In ‘the windy city’ Chicago. In these complex moments spending quality time visiting stores and meeting with the CEO of Blick Art Materials, Bob, is evenmore important than usual. Whilst I don’t like the price stickers it was great to see our new W&N sets on an endcap feature too.

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Bravo à la team Trade Marketing pour l’organisation et le déroulé de ces digitales formation sur la FLASHE (focus Bio sourcée) avec la plus grande chaine  européenne de beaux arts  GEANT DES BEAUX ARTS (Gerstaecker) qui nous a permis comme l’an passé  de toucher les 20 magasins et leur personnel de vente au travers la prestation fournie par l’artiste Benoit Hapiot. BIG UP pour @Amandine ;@Moise ; @Catherine ; @ Manon  pour ce lundi.

Cette journée en deux sessions fut suivi le mercredi par une autre faite pour ROUGIER&PLE  qui en ce moment mets aussi à l’honneur cette gamme notamment au travers du Collector Pack. Cette session fut d’ailleurs très riche en question et très instructive dans les échanges. 

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Regulatory Team Retail Visit + Compliance Bench-marking: Key Insights

Our regulatory team recently conducted an insightful retail assessment. Thanks to the support of Martyn Symes and Chevelle Sands we were able to visit Cass Art, Portobello Art & Stationery, and London Graphic Centre. The focus was on competitor bench-marking, labelling and compliance strategies, and engaging directly with retailers to gather insights on regulatory authority visits. Below are our key findings:

Integrated Hazard Labelling:

We observed that many competitors use combined US and EU hazard labelling on products, simplifying inventory by avoiding separate labels for each market. For example, some products displayed both the AP seal, EU biocidal warning and California Prop 65 warnings. To improve our agility and minimize the need for multiple SKUs or additional labelling, we aim to implement a similar approach—already in practice with our Liquitex Bio-Based Acrylics but to be discussed further with our Commercial/brand teams.

Distributor Information:

Some US brands (Golden Artist Colour, Deco Art, Gamblin) do not include an EU/UK distributor or importer address on their labels. These products are non-compliant under the Classification, Labelling and Packaging (CLP) and General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) regulations for products sold in the EU/UK markets.

Font Size Compliance:

Many products featured small font sizes for EU hazard information, allowing for multiple languages on a single label. These labels do not comply with the new CLP font size requirements, raising questions about competitors’ future strategies and how compliance will be enforced.

Waste Packaging Labels:

We noted that Italian brands, such as Legami Milano and FILA, included Italian waste packaging labels, while French brands, like Pebeo, used the Triman label. Our LB enfants range follows a similar practice by including the Triman label.

Brand Collaboration:

We saw a gel pen set partnering with the Lego brand, indicating potential opportunities for our toy products and graphics to collaborate with well-known brands for greater market reach.

Seeing our brands displayed in these stores reaffirms our commitment to compliance and consumer safety. This bench-marking exercise, along with continued collaboration with our commercial, brand teams, and industry associations, will be key in shaping a forward-looking strategy as we navigate the evolving global regulatory landscape.

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Lefranc Bourgeois et Conté à Paris continuent d’accompagner les artistes dans leur créativité. C’est avec une immense joie que nous vous présentons ces 2 articles, l’un sur la peinture Flashe Collector Rose Sakura que l’artiste italienne Agnes Cecile a créée, l’autre sur le crayon Pierre Noire Conté à Paris que l’artiste Skima Drawing utilise dans tous ses dessins hyperréalistes.

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Lefranc Bourgeois and Conté à Paris continue to support artists in their creativity. We are delighted to present these 2 articles, one on the Flashe Collector Sakura Pink painting created by Italian artist Agnes Cecile, and the other on the Conté à Paris Pierre Noire pencil used by artist Skima Drawing in all his hyperrealistic drawings.

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Last week Ruben, Jodie and I from Group Marketing got to visit a few art stores in Southwest London. With the support and suggestions from the UK team (thank you again Martyn Symes & Lewis Houlston, we visited and were welcomed by Chiswick Arts & Craft, Cass Art, Pullingers and Hobbycraft 🎨

It was fantastic to see all Colarts wonderful brands being displayed and standing out, also a great amount shown on our own merchandising system. 

There were many interesting and inspiring products, displays, feedback and ideas for Ruben & I in Merchandising and Jodie within packaging to take away and consider.

It was a valuable insight to see all the hard work that the UK teams have put into these stores which you can see that from images below.

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