Card Factory is greeting a highly experienced new chairman in Geoff Cooper.

Cooper says he was attracted by the Card Factory role because the retailer has a

Cooper added another chairmanship to his CV last week when he joined Card Factory, where he aims to put his stamp on its IPO plans.

Its private equity owner Charterhouse Capital Partners has appointed UBS and Morgan Stanley to advise on a share sale of the card retailer and manufacturer that could value it at £700m.

Cooper comes with a wealth of City experience that would help Card Factory float. At present he chairs homewares retailer Dunelm, Butlins-owner Bourne Leisure Holdings and, until last year, was chief executive of building supplies giant and FTSE 250 company Travis Perkins.

Cooper says he was attracted by the Card Factory role because the retailer has a “really good” management team and a “strong customer proposition”.

He says: “It has significant competitive advantage in how it sources its products. It’s a very strong business and difficult to compete against.”

Chartered accountant Cooper has a long retail history, which includes dramatic restructuring and spearheading some of the sector’s biggest deals.

One of his earliest financial director roles at was grocer Gateway, which later changed its name to Somerfield. He arrived at the firm after its buy-out from Isosceles in 1989 and inherited £1.6bn of debt. Gateway was on the verge of running out of money and Cooper had to negotiate three large financial restructures to safeguard its future.

Career history

2005 to 2014 Travis Perkins, chief executive

1994 to 2005 Alliance Unichem, finance director then deputy chief executive

1990 to 1994 Gateway Group, finance director Current roles Dunelm, chairman; Bourne Leisure, chairman; Informa, non-executive director

After Gateway, he moved to Alliance Unichem, where he rose from finance director to deputy chief executive.

There he devised Alliance Unichem’s merger with Boots with chairman Stefano Pessina. The group bid for Boots every year for six years, but was rejected each time. After Cooper departed for building supplies giant Travis Perkins in 2005, Pessina’s ambition was successful.

Pessina’s dealmaking ways rubbed off on Cooper, who has masterminded many deals in his career. He counts Pessina as a good friend and says the Italian greets him with a hug every time they meet.

Cooper is probably best known for his tenure as chief executive of Travis Perkins from 2005 to January this year.

Cooper, a lifelong Tottenham Hotspur fan who was once suspended from school for bunking off to see his beloved team play arch-rival Arsenal, was hot favourite to become chief executive of the Football Association but took his name off the shortlist in order to take the Travis Perkins job.

The building supplies firm had just acquired Wickes when he took over and one of his first roles was to get the DIY retailer on-track. However, the recession hit and the depleted housing and construction markets gave Cooper an even bigger challenge.

Profits nosedived at the height of the recession, dropping 20% in 2009. However, Travis Perkins fared much better than some of its rivals.

Cooper describes Travis Perkins as “a real gem of a company” and says the hardships it endured made its stronger.

“When people have been in a crisis and have come out the other end, it makes them better able
to cope with the smaller problems”

“When people have been in a business crisis and have come out the other end, it makes them better able to cope with the smaller problems,” he says.

Despite the slowdown, dealmaker Cooper remained active, snapping up a 30% stake in Toolstation, which Travis Perkins has since fully acquired, and a stake in website MyBuilder.com. Wickes was also opportunistic in snapping up 13 of Focus DIY’s stores after it collapsed and converted some of its own stores into kitchen and bathroom showrooms to capitalise on MFI’s demise.

Outside work, Cooper is a big music fan - he enjoys everything from 1960s soul to rap and plays the guitar. He also loves sailing.

With his credentials, Cooper should make a worthy captain at Card Factory, ensuring it is seaworthy ahead of its potential float.