The UK’s original digital card manufacturer, making cards since 1996

01744 815 475
Menu

News

Plastic Cards Expansion into Europe


Warning: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /srv/users/swype/apps/swype/public/live/web/wp-content/themes/base/archive.php on line 18

Warning: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /srv/users/swype/apps/swype/public/live/web/wp-content/themes/base/archive.php on line 19

It has been nearly two years now that Swype have successfully expanded its sales of plastic cards into Europe.

As the requirement for customer loyalty is on the increase worldwide so is the demand for plastic cards. This can be in the form of customer loyalty cards, membership cards or affiliated customer loyalty programmes.

Dealing with the plastic card market in Europe does come with its challenges in terms of plastic card pricing, plastic card marketing, suitable routes to market and the overseas transportation of plastic cards. Cultural differences and customer expectations can very often determine the type of plastic card required. For example, France and Germany are very heavily focussed on the loyalty card market with numerous plastic card loyalty schemes available to customers. Standard size plastic cards are more popular than plastic key-fobs and custom shaped cards.

Swype have been successful within Europe by understanding their customer needs for plastic cards. They have identified markets that are compatible with the running of Swype here in the UK. They have priced accordingly to take into to consideration the value of plastic cards overseas and the various sales channels. They have also set prices to take into consideration currency fluctuations. Swype as a whole have adapted their ways to accommodate the demanding increase for the plastic card market in whichever way shape or form – plastic cards, plastic business cards, loyalty cards, access control cards, encoded cards, magnetic stripe cards, membership cards . Also cards with personalisation, numbering and embossed cards.

Our current European plastic card portfolio consists of France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium and Norway. All of these countries have their own specific requirements and characteristics for plastic cards. All have their own cultural differences and all enjoy dealing with Swype.

Get your message displayed with a plastic door hanger from Company Cards

Long gone are the days when plastic door hangers were limited to ‘Don’t Disturb’ signs found hanging on your hotel door. Now door hangers are used in all sorts of businesses and organisations, you can find them in schools to display messages such as ‘exam in progress’ or in testing areas in laboratories to say ‘testing in progress – do not enter’.  You can even find them in doctors or dentists surgeries as a method to indicate that a private patient meeting is taking place. The lists are endless!

All plastic door hangers produced at Company Cards are digitally printed in full colour and finished with a gloss or matt laminate, making them waterproof as well as tear proof. The plastic is not only hard wearing but protects the quality of the print underneath giving your door hanger a longer shelf life than you would have with a paper hanger.

As we digitally print our plastic cards we have the capability to personalise the hangers with unique messages or names. This has proven to be quite useful for one of our clients who personalises the hangers with variable data and a barcode for use as car parking passes which hang from the rear view mirror of their members cars. We have also seen them used in car dealerships and as novelty items.

Although practical for communicating messages door hangers are also a fun creative way to market a special offer, promotion or future event. Many hotels are now taking advantage of the full colour double sided print available on their door hangers to promote their in house restaurants or to display a voucher code which entitles the holder to discounted drinks at the hotel bar.

Here are some of the most popular uses for plastic door hangers:

  • Car Parking Passes
  • Car Dealerships
  • Do Not Disturb  / Occupied signs
  • Exam in Progress / Quite Please
  • Do Not Enter
  • Meeting Taking Place / Meeting in Progress
  • Shh my Baby is sleeping
  • Be Right Back

For more information on door hanger, plastic cards or any product from Company Cards please feel to contact our sales team today on 01744 815475.

Proud to become a partner of LEGIC Identsystems AG

studio guides logo

Our digital printing capabilities will be a great addition to the LEGIC global supplier network.

During the summer of 2013, Swype proudly joined in partnership with LEGIC Identsystems AG. The Swiss-based company is rightly recognised as one of the leaders in the field of RFID and contactless people identification, supplying hardware, software and services for a complete RFID solution. The LEGIC product portfolio includes transponder chips that support multiple industry standards (LEGIC RF standard, ISO 15693 and ISO 144443 standards).

