U.K. retailer to drop anchor in the U.S.

Watch out Hallmark. A popular British greeting card and stationery brand has designs on the U.S. market.



Paperchase is planning to open two freestanding stores in the United States next year, both in Chicago, The Telegraph reported.



Currently, the brand supplies Target and Staples with private-label greeting cards.



Paperchase was previously owned by the now-defunct U.S. bookstore chain Borders, which operated Paperchase shops in many of its book superstores. Borders sold Paperchase to a U.K. private equity firm in 2010. (Borders went out of business in 2011.)



Timothy Melgund, Paperchase chief executive, said that deals had been agreed upon for the two Chicago sites and he had a “conviction that the brand will do well there, based on our previous experience of the market,” according to the Telegraph report.