14
January 2025
Card Factory
plc
("cardfactory" or the
"Group")
Trading
Statement
Robust revenue growth with
expectations for full year adjusted profit before tax
unchanged.
cardfactory, the UK's leading
specialist retailer of greeting cards, gifts and celebration
essentials, announces a trading update for the eleven months ended
31 December 2024.
Trading Update
Total sales for the eleven months
ended 31 December 2024 of £506.6 million (prior year £476.9
million), an increase of +6.2% year-on-year; we continue to
outperform a challenging non-food retail
market1:
· Total
store revenue increased by +5.7% including positive impact of +32
net new stores.
· Like-for-Like (LFL)2 store revenue grew +3.9%,
reflecting further development of our store estate and the strength
of our value and quality proposition.
· Encouraging growth in gifts and celebration essentials ranges
of +6.1% LFL, driven by the introduction of new categories and
expansion of existing ranges, alongside positive card growth of
+1.4% LFL.
· Online3 LFL sales declined -10.0% driven
predominantly by gettingpersonal.co.uk. cardfactory.co.uk LFL sales
grew +0.5% as we continue to focus on driving profitable growth
through higher margin product ranges.
· Partnerships4
revenue grew 23.5% to £18.9 million including
positive contributions from the acquisitions of Garlanna and
Garven.
· Effective delivery of productivity and efficiency savings, in
addition to margin-enhancing range development and prudent
management of operating costs, as indicated at our HY25 Interim
Results.
Christmas Trading Update
Good Christmas trading performance
in line with expectations in November and December with total
revenue growth of +4.7%. This was driven by higher average basket
value which reflects expanded ranges and sales of gift and
celebration essentials.
· LFL
store revenue growth of +3.0% in November and December reflecting
the strength of our seasonal Christmas offer alongside the positive
impact of our ongoing space optimisation programme.
· New
and expanded gift categories resonated with customers with new
confectionery ranges, licensed ranges and soft toys performing
particularly well, alongside positive impact of a new value focused
Christmas card offer.
Outlook
· The
Board expects to deliver FY25 adjusted profit before tax (excluding
one-off items) in line with current market
expectations5, reflecting robust revenue growth and the benefits of our
previously announced productivity and efficiency
programme.
· The
changes to National Living Wage and Employer National Insurance
Contributions will result in annual cost inflation of c.£14 million
in FY26. We expect to offset this through our proven approach which
includes our ongoing productivity and efficiency programme, as well
as range development and pricing, while continuing to invest in our
future growth. Despite these inflationary pressures, we currently
expect to deliver a mid-to-high single digit percentage increase in
adjusted profit before tax in FY26.
· We
will provide a further update on our strategic and financial
progress at our Preliminary Results on 7th May
2025.
Darcy Willson-Rymer, Chief Executive Officer,
commented:
"We are pleased to have delivered
another successful Christmas trading period. Thanks to the hard
work of colleagues across the business, growth was driven by
further progress against our strategic initiatives and execution of
our commercial offer. Expanded ranges and our compelling gift and
celebration essentials offer increased basket values during the
period, whilst we also saw a resilient performance in seasonal
cards, with customers responding well to our strong value and
quality ranges.
"Continued revenue growth, combined
with the benefits of our productivity and efficiency programme,
have enabled us to navigate a challenging retail environment and
deliver a robust performance in the second half. As a result, we
expect to deliver full year profits in line with expectations and
remain well positioned to manage inflationary pressures in the near
term, as we continue to deliver on our strategic growth
ambitions."
Enquiries
Card Factory plc
via Teneo
(below)
Darcy Willson-Rymer, Chief Executive
Officer
Matthias Seeger, Chief Financial
Officer
Teneo
+44
(0) 207 353 4200
James Macey White / Jo Blackshaw
cardfactory@teneo.com
Notes:
1 BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor
December 2024
2 The Like-For-Like (LFL)
calculation is based on gross sales for Stores that were trading in
both the current year and the comparative period in the prior
year.
3
"Online": Like-for-like
sales for cardfactory.co.uk and gettingpersonal.co.uk
combined.
4 Partnerships sales
for FY25 includes contribution from Garlanna (acquired on 4
September 2024) and Garven (acquired on 4 December
2024).
5 According to Company compiled
consensus estimates as of 13 January 2025, the current range of
market expectations for FY25 Adjusted profit before tax is £65.7
million to £67.0 million with an average of £66
million.