This technology can be used to authorise multiple applications at 13.56Mhz with a single card. Some of the most common applications for LEGIC contactless products include access control, time and attendance, loyalty, membership and cashless payments. With over 3 million LEGIC readers in use worldwide, their systems are used by over 150 million people every day.

Over 250 partner companies across the globe make up the LEGIC suppliers network. Each company brings to the mix their own expertise, with the common goal of making the everyday lives of people and organisations easier and more secure. Here at Swype, we are honoured to be part of such an impressive network of companies and feel that we have found our niche within the partner chain. As an official supplier of LEGID RFID cards, we offer short runs of pre-printed access control and photo ID cards, as well as blank white cards.

Our digital printing capabilities offer huge benefits to companies who require short runs of RFID cards. Without compromising on quality and with no minimum order, we can offer pre-printed plastic cards to suit the applications required.

We are looking forward developing our LEGIC partnership over the coming year and we anticipate the further expansion of our RFID product portfolio based on this partner network.

Plastic Card Printing for Security Passes and Business Cards.

If you’re looking for security passes or business cards, make sure you opt for plastic card printing. With personalisation, they give a highly professional look.

Planning a conference is never easy and one area that’s often overlooked is the need for security passes and business cards. Choosing to have these printed on to plastic offers considerable benefits for your event and the overall company brand.

Security Passes

Security passes are a necessary element of any conference, but you shouldn’t just opt for what you’ve had previously. Over the past few years there have been great advances in the area of plastic card printing, meaning that there are now more choices available. You don’t just have to settle on the same standard size and shape of card, as a plastic security pass can be cut into bespoke shapes. Choose something that showcases the theme of the conference or that fits with the industry you operate in. Whatever you decide on, a bespoke shape will undoubtedly become a talking point throughout the conference.

The main purpose of a security pass is to allow the right people into the venue or restrict access around the conference. With plastic card printing services you can incorporate a wide range of security features into your passes. They can use invisible ink, which is only visible under UV light, as well as holograms, magnetic stripes or barcodes. All the plastic cards can be easily personalised, including names, dates and venue as well as photos of delegates.

Business Cards

When you’re organising a conference, you shouldn’t forget about your need to network throughout the event. You’ll meet a wide range of people and having plastic business cards will provide a professional image. Instead of having to search around for a pen and paper when someone asks for your details, you simply need to hand them one of your cards. As with the security passes, business cards can be personalised and cut into different shapes. This makes them easily recognisable and means potential customers are more likely to remember you and your business.

When you next come to plan a conference, don’t forget about the range of plastic card printing options that are available to you.

Company Cards can assist you with a wide range of plastic card printing services including plastic security passes and plastic business cards. Whatever type of plastic cards you’re looking for, speak with one of our experienced advisors for a bespoke quote to match your requirements.

Top 4 Loyalty Cards. Why not use Plastic Loyalty Cards for your Business

Read on to find out possible uses for plastic loyalty cards for your business

A huge range of companies now use plastic cards to improve and increase customer loyalty and promote their products and services. Not only this but by using these cards in your company, they can also be used as a brilliant way of collecting data. Here at Company Cards we tailor-make cards to your specification and provide you with the perfect loyalty card for your business. We took a look at which shops offer the best plastic loyalty card schemes on the market at the moment.

Amazon

As one of the most popular online retailers it’s no surprise that Amazon utilise plastic loyalty cards. As with many loyalty cards, with every £1.00 you spend with the online retailer you earn two loyalty points. Once you reach 1,000 points, you receive a £10.00 Amazon Gift Card. Incentives such as this give customers a goal to achieve and so encouraging them to spend more in the process.

