Card Factory sales soars as high street business rebounds

Card Factory has welcomed revenue growth of 4.1% in its half-year results, following “good momentum within the business” as well as a “shift of customer spend back towards the high street and reversal of lockdown effects”.

As customers returned to the high street, store revenue soared by 81.8% in the period ended 31 July, 2022. The group noted particularly good growth in “celebratory life moments” which reflected a “return to more normal lifestyles post-pandemic”.

While its online sales were down year-on-year as customers favoured the high street, they remained “significantly” stronger than pre-pandemic trading, up by 85.9% on a three-year like-for-like basis. 

Elsewhere, EBITDA hit £43.8m, up from £23.6m the prior year, while profit before tax was £14.3m, up from a loss of £6.5m.  

Looking ahead, the group said it remains “mindful” of the challenging economic backdrop, but “believes our value proposition positions us well to navigate this”.

It said it expects to be able to manage inflationary pressures through a combination of targeted price increases and efficiency measures, adding it is hedged on both energy and currency beyond the current financial year. Its guidance for FY23 remains unchanged.

CEO Darcy Willson-Rymer said: “We are pleased to report a strong performance through the half which reflects continued good momentum within the business, as well as the reversal of lockdown trends with customers choosing to return to the high street. The pronounced shift in spend back towards stores supports our continued conviction in the value of our store estate within our customer proposition and as an enabler in our omnichannel ambitions.

“During the half, we have made good strategic progress as we focus on evolving our customer proposition across different channels and taking it to new markets. We recently opened stores in central London for the first time, with two trial stores forming part of our strategy to increase our presence in underpenetrated markets. We have also rolled our new model store format out to include five stores as we focus on evolving the in store customer experience.”

He added: “The inflationary pressures we are all facing into are well known, however the pre-emptive actions we have taken, such as the fixing of energy costs until September 2024 and targeted price increases, have helped to offset these. Despite these ongoing challenges, we remain confident that our customers will continue to want to celebrate life’s moments and that value for money is increasingly important to them. 

“Whilst we remain mindful of the challenging economic backdrop as we head towards the Christmas season, we feel well placed to navigate this and retain our focus on transitioning Card Factory to a market leading omnichannel retailer of cards and gifts.”