Mindful activity demand helps drive jigsaw sales

2 hours ago

Lee BottomleyStoke-on-Trent

Kathy Cornish, operations director of Great British Jigsaws, says there has been a "massive movement" of people turning away from digital

BBC A woman with long light coloured hair, is wearing a black top, with sunglasses clipped over the collar. She is standing in front of shelves full of jigsaw boxes — Kathy Cornish, operations director of Great British Jigsaws, says there has been a "massive movement" of people turning away from digital

Demand for mindful activities like completing puzzles has led to a spike in jigsaw sales, one firm says.

The trend has prompted Great British Jigsaws, founded online in 2020 by a husband and wife team, to open a physical store.

The Stafford-based firm's operations director said: "There's been a massive movement, I feel, with people wanting to turn away from digital, people wanting to escape their screens."

Commenting on the trend, games expert Christopher Headleand said: "People aren't necessarily rejecting screens, but they are proactively searching for balance."

Cornish said initial shop sales bode well for later in the year when people are looking for Christmas gifts

A woman in a black t-shirt and green and white striped trousers, stands outside a wooden framed shop. A sign across the top says Great British Jigsaws — Cornish said initial shop sales bode well for later in the year when people are looking for Christmas gifts

Despite opening in the worst month for global sales of jigsaws, Cornish said the shop was already hitting its targets.

An example of what is driving sales, she said, came from an older customer who explained she and her friends were completing jigsaw puzzles as their "dementia prevention".

Prof Headleand, head of the games institute at the University of Staffordshire, continued: "As more and more of our lives is screen-dominated, then the ability to escape from that and do something different is becoming more important."

Part of the joy of a jigsaw was the tactile nature of it, something that is not replicated in the same way in a digital game, he added.

Many of the illustrated jigsaws are designed by Staffordshire artist Emma Joustra

A close-up of a jigsaw box. The picture on the front depicts a drawing of Stoke-on-Trent's Middleport Pottery — Many of the illustrated jigsaws are designed by Staffordshire artist Emma Joustra

And although it might seem a "bit bizarre" for an online business to open physically, there was an appetite for British-made goods, and an opportunity to give it a go, Cornish said.

While retail overheads at the store in Trentham Shopping Village, Stoke-on-Trent, were "vastly more" than dispatching goods from their warehouse, it offers customers a more pleasant experience, she explained.

The firm, one of four jigsaw makers in the UK, already produces bespoke puzzles for clients like the National Trust and Blenheim Palace.

"[But] we're making them in Staffordshire from start to finish, the jigsaw, the box, everything, [so] why not sell them in Staffordshire as well?," Cornish added.