About us

What we do …

Orchardcards.co.uk  is an online greetings card shop carrying a huge choice of upmarket and unsentimental cards for birthdays and other occasions, cherry-picked from nearly a hundred publishers and artists.

We specialise in greeting cards depicting natural history and country life, and also have a strong humour range.

We also offer a good choice of tasteful wrapping papers, ribbon, small gifts and, during the autumn, traditional (non-chocolate) advent calendars.

Our aim is to provide the highest levels of customer service with all the convenience of shopping on the internet, and most orders received before about 4.30pm (on a working day) are dispatched the same afternoon.  Many arrive the next morning by Royal Mail.

Our history …

The idea for the business germinated because I couldn’t buy the kind of cards I like locally, and used to stock up about twice a year at card shops further afield.

I realised that other people might also find it convenient to buy greetings cards by mail order.  So, after fifteen years working in finance and having struggled to juggle a professional career with two young children, I started the business in April 2006 and it’s been growing ever since.

The team …

In the office, based in rural South Cheshire, you may come across:

* me, Tonia Rutherford.  I do all the stock buying, managing the website content, many of the customer service queries and all of the financial stuff

* Becky Pass, who packs the orders and helps with admin

* my husband, Richard, who is in charge of making the tea and other trivial stuff such as logistics, technology and marketing

* and, occasionally, our children, Kate (6) and Charlie (4), who still haven’t grasped the concept of ceasing conversation when the phone rings, sorry!

We hope you like the site, please do get in touch with your comments and suggestions.

Best wishes

Tonia Rutherford