Appoints Great Gifts as its official licensing and sales agent in Regional Sanrio Co., Ltd., a Japanese company that creates a range of design series that features, sells and licenses various products branded with different characters. Products include stationery, school supplies, gifts, apparels, shoes, toys and accessories recently appointed Carlson Trading as its official partner in Regional.

Sanrio's best-known character is Hello Kitty, a white cat with red bow and no mouth. It is noted that Hello Kitty is one of the most successful marketing brands in the world.  Other characters of Sanrio include Little Twin Stars, My Melody, Kuromi, Kerokeroppi, Cinnamoroll and many more.

The popular Gift Gate store that carries hip brands like United Colors of Benetton, Segue, Sisley and Swatch was also turned over to Carlson Trading as part of being the official licensing and sales agent in the Philippines. Presently there are 9 Gift gate stores in the Philippines and 1 Sanrio Surprises, branches are located in SM Megamall, Trinoma, SM North Edsa, Robbinson’s Place in Manila, SM Manila, Ayala Alabang Town Center, Glorietta Mall in Makati, Greenhills and in Cebu.