Our story...

From very small beginnings in the back shed of John Simson’s home, a small leather goods company called Ausiroo Souvenirs was established in 1978. Belinda began working with John in 1981 (in her mind for 6mths) and 46 years later John and Belinda still strive to improve on our past.

In 1982 a regular customer of Ausiroo was looking for a range of Australiana stationery without success and mentioned the problem to John. Told that the market was crying out for such products, they decided to do something about it. Undaunted by their total lack of printing industry knowledge, they were able within 3 weeks to launch Ausiroo’s first range of Australiana Wrapping Paper and Writing Paper.

In late 1982, Simson was granted its first licence to publish greetings cards from the book One Woolly Wombat. These enjoyed a big success and they soon realised they had opened up a new market.

May Gibbs perennial favourites, Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, graced their next product range and they were followed by Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit and Friends, Ida Rentoul Outhwaite’s Fairies, Enid Blyton’s Noddy and Cicely Mary Barker’s Flower Fairies. These children’s favourites became the backbone of the Simson paper range and ran under the banner

“classic characters we all grew up with”

In 1984, a decision was made to cease leather production which at the time represented 50% of Simson’s business. A brave move, but one that helped set up Simson to what it has become today.

By the 1990’s with the majority of Simson’s customers in the gift trade, products sold under the Simson brand included clothing, gifts and greeting cards all bearing our family of classic characters. By the late 90’s the product range had become too wide and so rather than be a “jack of all trades”, the decision was made to be a “master of one” and Simson reverted to its original roots, focussing entirely on greeting cards and significantly increasing our exposure in newsagents and department stores. 

Rather than standing still, Simson has always been active in grasping opportunities to build our business when they present themselves. Beginning in the late 1980’s taking over Everlyn Studio’s, followed by acquiring the House of Bodleigh in 1995 and then the Card & Paper House in 2008, we have been able to build the critical mass to comfortably be the Master Vendor or sole supplier to any retail customer.