Strong and varied portfolio includes The National Gallery, I Like Birds, Crimestoppers, Help for Heroes, Silentnight, and House of Turnowsky

At BLE 2018, respected independent licensing agency JELC (L65) is presenting a strong and varied portfolio covering themes ranging from amazing art to beautiful birds and from sleep to security – and much more. It includes The National Gallery, I Like Birds, Crimestoppers, Silentnight, Help for Heroes and House of Turnowsky.

The National Gallery is the third most visited museum in the world, with an internationally admired collection of paintings in the Western European tradition from the 13th to the 19th century. This collection has inspired a successful global licensing programme for which JELC is worldwide agent.

JELC has already signed up nearly 40 licensees. Recent additions to a growing number of partners keen to associate with this world-famous brand include Blackstone Designs, with a new range of t-shirts coming to Top Shop this autumn. The shirts will feature a selection of iconic works from the Gallery’s collection. Roy Lowe & Sons, a provider of licensed character socks for over 20 years, is planning a range of National Gallery socks for children and adults due at retail in spring 2019, while the stunning food gifting range – known as Delicious Art – from Scoop Designs is expanding its exclusive Boots offering for Christmas 2018. The National Gallery brand is also continuing its successful expansion into new markets. Following Copyrights Asia, which signed in 2017 as the National Gallery’s agent for Japan, Afilio Brands has been appointed as the Gallery’s master licensee for China and Bravo & New as licensing agent in South Korea. Discussions are also advanced in the US market.

The innovative and stylish design brand I Like Birds is also seeing strong growth for its avian-themed illustrations. Finalist in the 2016 License This!, the annual competition at BLE designed to introduce new properties to licensing, I Like Birds now has four key licensing partners on board, including Quadrille Publishing for stationery, Brown Trout for calendars, My Gift Trade for gifting and kitchen textiles and The Art File for I Like Birds greeting cards and wrapping paper. The Art File’s I Like Birds products appear in a range of retailers, including Paperchase stores, Blue Diamond, Waterstones, Blackwell’s, RNLI, RSPB and Wyevale.

With an 86% unprompted consumer awareness and 1.7 million unique visitors each year to its website, Crimestoppers is the only credible brand to licence in the security and protection arena. Crimestoppers can now boast a number of strong partners, and more are expected to follow after recently announced plans to include prominent Crimestoppers branding on licensing partner products.

Celebrating over 70 years as the UK’s leading bed brand and family sleep expert, Silentnight is uniquely placed to unite and lead the multi-billion-pound sleep category. This is confirmed by its growing licensee portfolio, which includes products as wide-ranging as Beds for Pets from GHS and a (recently renewed) agreement with Benross for room diffusers, air purifiers and a sunrise and sunset alarm clock to help you wake up (and get off to sleep better).

JELC also represents Help for Heroes — the Charity founded to provide lifelong support to Service Personnel and Veterans with injuries and illness sustained while serving in the British Armed Forces. JELC’s representation covers a wide range of categories, building on the enormous impact Help for Heroes has made, both as an admired British charity and as a very successful licensed brand with a high level of industry and public awareness.

JELC’s latest property, House of Turnowsky, the luxury greeting cards, stationery and lifestyle brand, has been a famous name in its own right for nearly 80 years, with strong associations that will, JELC believes, translate into a presence in a number of categories, including homeware and tableware, home textiles, stationery, soft toiletries, soft furnishings and fashion accessories.

Jane Evans, MD of JELC, says: “BLE remains one of the key events in the licensing calendar and, with a varied and exciting list of properties, we’re looking forward enormously to welcoming established and potential partners to stand L65 during what we are sure will be a very busy three days for JELC.”