7th May 2025 10:58
(Alliance News) - Card Factory PLC on Wednesday reported a rise in revenue and sales in financial 2025, hailing its "strength and resilience".
Card Factory is a Wakefield, England-based greeting cards, gifts and celebration merchandise retailer.
For the year ended January 31, Card Factory's pretax profit was GBP64.1 million, down 2.3% from GBP65.6 million the prior year.
The fall in profit was mainly due to several one-off charges, including a GBP500,000 refinancing charge incurred in April 2024; GBP1 million in costs and amortisation linked to the acquisition of Garven & Garalanna; GBP1.9 million in restructuring costs; and GBP1.5 million in unreleased gains on derivatives.
However, Card Factory's revenue for the year rose 6.2% to GBP542.5 million from GBP510.9 million.
This was driven by the company's expansions, including opening 32 new stores on a net basis. This brought in 1,090 outlets across the UK and Ireland, operating "despite an uncertain and inflationary backdrop."
Like-for-like sales also rose 3.4%, although Card Factory said a third of the rise was driven by price increases.
Card Factory credited much of its performance to efforts to modernise its product offering, including personalised print-on-demand items and an expanded range of celebration products like balloons, tableware, and decorations.
The company also declared a total dividend of 4.8 pence per share, up 6.7% from 4.5p the previous year.
Chief Executive Officer Darcy Wilson-Rymer said: "Our performance in FY25 demonstrates the strength and resilience of Card Factory and our strategy as we continue to evolve the business into a leading global celebrations group.
"We delivered strong revenue growth, outperforming the wider celebration occasions market. Further expansion of our store estate, combined with continued development of our gift and celebration essentials categories, were key drivers of our performance."
Looking forward, Card Factory reported a "good momentum" during the spring selling season and reaffirmed its outlook for profit growth in the current financial year. despite expecting overall inflation to rise by 4% to 5%.
Increases to the National Living Wage and employer National Insurance rates are expected to add around GBP14 million in annual costs for Card Factory in financial 2026.
The firm added that it expects a "mid-to-high single-digit percentage hike in adjusted pretax profit for financial 2026.
Card Factory shares were down 2.9% at 96.67 pence in London on Wednesday morning.
By Olivia Mason-Myhill, Alliance News reporter
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