Card Factory’s sales have been propelled by strong online growth as the cards specialist revealed a jump in profits as it unveiled its first full-year results as a public company.
The card retailer’s underlying operating profit, which strips out costs relating to the IPO in May and senior debt refinancing, grew by 8.9% to £79.4m for the year ending January 31.
Like-for-likes increased by 1.8% during the period, while total revenues rose 8.1% to £353.3m. Meanwhile, underlying EBITDA grew by 9.6% to £88.2m.
Revenue at the retailer’s Getting Personal ecommerce site increased by 23.1% to £15.5m and EBITDA surged by 67.6% to £2.8m.
Card Factory’s Richard Hayes said: “It is pleasing to report another record year for Card Factory in terms of both revenue and profit. Our unique, vertically integrated model remains a real point of difference and a source of long-term competitive advantage in what is a very resilient market.
“We will continue to strongly defend our market-leading position, whilst maintaining our focus on delivering best-in-class margins.”
Card Factory, which makes its own cards, claims there was a successful introduction of new card and non-card ranges during the period.
The retailer recorded slightly lower like-for-likes during the second half of its year, reflecting “selective localised pricing strategies, ongoing expected decline in the lower margin Christmas-box card segment and competitor promotions”.
Card Factory opened 51 net new stores during the year, bringing the total number of stores up to 764. There are plans to open a further 50 stores in the next financial year.
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