioning operating platforms systems and processes has been a major project, we don’t have it all bedded down just yet but are well on the way. Both Simon and his Operations manager will be in Melbourne towards the end of June where we will further optimise the integrations and train up our teams to maximise the launch of Piccadilly in Australia New Zealand and UK/Ireland and beyond!
Stephen.Ungar — CEO at Hinkler