Boots

This particular plastic card is the prized possession of many women throughout the UK. As with the Amazon loyalty card, customers accrue points when they spend with Boots, either online or in store. When signing up for this plastic loyalty card, users must give specific personal details which then allow Boots to send various promotions, most of which are based on the previous items they have purchased. This is a fantastic example of how you can use loyalty cards to send personalised offers to entice customers back to your business.

John Lewis

This department store has a strong high street presence however they also operate online. As a major retailer, it is no surprise that John Lewis also utilises plastic loyalty cards.

Tesco

These types of cards aren’t purely limited to retailers. Supermarket giant, Tesco, also offer a loyalty scheme. Shoppers throughout the UK will no doubt be familiar with the famous Tesco Clubcard which allows you to, again, earn loyalty points based on spends. As well as sending out personalised offers, Tesco also offer the renowned “clubcard exchange” where customers can double up points for certain items throughout the store.

As you can see some of the biggest retailers in the world use plastic loyalty cards to keep customers coming back and review vital marketing information such as types of products purchased and frequency of visits. Plastic Cards are fantastic for your company and at Company Cards we can create the perfect loyalty cards for your company.

The History of the Humble Loyalty Card

The Loyalty card has become synonymous with the UK consumer; 85% of UK households own at least one card whilst 29% of people carry five or more loyalty cards wherever they go.

The Loyalty card has become synonymous with the UK consumer; 85% of UK households own at least one card whilst 29% of people carry five or more loyalty cards wherever they go . A host of innovative and established brands offer customers loyalty schemes improving brand recognition and engagement in the process. Looking in your wallet you will find a host of plastic loyalty cards from large supermarket groups to a plethora of coffee chains and even your local pub! Increasingly businesses are offering consumers the chance to be rewarded for higher volume or frequency of purchases with a short term financial incentive . In 2013, these cards have become increasingly sophisticated tracking our spending and purchases to predict future trends and offer consumers specialised offers and advertising to tailor the shopping experience However, how and why did the plastic  loyalty card become such a tour de force?

You may think of loyalty marketing as a very recent phenomenon; however the concept was established in 1773 when a US merchant started giving out copper coupons to be exchanged in the merchant’s store – soon after many of his peers followed suit . This scheme was pioneering and later in the 1800’s ‘stamps’ were given to customers who chose to pay for goods with cash opposed to credit .
Soon after, brands and companies started to see the great potential in the marketing idea. The B. A. Babbit Company launched a scheme based around its Sweet Home Laundry Soap giving the lucky purchaser certificates that could be collected and redeemed for colour lithographs! This led the Grand Union Tea Company to issue a similar programme whereby customers were given tickets to be exchanged for merchandise in any of their catalogue of stores .

The most famous of the era’s campaigns is attributed to the Sperry and Hutchinson Company who introduced trading stamps to their department stores in 1891. Trading stamps were small paper coupons with a gummed backing, cut into perforated squares with an eye-catching design with a tracking number on them – the early incarnation of the Clubcard! Not only were these stamps collectable and decorative they could be redeemed against store purchases. One consumer commented ‘We would fight over which one of us would be able to get the stamps that were dispensed after the groceries were rung up.’

It wasn’t until 1958 when such stamps made their way across the pond to the UK when Richard Tompkins saw similar schemes in the USA and subsequently founded the Green Shield Stamps loyalty scheme. The scheme provided one stamp in credit per 6p of shopping which could be redeemed through the Green Shield Stamp shop .

An alleged ‘stamp war’ broke out in 1963/4 as the larger supermarkets including Tesco started producing a range of stamps including the aforementioned Green Shield as well as S&H Pink Stamps . Famously at this time Mr Sainsbury was not playing ball and opposed the use of such marketing tactics. He may have had a point, in order to redeem a ‘Silver Cloud’ motor boat would take 170 books – and it didn’t even include the outward motor! These stamps were withdrawn in 1991, a disappointing year for anyone saving for a Silver Cloud.
4 years later in 1995 Tesco launched its all-conquering Clubcard spurred by the challenges of an oligopoly food market, noted as one of the most competitive in the world. The launch of Tesco’s loyalty card was ‘one of the most exciting and interesting marketing tales of this generation’ . It was definitely a technological upgrade from the now archaic loyalty stamps using a plastic card with a magnetic stripe which could be reused and used across the network.

