Store opening programme to continue as Card Factory enjoys strong growth

CARD FACTORY will maintain its historic average of opening a new store every week as it nears the end of a year of strong growth.

The retailer, which listed last May, said it “remains highly cash generative” with revenues up 8.1% in the 11 months to December 31. This was attributed to a combination of like-for-like sales growth, new store roll out and further growth in our online business, Getting Personal.

It means the board now expects to be able to report a significant reduction in net debt which will be greater than current market expectations of £114m-£135m.

Card Factory has increased the number of stores it has by 51 so far this financial year, bringing its total to 764 and it is confident it will increase that by around 50 stores in its next financial year. 

 

Richard Hayes, Card Factory’s chief executive officer, said: “With only a few days of our financial year remaining, it is pleasing to report that the group continues to perform well, has had a solid Christmas trading period, and is on course to deliver sales growth at a similar level to the previous year.

“The strength of our retail proposition is the key to our consistent performance and we are well placed to further improve our customer offer in the year ahead.  This is underpinned by our established vertically integrated model which has been developed over the past decade with significant investment.

“As the clear market leader, we remain confident of our ability to achieve further profitable growth.”

The company expects to reap the benefits of its investment in a new electronic point-of-sale (EPOS) system, which has been installed in more than half of its stores, and it continues to develop its online activities, which has been boosted by the recruitment of Paul McCrudden, EMEA Head of Content Marketing at Twitter, as an independent non-executive director.