The Great British Card Company Review - Real Employee Experience

Published: 15 November 2025

Working at The Great British Card Company (GBCC) in Stonehouse is very different from the creative, colourful image the company portrays to the public.

While GBCC is well-known in the greeting card industry, the reality inside the warehouse is far more demanding, rigid and physically draining than applicants are led to believe.

This review provides an unfiltered look at the workplace from the perspective of warehouse, picking, packing and temporary staff supplied by Teamwork Selection Ltd.

It examines the environment, management behaviour, physical conditions, expectations, staff turnover and what day-to-day life actually looks like on the floor.

If you’re considering a permanent role or thinking of joining through an agency, this review will give you everything you need to know before applying - including details that are never mentioned in the job adverts.

Nothing is exaggerated; everything here is based on factual experiences and direct observations from people who have worked inside the warehouse.

Editorial note: Content on this page reflects commonly reported employee experiences observed across publicly available review platforms. It represents opinion and commentary, not verified facts, and does not reproduce individual reviews.

Company Details

The Great British Card Company Ltd (company number 01509760) operates from a large warehouse and distribution centre at Unit 3, Indurent Park, Haresfield, Stonehouse, Gloucester, GL10 3EZ. The site handles goods-in, storage, picking, packing and dispatch of all cards imported by the company, most arriving via container shipments from China. The general office line is 01452 888999, and the company’s main email contact is hello@greatbritishcards.co.uk.

An employee car park is technically available, but space is extremely limited and shared between warehouse staff, office workers and management. To avoid damage from careless parking, many warehouse workers choose to park their cars directly inside the yard where delivery vehicles operate, despite the risks, simply because it is safer than parking beside the office area.

Public transport access is poor due to the rural location. Buses arrive infrequently, often one per hour, which forces many agency workers to arrive almost an hour early and wait outside in rain or wind. Temporary staff cannot enter the building without someone letting them in, as they are not automatically issued access badges.

If an agency worker loses a badge after finally receiving one, the company charges £50, and most will simply never be given another and soon find themselves dismissed.

Shift Pattern and Working Hours

Standard warehouse hours are 8:00-16:00, Monday to Friday, totalling 37.5 paid hours, with 30 minutes deducted unpaid each day. Break schedules are strictly enforced. You are expected to leave at the exact minute and return before the break officially ends, with no flexibility.

During peak seasons - Christmas, Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day - workloads increase dramatically, and the warehouse relies heavily on temporary workers. Agency staff can number 70-80 at once, all funneled through Teamwork Selection Ltd. Once peak season ends, almost everyone is immediately let go, sometimes with only an end-of-day email sent to the agency stating who should not return.

Pay and Benefits

Pay is the legal minimum wage. There is no performance bonus, no incentive scheme and no enhanced pay for handling physically heavy or unsafe tasks. Benefits are basic: standard holiday entitlement, statutory sick pay, a standard pension and bank holidays off.

There are no additional perks unless a manager is in a particularly good mood, in which case staff may occasionally be given leftover promotional cards or packing paper - items the company receives for free. This is the closest thing to a “reward” employees can expect.

Breaks and Realities of Using Them

Workers receive one 15-minute morning break and one 45-minute lunch break. The strict timing means you cannot sit for a minute longer than allocated, and returning late - even by seconds - is often met with confrontation or warnings.

A food van arrives around 9:00 AM, but the first break is significantly later, resulting in most purchased food turning cold before you can eat it. There are no proper rest facilities beyond basic seating areas.

Smoking facilities are effectively non-existent. There is no shelter, no designated smoking hut and no windbreak. Smokers must stand outside the entrance, exposed to rain, wind and cold temperatures.

Ironically, management frequently leave the building for cigarette breaks, far more often than the formal break structure, while warehouse staff follow a stricter schedule.

Warehouse Environment and Physical Conditions

The warehouse is harsh all year round. In winter, there is no heating and most employees wear coats for their entire shift. In summer, the building becomes stiflingly hot, especially at packing stations where workers stand in one spot for hours with no airflow and no cooling.

Conditions vary to such extremes that staff often complain the environment feels unbearable at both ends of the temperature scale.

The warehouse layout is made up of tall racking systems. Lower shelves are used for picking stock, meaning staff constantly move through the aisles retrieving greeting card boxes. There is no requirement to wear helmets or protective headgear despite the obvious risk of items falling from the top levels of the racking.

Packing stations are the worst affected areas for discomfort. Standing in one position for an entire shift leads to foot pain, back fatigue and overheating or freezing depending on the season. The work is repetitive, unvaried and physically draining.

