Town chairman and Card Factory boss Dean Hoyle named Entrepreneur of the Year

Jun 25 2009 by Henryk Zientek, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

The judges also praised Dean’s business model, which saw him establish in-house designers, develop a management team committed to meeting his goals and embark on a rapid store roll-out which made it difficult for competitors to respond.

Said Dean: “To get here, I’ve had to overcome some big obstacles – for example, people saying the business model was not sustainable.

“When we started in Wakefield with just one shop we were up against Birthdays – which has just gone into administration a couple of weeks ago – but then they were really strong. “Some of the head honchos came to our shop – I was there and my wife was stacking the shelves – and one of them said: ‘This is nothing special.’

“So now we have 500 ‘nothing special’ stores!”

Town chief executive Nigel Clibbens said: “Everyone at the club and all our supporters will join me in congratulating Dean. It is an award that is really well deserved.”