One year later Clubcard holders were recorded as spending 28% more at the supermarket and 16% less in rival Sainsbury’s – this move knocked Sainsbury’s off the top spot as the nation’s top supermarket retailer . The Clubcard later became the world’s most successful retail loyalty scheme. By employing DunnHumby to help them analyse the purchasing activity of its users including what was in shoppers ‘weekly basket’ the company was able to develop successful marketing campaigns. Today the scheme gives members one point per pound spent which can redeemed in a variety of different ways. Sainsbury’s were quick to follow with their own rewards card a year later, after lambasting the loyalty structure previously.

However rewards schemes were not exclusive to supermarkets. Air Miles launched in November 1988 allowing frequent flyers to collect miles to put towards future flights. This led founder Keith Mills to introduce the consortium concept that later became the Nectar Card. Nectar allows card holder to collect points from a variety of retailers including BP and Debenhams. Today the scheme has over 19 million collectors .

Today, plastic loyalty cards are found in nearly every industry. For example the humble stamp card has been rapidly introduced into coffee shops in recent years with the simple but effective ‘Get your 10th coffee absolutely free’ business model . Continuing the trend Nando’s now offer customer’s chicken based deals based on loyalty. It doesn’t stop with individual shops; whole towns have embraced the loyalty card revolution. The Gloucestershire town of Stroud now has a high street loyalty card developed by the local council which has attracted around 80 local businesses .

The loyalty card shows no sign of slowing down in popularity and is constantly evolving into a marketers dream. Company Cards can create plastic loyalty card for businesses of all sizes. Explore the website for more information on these services or contact one of the team today!

New Metallic Range

We are pleased to announce the launch of a new range of metallic coloured plastic cards now available through Company Cards.

Our gold and silver metallic plastic cards have always proven a popular product, particularly for clients who like to use them to distinguish between different tiers in their membership or loyalty schemes.
With the colour range now expanding to include more vibrant colours such as pink, blue and green, also with a pearlescent option and a wider choice in silver and gold tones, we are confident that these fantastic new cards will go down a storm!

Paper business cards a thing of the past?

Fed up of seeing your business cards binned? The move to plastic business cards has begun!

It’s an unfortunate fact that countless amounts of paper based promotions will be binned each year/month/week/day. Picture yourself walking down the street and being handed a leaflet by an expectant sales person, what do you do? Put it in your bag and read it later with a brew? This seems somewhat unlikely. In reality we all have the tendency to drop, bin, and dispose of such paper based advertisements as soon as they are handed to us without even giving them a first glance. Put a stop to this today by purchasing Plastic Business Cards.

Don’t let your important business cards be amongst the pile of unwanted paper in the bins! Your business cards are fundamental to promoting what is most important to you and can open so many doors. It is not just simply a card, it is an opportunity; an opportunity to stand out from your competitors!

By choosing a plastic business card from Company Cards today, you are handing your potential customers a card which will most certainly help seal the all-important deal between business and customer! Outshine your competitors with one of our flashy, sleek and professional designs of plastic cards today! We are all enticed and drawn in by things that look good. So why choose an underwhelming, flimsy piece of paper over a durable, long lasting, shiny plastic business card?

Here at Company Cards we have plastic cards to suit all designs, businesses and individuals. Whether you want to sell your business as a professional, sleek company, or a loud and vibrant company, we will deliver the plastic cards ideal to your business.
There are many advantages to plastic business cards as opposed to traditional paper based business cards. For instance, they’re much more durable and long-lasting! When faced with a plastic card, customers will be much more reluctant to fling these in the bin. They cannot easily be messed up and ripped up, they are much longer lasting so are bound to leave a longer lasting impression of your company.

