KANSAS CITY, Mo. (Jan. 11, 2010) — On January 10, 1910, a teenager from Nebraska stepped off a train in Kansas City with little more than big dreams and two shoeboxes of picture postcards. He rented a room at the YMCA and began wholesaling postcards to retailers in the region.

From those inauspicious beginnings an iconic brand was born. One hundred years and billions of well-wishes later, Hallmark Cards, Inc., celebrates its own 100th birthday in 2010 with a nod to the past, a focus on the future, and the grandsons of that Nebraska teenager at the helm.

“Today we’re best known for greeting cards, ornaments, the stores that bear our name and television programming, but what we’re really about is relationships and the emotional connections our products and experiences represent,” says Donald J. Hall, Jr., Hallmark’s president and CEO and grandson of founder J.C. Hall. “It’s a privilege few companies in the world enjoy, and a trust we intend to keep.”

From Hall Bros. to Hallmark
Joyce Clyde Hall was the youngest of three brothers who from his earliest days supplemented the family's meager income with odd jobs. At age 16, he and brothers Rollie and William formed a small postcard wholesaling company. Two years later, he dropped out of school, packed postcards into two shoeboxes and boarded a train for Kansas City. Operating out of his room at the YMCA, he wholesaled his postcards to area drug stores, book stores and gift shops.

Business was brisk enough for first Rollie, then William to join the venture in Kansas City, but it wasn’t all smooth sailing. On January 11, 1915 – five years and a day after setting up shop at the YMCA and a month before Valentine’s Day – his entire inventory was wiped out by fire. “If we were going to quit,” J.C. would later say, “this would have been a good time to do it.”

Instead he took a leap of faith. The brothers borrowed $17,000, purchased an engraving firm, and began offering valentines and Christmas cards in envelopes. The fateful fire was a turning point that led the fledgling company in a new direction, producing and selling their own greeting cards. By 1923, Joyce, Rollie and William officially formed Hall Bros., Inc., the predecessor to today’s Hallmark.

Growing and Expanding
What followed was a steady stream of innovation that continues to this day. Modern gift wrap, an idea that arose from the decorative paper that lined envelopes of the day… the first greeting card advertising, penned by J.C. himself for Ladies Home Journal… an early licensing agreement in 1932 with Walt Disney… greeting card displays that took cards out of shop drawers and put them on display racks where people could easily see them… the decision in 1951 to sponsor a production of Amahl and the Night Visitors as the first Hallmark Hall of Fame… all helped build the business and the brand through its early years.

Under the leadership of Donald J. Hall, J.C. Hall’s son who served as president and CEO from 1966 to 1982 and remains Hallmark’s chairman, the company’s growth exploded. Hallmark products were introduced to global audiences, partyware and Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments were added, new greeting card lines for African-American, Hispanic and Jewish consumers were launched, and the “tiny little division” of humor cards known as Shoebox took the greeting card world by storm.

Today, Hallmark is led by Donald J. Hall, Jr., president and CEO, and his brother, David E. Hall, president of the company’s North American business. The company, which realized corporate-wide revenue of more than $4 billion in 2008, remains privately held and headquartered in Kansas City. It encompasses subsidiaries like Crayola and the top-rated cable television Hallmark Channel, employs more than 14,000 people full time (including one of the world’s largest creative staffs), sells products in more than 41,000 retail outlets in the U.S., and produces products in 30 languages sold in 100 countries across the globe.

Making Emotional Connections, Today and in the Future
Hallmark enters its second century with a commitment to build upon the strengths that led to its first century of success: a deep understanding of people, a passion to innovate, world-class creative talent and commitment to quality.

As the burgeoning world of digital technology rapidly changes every facet of the business landscape, and despite the recent economic downturn that dampened the growth of the greeting card industry in the final year of Hallmark’s first century, current president and CEO Hall is enthusiastic about the power of the Hallmark brand and potential of the business.

Greeting cards remain a huge category – more than 5 billion exchanged in 2008, he says. That’s more than 17 times the number of active Facebook users, twice the number of boxes of cereal and three times the number of gallons of ice cream consumed by Americans annually.

“There will always be a role for greeting cards as tangible expressions of caring that people choose, sign in their own hand and share with someone else to make a difference in their day,” Hall says.

The digital explosion makes possible new options for greeting cards – features that add popular music and can record the sender’s voice among them. Perhaps more important, it opens new options to help people connect in ways not even imagined when J.C. Hall set up shop at the YMCA.

“People have a basic need to make emotional connections, a universal need that reaches across the tools and customs of any point in time. Today our brand helps them make those connections in many ways – through paper greeting cards, gifts and ornaments, through online tools and mobile phones, and through quality television programming from the Hallmark Hall of Fame and Hallmark Channel,” the founder’s grandson says.

“If you’re looking for a way to celebrate, console, thank, encourage or laugh with someone, Hallmark will be there with a way to help, whether it’s delivered on paper, through your computer, phone or television, or ways yet to be seen.

“It’s an exciting time to be in this business.”