100 Years of Gibson's Puzzles
Gibson's Puzzles company is twice as old as George's - it marked its 100th birthday in 2019, George's marked 50 years in 2020!
Founded in 1919 by H. P. Gibson (& Sons) the company originally sold popular indoor or 'parlour' games such as L'Attagque' 'Dover Patrol'. Now in their 4th generation (we're on our 3rd generation!), Harry's great-grandaughter is at the helm and Gibson's product offering has grown a lot over the past decade whilst their value of 'bringing people together' remains the same. That is never more true of puzzles than in 2020-21.
During this unprecedented lockdown, puzzles have brought people together in many ways - they have been posted as 'thinking of you gifts' connecting friends and loved ones who can't be together and they have connected families and couples by giving them a common goal and something to do together that results in a shared sense of achievement and togetherness. Puzzles have been the sanity saviours for many of us in lockdown.
Gibson's first puzzle collection was launched in 1986 and by the year 2000 Gibson's puzzles had amassed to over 250 designs. There are now many, many more! Puzzles are a little like books in that the more you do the more places you'll see! Puzzles have been a refuge of Cornish coastal scenes, countryside strolls, market towns, allotments, country fairs, train stations and charming pub gardens. Bringing us to so many of the places we've missed this part year.
Gibson's is a socially responsible business, involved in various charitable projects such as Jigsaw4U helping young people and families put the pieces back together after bereavement and domestic abuse.
Also environmentally conscious, Gibson's have set up their own in house 'Green gang' who's mission is to improve the sustainability across all their ranges including 'The Perfect Puzzle Project' - One of their main goals is to reduce single use plastic and they have eliminated the plastic bags and shrink wrap from their Little Gibson's Jigsaw puzzles with more ranges to follow. Their blue box puzzles which we stock are in smaller boxes 29% smaller to be precise and are no longer wrapped in cellophane - this will save 521,096m of plastic per year (the same length as 4300 football pitches). Woop woop! And the smaller boxes mean they can fit more in their delivery vans, further reducing carbon footprint.
Gibson's is a large company with family values, offering work experience to under-priviledged young people and also to youth offenders helping them gain valuable practical experience to help them get into the work place. Their workplace has been undergoing an environmental overhaul too with the installation of solar panels, switching form plastic to glass bottles of milk, encouraging staff to walk rather than drive to work and recycling a significant 75% off all their office waste.
Recognising that we are all unique pieces of a puzzle with 'sticky out' bits - those quirky bits that make us who we are, they have plenty of plans for the future to continue bringing people together in the most caring and environmentally conscious of ways and this is why we stock Gibson's puzzles. We mostly stock their Blue Box Gibson's Puzzles, full of nostalgic picture perfect scenes that transport us to lovely places or wonderful memories. To see our full collection of in stock Gibson's puzzles click here.