A North East gift firm famous for its Geordie-themed presents has been relaunched by its founders.
Geordie Ink began selling gifts, including its Geordie Passport and the Original Geordie Tea Towel, in the 1970s but its products have since gone out of production.
The company, which is best known for its Geordie Dictionary, has seen its gifts sold in many of the region’s biggest retailers, including Fenwick, Bainbridges, Collectables, and the Geordie Barrows in the Metrocentre.
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The business was founded by Keith and Lynne Allan along with designers Ken and Jean Miller, and the original team has got back together to bring the presents back to life.
Around 20 years ago the company stopped trading and decided instead to license their products out to be produced by others.
Commenting on their initial decision to license out their gifts Keith Allan said: “We were doing other things. We had a publishing business and I’m a trained journalist by profession and I went on to work for BBC radio in London.
“We had a few balls in the air. We thought instead of marketing and selling them ourselves we could licence them out.”
After 20 years the licence agreements have now run their course and the Allans have decided to resume the business and bring some of their memorabilia back into production.
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Mr Miller has passed away but the husband and wife team have continued to work with Jean Miller to reimagine their original designs, tweaking them to take account of latest trends.
This includes changing removing the phrase “Common Market approved” from the Geordie passport, and replacing it with “Brexit approved”.
The team have created a range of around two dozen items, which will soon go on sale. They include Geordie Tea Towels, pinnies, tote bags, mugs, passports, driving licences, drinking licences, Canny Geordie Cook Books, Posh Nosh for Geordies, and a Geordie Dictionary.
They also have a range of hard boiled sweets, such as Geordie Black Bullits, humbugs, Pips and Tyne Salmon, as well as Geordie Ginger Snaps and other popular biscuits.
Geordie Ink has set up a new base at the Old Dairy in Ford, Northumberland, and is now speaking to retailers interested in stocking their products.
Mr Allan said: “We have done a bit of research and it appears that there is still a lot of interest in our original Geordie things.
“They were so cleverly designed in Geordie dialect and raised a smile with everyone who bought them. And bringing them up to date is exactly what Ken would’ve done.”
He added: “Hopefully Ken is looking down on us and wishing us well. It’s nice to have them out there, they were very much his thing.”