The Hummingbird Bakery Whips Up Gift Line with Scoop Designs

The Hummingbird Bakery Works with Beanstalk to Kick Off its Licensing Programme

June 10, 2014, London, U.K., – Authentic American-style baking brand, The Hummingbird Bakery, today announced that it has appointed gift manufacturer, Scoop Designs as its official giftware licensee. The agreement marks the kick-off of a strategic licensing programme, developed by Hummingbird’s exclusive brand licensing agency, Beanstalk. Scoop Designs will create gift sets combining baking equipment with much-loved recipe-cards from The Hummingbird Bakery, enabling fans to re-create the brand’s phenomenally popular indulgences at home. The collection will initially launch exclusively at Sainsbury’s for Christmas 2014, with a further roll-out in department, grocery, and independent stores set for Spring/Summer 2015.

Tarek Malouf, Founder and Managing Director of The Hummingbird Bakery, comments, “We look forward to extending The Hummingbird Bakery into new product categories and distribution channels, which offers fans the opportunity to connect with us in new ways. The new gift range further builds on the blissful and indulgent world of The Hummingbird Bakery, and captures the nostalgic notion of quintessential American baking. Scoop Designs truly understands the essence of our brand, and we are confident that they will create high-quality products that build on our core offering and key values as a business.”

Lisa Reiner, President of Beanstalk, Europe & Asia Pacific, says, “The Hummingbird Bakery has an incredibly loyal fan base, stemming from the popularity of its six London bakeries as well as the phenomenal success of its three chart-topping cookbooks. Consumers have expressed considerable interest in products outside of the brand’s core offer and licensing is the perfect model for translating this demand into products that further build upon The Hummingbird Bakery’s popularity and reach. Scoop Designs has the expertise to create high-quality, innovative gift items that will seamlessly communicate The Hummingbird Bakery values, making them an ideal partner for this widely popular bakery destination.”

About The Hummingbird Bakery The Hummingbird Bakery is an American-style bakery founded in 2004 to bring the authentic taste of American home baking to London. The company has six branches across London and also recently launched two branches in Dubai through a franchise agreement. It also has three best-selling cookbooks published, The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook (2009) and Cake Days (2011) and Home Sweet Home (2013), which together have achieved sales of more than 1.5 million copies in the UK. The Hummingbird Bakery prides itself on baking fresh at each of its branches throughout the day and on only using only the finest quality ingredients. Its customers in London are able to order online and take advantage of The Hummingbird Bakery delivery service. The Hummingbird Bakery is a privately held, self-funded company.

About Scoop Designs Scoop Designs is a wholly owned subsidiary of International Greetings plc., which is one of the world's leading designers, manufacturers, importers and distributors of gift packaging and greetings, stationery and creative play products. As a key supplier to the UK high street, Scoop Designs specialises in designing and producing composite gifts that can include food for seasonal sales opportunities. Scoop Designs hold licenses for properties including Twining’s, Joules and Gu Puds, as well as owns a number of in-house brands, including Rosie’s Pantry and Food Nation, amongst others. For more information visit: www.internationalgreetings.co.uk

About Beanstalk Beanstalk, a global brand extension agency, works closely with our clients to unlock brand equity and create many of the world’s most recognizable products and services. We help leading brands, celebrities, media properties, manufacturers and retailers creatively find ways to strengthen their relationship with their most important stakeholder – the consumer.

Beanstalk offers a breadth of services including brand licensing, direct-to-retail program management, license acquisition for manufacturers, and royalty auditing. Blueprint – Powered by Beanstalk, our consulting division, advises clients through four key practice areas: brand extension + retail development, research + insights, design + identity, and operations + governance. Tinderbox, our digital division, works with new media properties to realize their potential in the world of consumer products.

The company is headquartered in New York, with offices in London, Los Angeles, Miami, Cincinnati and Hong Kong, and affiliates throughout the world. For more information, please visit www.beanstalk.com. Beanstalk is a part of the DAS Group of Companies, a division of Omnicom Group Inc.

About The DAS Group of Companies The DAS Group of Companies, a division of Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC) (www.omnicomgroup.com), is a global group of marketing services companies. DAS includes over 200 companies in the following marketing disciplines: specialty, PR, healthcare, CRM, events, promotional marketing, branding and research. Operating through a combination of networks and regional organizations, DAS serves international, regional, national and local clients through more than 700 offices in 71 countries.