Ace.co.uk

ace logo

ace.co.uk

Type	subsidiary
Industry	Mail order Retail
Founded	1936 as Ace of Clubs (1974 as Ace Cards & Gifts) ace website founded 2002
Headquarters	Accrington, Lancashire, England
Products	Clothing Electronics Furniture Homeware Jewellery Christmas Gifts
Website	http://www.ace.co.uk

Ace (also known as ace.co.uk) is the online sector of Ace; a home shopping company based in Accrington, Lancashire and operating in the United Kingdom. Ace is the sister company of Studio.co.uk. Both companies offer a similar range of products and services and are part of the Express Gifts^[1] division of Findel plc, a British home shopping company based in West Yorkshire.

Currently, Ace has a customer base of 210,000 people, 89% of which are female. Customers are located geographically throughout the UK, with the highest concentration of customers residing in city areas.

Ace produces 100 different publications and mails over 13 million catalogues each year. Their biggest publication, the August Book, is heavily focused on Christmas products, resulting in much of the company’s business being undertaken in the final third of the year.

History

Originally called Ace of Clubs, Ace started out as a specialist paper company in 1936,^[2] selling cards and gift wrap. In 1974, Ace of Clubs was bought out by Fine Art (which then became Findel PLC) and the name of the company was changed simply to Ace. The product range then expanded to fall in line with the range offered by Studio Cards and Gifts; another greeting cards company owned by Fine Art.

In 2003, Ace added a new dimension to their product range by introducing a selection of discounted clothing and footwear, featuring global brands such as Adidas, Ben Sherman, Fred Perry, Reebok and Timberland.

To develop their online presence and give customers an alternative way to shop with the company, Ace launched an online version of their catalogue; Ace. This began in 2002 when customers received a copy of the catalogue on CD, allowing them to browse the Ace catalogue offline on their PC. The presentation was then enhanced to produce the Ace catalogue online. In 2003, the full website was launched. In recent years, the Ace website has seen a huge surge in growth, and now offers a much more extensive product range than that of the catalogues.

Customers can also shop on fully optimised mobile and tablet sites, which were launched in 2011 and 2012 respectively.

Product Range

Ace is renowned for its extensive range of Christmas products, such as trees, decorations, cards, gift wrap and more. However, they also stock a host of other products, which can be shopped the whole year round. Some of their more popular ranges include homeware, electricals, toys, jewellery, clothing and garden and outdoor essentials. Currently, Ace stocks over 60,000 products, with 35,000 of these in the catalogues, and an extra 25,000 on the Ace website.

Personalisation Facilities

Ace has access to one of the largest personalisation plants in the UK, allowing customers to personalise a range of products to their specific requirements. Over 3.2 million products are personalised per year,^[3] including wedding gifts, glass, jewellery, novelty gifts, alcohol sets, pyjamas and more. The personalisation service is offered free of charge and carried out in Ace’s in-house facilities, which are un-matched in UK retail.^[4]

Publications

Out of the 100 publications that Ace produces in a year, the Christmas Catalogue is by far the largest and most popular. This publication is heavily geared towards Christmas, and is responsible for a huge chunk of Ace’s revenue.

The 2 other large publications offered by Ace are the Spring Book and the Christmas Gifts Book, which launch in January and June respectively. The Spring Book’s main focus is on garden and outdoor essentials, while the Christmas Gifts catalogue offers a choice of festive products to help people prepare for Christmas early, as well as an extensive range of homeware, electricals, branded clothing and more.

Many smaller publications are released throughout the year, such as Offers of the Month, Hot Buys, Holiday Shop, Back to School, and Bargain Bonanza.

References