Card Factory chief executive Darcy Willson-Rymer says its expansion into the United States represents a potentially “£60bn opportunity for us”.
After reporting a 4% jump in EBITDA to £127.5m for the full year to January 31, 2025, Willson-Rymer said the retailer was taking a “test and learn approach” to its US expansion.
The retailer bought American brand Garven Holdings in December 2024 for £20m and tested the waters in the country with a “small, curated Christmas card range that we put into 1,000 stores”.
Earlier this year, an expanded Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day range was trialled, and Card Factory has now gone into a 93-store trial with its “full everyday range”.
“The US is the largest celebrations market in the world,” Willson-Rymer explains. “It’s a £60bn opportunity for us to basically go after, and we only need to take a small 1% or 2% share of that and that would be significant.
“Of course, it’s a big country. The geographies and all the different parts matter. So, what customers want to buy on the East Coast versus the West Coast versus the Midwest, that’s all different. So, we’re just making sure we fully understand that.”
The ongoing disruption of US president Donald Trump’s trade tariffs on global supply chains has dominated the news, but Willson-Rymer said Card Factory wasn’t overly concerned about being caught up in the ongoing ructions.
“We’re manufacturing in the UK and leveraging our vertically integrated model. We have design manufacturing and, through Garven Holdings, the business that we acquired in the US last year, some of the products that they supply – paper products, bags, wrappers, that’s all sourced in the Far East.
“So, we’ve shifted some production to elsewhere, but it’s still early days and it’s still a bit of a moveable feast at the moment. We’re just navigating our way through that”.
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