Unrealistic Picking Targets and Workload Pressure

Productivity expectations are notoriously unreasonable. Targets are calculated from the top performers’ monthly averages, which means the bar is set far above what most staff can physically achieve. Staff routinely run - not walk - through the aisles to meet demands.

Staff must open boxes, check SKUs, scan items with accuracy, pick large volumes and complete accompanying paperwork, all while competing with other workers who are pushing themselves beyond safe limits to avoid being singled out.

Most people fail to hit these unrealistic numbers, and temporary staff often lose shifts simply for not matching permanent employees’ top performance.

Goods-In Area: Containers, Manual Labour and Pressure

The goods-in section deals with unloading 40-foot containers arriving from China, filled with boxes of cards weighing up to 20-25 kg each. Unloading a single container can take 3-4 hours of constant, repetitive lifting, bending, pulling and stacking.

The conveyor belt must remain fully loaded at all times. If there are gaps, the warehouse manager will shout or order staff to “fill the belt - no gaps,” regardless of fatigue or injury risk.

Those who do not unload may work on the opposite end of the conveyor, splitting boxes into separate pallets. Because deliveries contain countless different SKUs, pallets need switching constantly. Staff frequently receive single-box pallets, making the process slow and frustrating.

This area is widely acknowledged as the most physically punishing part of the warehouse.

Equipment: VNA Trucks and Safety Concerns

VNA trucks operate in narrow aisles while pickers walk nearby, making the environment risky. Some trucks are so poorly maintained that drivers can become stuck 10 metres above the ground when the machine fails to lower.

The only options are repeatedly switching the machine on and off hoping it resets, or calling the warehouse manager to manually lower the cab - which often results in rude comments or frustration. Some employees have been stuck in the air for up to half an hour, which is terrifying for anyone with a fear of heights.

Safety standards exist only on paper; in practice, equipment failures are frequent and ignored as long as daily output remains high.

Management Behaviour and Administrative Office Conditions

Warehouse management and the warehouse admin office are known for an extremely unpleasant atmosphere - both in behaviour and physical environment. Their offices smell strongly of cigarettes, as both the warehouse manager and the office administrator take frequent unscheduled smoke breaks, far more than the warehouse staff are permitted to.

The offices have the opposite temperature problem of the warehouse: boiling hot in winter, freezing cold in summer, combined with the thick smell of smoke trapped inside. Temporary workers who enter the office report headaches within minutes.

Management behaviour toward temporary staff is consistently described as rude, dismissive and hostile. Simple requests - such as asking for gloves - can be enough to have a worker removed the next day. Teamwork Selection Ltd receives daily lists from the warehouse manager detailing which agency workers should not return, sometimes for minor or nonexistent reasons.

Treatment of Temporary Staff and Staff Turnover

Temporary workers are treated as disposable. Agency staff are not seen as people - they are “numbers”. One wrong move, one question management doesn't like or simply having a face they don’t take to can get you removed immediately.

Turnover is extremely high. At peak times the warehouse becomes filled with dozens of new workers, all dismissed as soon as holiday seasons pass. Permanent positions are rarely offered, and when they are, management hand-picks people who have been overly compliant, silent and willing to run themselves into the ground without complaint.

Long-term permanent employees often feel threatened by agency workers and will report them for trivial matters, such as using the toilet outside of scheduled breaks, to make sure they do not become competition for contract positions.

Career Progression

There is no real career progression. Promotion opportunities are essentially non-existent. Positions above picker/packer are already filled and rarely open. Agency workers have virtually no chance of progression, regardless of performance.

Keeping quiet, running rather than walking, and avoiding any form of question or suggestion appears to be the only way to survive - and even then, dismissal is unpredictable.

Conclusion

Working at The Great British Card Company in Stonehouse is physically difficult, mentally draining and controlled by a management style that prioritises output over safety, fairness or employee dignity. With minimum wage pay, harsh environments, unrealistic targets, broken equipment and inconsistent treatment of temporary staff, this workplace is far from the cheerful image the brand suggests.

Note: In summary, The Great British Card Company’s warehouse environment in Stonehouse shows clear issues with working conditions, unrealistic expectations, poor treatment of temporary staff, and a general lack of concern for employee wellbeing. Breaks, pay, and facilities fall far below modern standards, and management behaviour only adds to the strain.

In short: If you value fair treatment, stability, and a workplace that respects its staff, this is not a company you should consider.