Media Statement:
Greeting card manufacturing consolidation

Hallmark Cards, Inc., announced June 4 it will consolidate greeting card manufacturing from three subsidiaries into the parent company’s production operations to make better use of increased capacity in Hallmark’s manufacturing facilities in Lawrence and Topeka, Kan.

The transition will begin immediately and continue through April 2009. As many as 350 jobs at subsidiaries Hallmark Canada in Toronto, DaySpring Cards in Siloam Springs, Ark. and Sunrise Greetings in Bloomington, Ind., will be affected. 

Other business functions, including product distribution as well as marketing, finance and other administrative functions, will remain in the three subsidiaries’ headquarters communities. Following the consolidation, about 500 full-time employees will remain at Hallmark Canada, 325 full-time employees will continue to work at DaySpring Cards and about 160 full-time employees will remain at Sunrise Greetings.   

Most of the work and equipment from the three subsidiaries’ manufacturing facilities will move to Hallmark’s production centers in Lawrence and Topeka, Kan., which in 2007 handled more than 85 percent of Hallmark card production and have shown strong improvements in lead time, cost and capacity over the past year.  Some card production, primarily that involving hand assembly, will continue to be handled by external suppliers in Asia and Mexico.

The move follows consolidation last year of party and gift wrap manufacturing from two buildings into one in Hallmark’s Leavenworth, Kan. manufacturing facility, and of distribution operations from two facilities into one in Enfield, Conn.  

Hallmark’s corporate headquarters offices are located in Kansas City, Mo.