Cartamundi Group is a company based in

Turnhout Turnhout () is a Belgium, Belgian Municipalities in Belgium, municipality and city located in the Flemish Region, Flemish Provinces of Belgium, province of Antwerp (province), Antwerp. The municipality comprises only the city of Turnhout proper. ...

, Belgium, that manufactures, produces, and sells board games, card games, collectible card games, packages, and

playing card A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a f ...

s through its manufacturing and sales subsidiaries. The name of the company in

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

means ''cards for the world''. It is one of the world's largest playing card manufacturers. The company also maintains manufacturing facilities in

Canvey Island Canvey Island is a town, civil parish and reclaimed island in the Thames Estuary, near Southend-on-Sea, in the Castle Point district, in the county of Essex, England. It has an area of and a population of 38,170.Office for National Statistics. ...

(UK),

Altenburg Altenburg () is a city in Thuringia, Germany, located south of Leipzig, west of Dresden and east of Erfurt. It is the capital of the Altenburger Land district and part of a polycentric old-industrial textile and metal production region betw ...

(Germany),

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

(

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

(India),

Sōka is a Cities of Japan, city in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 249,645 in 118,129 households and a population density of 9100 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Sōka is situated in ...

(Japan), and

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

(

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, United States). In 2015, the company acquired

Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment holding company founded on December 6, 1923 by Henry, Hillel and Herma ...

's board game factories in Waterford, Ireland now closing with the loss of 235 jobs by August 2023, and East Longmeadow, Massachusetts. In the early-to-mid 1990s, Cartamundi produced

collectible card game A collectible card game (CCG), also called a trading card game (TCG) among other names, is a type of card game that mixes strategy game, strategic deck building elements with features of trading cards. The genre was introduced with ''Magic: The G ...

s for other companies. Their Belgian factory printed early editions of '' Magic: The Gathering'' for

Wizards of the Coast Wizards of the Coast LLC (WotC or Wizards) is an American game Publishing, publisher, most of which are based on fantasy and List of science fiction themes, science-fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail game stores. In 1999, toy ...

, and Decipher, Inc.'s '' Star Trek Customizable Card Game'' and ''

Star Wars Customizable Card Game ''Star Wars: Customizable Card Game'' (''SW:CCG'') is an out-of-print customizable card game based on the ''Star Wars'' fictional universe. It was created by Decipher, Inc., which also produced the '' Star Trek Customizable Card Game'' and '' ...

'', and currently prints non-English language editions of ''Magic''. English ''Magic'' sets are printed in Dallas.Trading card games - Magic: the Gathering
Cartamundi.

History

2016 Nuernberger Spielwarenmesse - ASS Altenburger - by 2eight - 8SC2804

The company was founded in 1970 as a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

among Biermans,

Brepols Brepols is a Belgian publishing house. Once, it was one of the largest printing companies in the world and one of the main employers in Turnhout (Belgium). Besides its printing business, Brepols is also active as a publisher. Formerly well known ...

, and Van Genechten. Cartamundi has established over a dozen international sales branches throughout the world since 1970; France in 1993, U.S. in 1994, the Netherlands and Sweden in 1999, Hungary in 2000, Singapore and Spain in 2002, Austria in 2005, Italy in 2010, and Turkey in 2011. The other branches were established through acquiring other companies. Cartamundi acquired AGMüller (Switzerland) in 1999, Altenburger und Stralsunder Spielkarten (Germany) in 2000, Spielkartenfabrik Altenburg (Germany) in 2002, Games & Print Services, Ltd (U.K.) in 2003, Dertor (Poland) and Copag (Brazil) in 2005, Yaquinto Printing Company (U.S.) in 2007, 50% of Parksons Games & Sports (India) in 2010, Marigó (Spain) in 2011,

France Cartes France Cartes Cartamundi is a manufacturer of playing cards and games that is based in France at Saint-Max. The company introduced the Ducale brand of playing cards in 1946 and became the largest playing card manufacturer in France in 1962 after ...

in 2014, Naipes Heraclio Fournier (Spain) and the

United States Playing Card Company The United States Playing Card Company (USPC, though also commonly known as USPCC) is a large American producer and distributor of playing cards. It was established in 1867 as Russell, Morgan & Co. and founded in Cincinnati, Ohio in its current ...

in 2019.

References

External links

Official website
{{Non-sports trading cards Companies based in Antwerp Province Playing card manufacturers Trading card companies Manufacturing companies established in 1970 1970 establishments in Belgium Belgian brands

History

References

Further reading

External links