Clinton Cards in administration: The revenge of the suppliers High rent bills have not been its only undoing. It has been hit by the fall in shopper numbers on the high street, and the encroachment of supermarkets into non-food products. It was also for too long dismissive of the threat from email and e-cards, claiming most people enjoy sending and receiving real cards through the post, with 1.5bn still sent every year in the UK. That may have been true a few years ago, but with high quality smartphones and slick competition from upstart rivals like Moon Pig and Funky Pigeon, the tide was turning. The company reacted by launching its own e-card business. Maureen Hinton at Verdict, a retail analyst, said it was too little, too late. They were a latecomer to the party. Most people automatically think of Moon Pig when it comes to e-cards. It's like HMV, which is fighting Amazon, which has established itself as the market leader. Clintons was founded by Don Lewin in 1968, and named after his then seven-year-old son Clinton, who hoped to ultimately succeed his father. But though the family owned 32pc of the shares, it knew an outsider was needed to salvage its future. Mr Clinton junior was forced to give up his birthright in favour of an outside, Darcy Willson-Rymer, the former head of Starbucks in the UK. Since his appointment last year Mr Willson-Rymer had been working on a restructuring of the group and was considering a company voluntary agreement to wipe out debts. But American Greetings, Clintons' main supplier, which boasted a long relationship with the Lewin family but not Mr Willson-Rymer, was unimpressed. It was owed £25m and Clintons was its main access to UK consumers. It wanted to be in the driving seat deciding how its cards are sold. In an administration suppliers usually lose out, along with shareholders. But Clintons cannot complain about being forced into administration - it adopted this tactic to wipe out debts at Birthdays. As one analyst said: "It's the revenge of the suppliers."