The RHS announces new venture into puzzles and games
The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), the UK’s best-loved gardening charity, has announced that Gibsons Games, a family business committed to bringing people together with the fun and joy of puzzles and games, is now its new licensee for the puzzles and games category. The items in the first phase of this exciting partnership are due at retail in January 2025.
These products will include two 1,000-piece puzzles, a 500-piece gift puzzle and a 500-piece extra-large puzzle, all featuring botanical themes. There will also be an ingenious RHS card game themed around gardens and bees, in which players use their cards to help them meet their goal of planting the perfect flower bed for the bees to pollinate.
The second phase of products, in 2026, will include an RHS board game, which is now in development.
The wide range of RHS assets, including the more than 25,000 superb images in the RHS Lindley Collections, the world’s finest collection of botanical art, will be used to create some stunning and highly giftable products that will appeal to RHS supporters and Gibsons Games’ own consumer audience – not to mention the many retailers that stock Gibsons games and puzzles. The RHS name and logo will also be on the packaging. The range will be launched in January 2025.
The potential market for the range is enormous; Gibsons has been a major name in games and puzzles for over 100 years with a strong appeal across most age groups. Indeed, these puzzles are aimed at adults of all ages but will also be enjoyed by families – and there is something in the range for everyone from six years upwards. They will also, of course, make ideal gifts for puzzle and horticulture fans alike.
As well as high-quality design and manufacture, sustainability is a strong part of the Gibsons offering. Its products use FSC-certified paper from an FSC-accredited factory and its puzzle board is made of recycled materials. The RHS puzzles will be produced in Europe and the pieces will be packed inside paper bags instead of the traditional single-use plastic. The card game will be plastic-free.
Gibsons Games Ltd was founded in 1919 by Harry Percy Gibson. Now in its 105th year, Gibsons is still a family-owned business with a reputation for beautiful, high-quality jigsaw puzzles and board games. Gibsons became a certified B Corp (verified to meet high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability) in 2023, has strong values around the importance of people and planet alongside profits, and lives these values in everything it does.
Emily Charles – Product Development & Licensing Manager of Gibsons Games, says: “The joy of games and puzzles is always enhanced by partnerships that bring something special to their design. The gorgeous design assets of the RHS as well as its status as the best-loved brand in gardening, together with our expertise and experience in games design and manufacture, will have an enormous appeal to a very wide customer base. It’s a real treat to be bringing out such an exciting range in partnership with the UK’s favourite gardening charity.”
Cathy Snow, RHS Licensing Manager, adds: “Gibsons Games’ core mission has always been to bring people together and that is a mission we wholeheartedly share and are thrilled to support by bringing our name and design assets to these delightful games. For this new venture into jigsaws, board games and card games we could not have chosen a better partner.”
