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Card Factory welcomed a strong performance this financial year, with a 5% rise in group sales in the year to 31 October.
Its latest trading update, posted today, also revealed a yearly growth of 0.9% in like-for-like sales. Sales in the quarter fell 0.4%, though this was due to weaker footfall felt throughout the high street.
Its overall “robust” performance is largely due to a roll out of new stores across the UK, as well as the group’s expansion into grocery chain Aldi.
The company opened 12 new stores during the quarter, resulting in 38 net new stores opening in the year-to-date. This brought its total amount of sites above 1,000, and has kept it on track to deliver 50 net new stores during the current financial year.
Meanwhile, an agreement with Aldi has seen them expand into the German chain’s sites, and it is believed they will trade in 440 Aldi stores by the end of the month.
The greeting card chain did not just reap the benefit of new openings on the high street, however. As well as an increase in average spend, online commerce also performed strongly over the quarter, with a 16.2% growth in sales through their website. This brought year-to-date website growth to 21.9%.
Further expansion is expected in their online retailing, as they announced that a new platform and website will launch later this year.
Karen Hubbard, chief executive officer of Card Factory, said: “I am pleased with our year-to-date performance.
“Our ongoing focus on customer experience, and the quality and range of our card and complementary non-card products, has led to an increased average spend both in stores and online.”
She added: “This has helped us to substantially offset the effect of the lower high street footfall experienced in the quarter and the corresponding impact on our like-for-like sales.
“We remain on track with our new store roll out and are focused on pursuing other new growth opportunities and retail partnerships to extend our market penetration in the UK and overseas.”