Plastic Business Cards say a lot about your company, they are a symbol that you put time and effort into everything you do and pleasing the customer is important to you. They also show that you take pride in your company and want to make it look the best! So ultimately, plastic cards sell! If all this wasn’t enough, plastic cards are also environmentally friendly. One may think plastic is not the answer to paper being wasted in the form of paper business cards, but, here at Company Cards, we value the importance of the environment when creating our cards. That is why we have new biodegradable plastic cards which are tough and high quality but harmlessly break down when they dispose. It seems our plastic business cards tick all the boxes!

To see what else our plastic cards have to offer, please see our website and start promoting your business with our custom made plastic cards now!

Investment in New Card Machinery

Here at Company Cards we are always looking to add to our plastic card product range and increase on the services which we can offer to our clients.

After an increasing number of requests to supply plastic Hotel Key Cards we have invested in a new piece of machinery which will enable us to cut standard credit card sized cards with a thumb shaped notch making them perfect for use as Hotel Key Cards. As with all our plastic cards, we will take your own design and reproduce this through high quality digital print, sealed with PVC laminate.

Plastic Cards, as and when you need them!

Bureau Service is ideal for short run plastic cards to be called off at your command.

At Company Cards we work alongside you to design and create a plastic membership card which will do your company proud. It is vital for all clubs and societies that not only does your membership card re-affirm your members feeling of belonging to your organisation but that it reflects your brand well.

Modern plastic card printing enables you to create perfect plastic membership cards which are not only high quality but durable and will last through the duration of your client’s membership. Plastic cards can be personalised with the card holders name, membership number and even personalised photograph.

We see many different types of plastic membership cards, for many different industries. One of the most popular options regarding plastic membership card printing is our Bureau Service. Here we can hold a stock of your re-printed plastic cards to be called off as and when required. The cards can be overprinted or embossed with the card holder’s details and turnaround very quickly so that your client can start reaping the benefits of their club membership.
This solution is perfect for clubs and organisations which only require they cards on an adhoch basis.

We can supply the personalised plastic cards back to you in bulk to hand out to your clients or you can take advantage of our fulfilment service. By using our fulfilment service we can mail directly to your members, taking all the stress right out of your hands.

Our Bureau Service is not only limited for membership cards. We can also hold your access control cards, plastic loyalty cards or staff passes for call off as and when you need them.

For more information regarding our Plastic Card Bureau Service please contact our team today.

Plastic Key Fobs – New Product

Continuing to add to our plastic card range we introduce the plastic key fob!

Company Cards are now able to supply you with your own customised plastic key fobs. Manufactured from the same materials as plastic cards these miniature cards, supplied with or without the metal split rings, are available as an additional marketing tool for your company. They are perfect as membership or loyalty cards which can be bar-coded or numbered as a means of identification.

For more details please contact our sales office on 01744 815475!

Matt Laminated Plastic Cards now Available

example of matt laminated business cards

Matt lamination of your plastic cards now available at no additional cost

Here at Swype, we are now able to produce matt laminated plastic cards. This now means that all orders have both a matt or gloss laminate option – at no extra charge!!

This finish is perfect for VIP cards or plastic membership cards – offering an extra touch of something special. The matt lamination is not only restricted to standard plastic cards but plastic key fobs, custom cut cards and RFID cards also.

A plastic card which has been matt laminated will look newer for longer as it is far less likely to collect scratches or scuffs with everyday use.  This makes them a great option for darker coloured cards which easily show up surfaces scratches which can appear after usage.

Please do feel free to contact our Sales office for some free samples of matt laminated cards.

Our team is ready

Please get in touch, we can't wait to help you out.

Swype is part of the Company Cards Ltd Group