Park Group sales to beat last Christmas
PARK Group, the Christmas hamper and pre-paid gift card provider, has said Christmas savings orders are 5% higher than 12 months ago.
Shares rose almost 7% on the news to 46.5p.
The Birkenhead-based business, which employs around 200 permanent staff, has issued 320,000 of its prepaid flexecash cards with a total value of £22m, since its launch in June 2010 and orders from Christmas savings customers for flexecash prepaid cards are 120% ahead of the same time last year.
Peter Johnson, chairman of Park Group, said in a statement ahead of today’s annual meeting that the group would continue to invest in the future during this period of general economic uncertainty, to capitalise on the market leading position of its traditional businesses and harness the power of the internet.
He added: “Using the prepaid card product we have launched flexesaver, a new employee based Christmas savings scheme and flexebens, a prepaid card product for the flexible benefits market. These initiatives also utilise our extensive web capability.”
Orders from Irish customers are in line with expectations and the introduction of Park’s euro Love2shop voucher had been successful, with 24 retailers including many Irish retail brands now accepting the voucher, Mr Johnson said.
He added: “Park is a seasonal business and the first half of the year, although always extremely busy and important in terms of securing orders, is usually loss making as some 80% of sales are not dispatched and invoiced until the second half. The next three months will be the busiest period of the year and the board is pleased with the progress that has been made so far.”
Later this month, the company will launch a phone app for customers using its vouchers and prepaid cards.
