Revenue up for listed greeting cards and gifts retailer

Bradford-based Card Factory has seen its revenue climb by 5% for the nine months ending on 31 October 2019, with like-for-like sales up by 0.9%.

The company has today released its trading update for the nine months ended 31 October 2019.  

It has highlighted a continued store roll out driving additional revenue growth, with twelve net new stores opened in the quarter.

And it is on track to deliver approximately 50 net new UK and Republic of Ireland openings in the full year, with its website delivering year to date revenue growth of +21.9%, against a strong prior year performance (2019: +70.9%).

Card Factory’s trading update adds: “The business continues to face external cost pressures such as National Living Wage; with the year to date performance also impacted by increased storage costs, which we anticipate to substantially reduce in FY21.

“We continue to mitigate costs with our ongoing programme of business initiatives. The investment in the first half into the supply chain, operations and property management business efficiencies are expected to deliver savings in the second half of FY20.

“The roll out of Card Factory’s new agreement with Aldi to supply half of their UK estate, totalling 440 stores, is anticipated to be completed by the end of November 2019. The Reject Shop roll out in Australia remains on track to commence in January 2020.”

Karen Hubbard, Card Factory’s chief executive officer, 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.

“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.”