Parragon to bring its Eric Carle range to UK

Bath-based Parragon has signed a licence to bring its range of Eric Carle products - which it already sells in the US and Canada - to the UK market.

The publisher has signed a deal with the Joester Loria Group, worldwide licensing agent for The World of Eric Carle, to sell stationery, activities and gift sets featuring Carle’s art the UK and Ireland, as well as South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South East Asia.

The range will launch in March and will include the Craft and Collage Book, and the Activity and Jigsaw Puzzle Set, as well as gifts and toys.

Vickie Voss, global licensing director, said: “Expanding our relationship with The World of Eric Carle on a global scale presents a tremendous opportunity for Parragon. We are very much looking forward to combining the rich heritage of Eric Carle’s cherished artwork with our market-leading product to inspire and delight both children and their parents across the world.”

Carle, born in 1929, is best known for the picture book The Very Hungry Caterpillar, published in the UK by Penguin Random House Children’s.

Last year the paperback edition of Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar hit its 1000th week in the BookScan’s Total Consumer Market Top 5,000, becoming one of only two of the UK book trade’s only remaining Evergreens - titles which have never fallen out of the Bookscan TCM Top 5,000 since records began.

In his lifetime, Carle has written and illustrated more than 70 picture books, which have sold over 132 million copies globally, according to Parragon.