22nd Sep 2015 06:44
LONDON (Alliance News) - Card Factory PLC on Tuesday said it made a profit in the first half of its financial year, having suffered a loss the year before, as revenue rose and it declared payment of a special dividend.
The card and gifts retailer said that it made a pretax profit of GBP24 million in the six months ended July 31, after it suffered a GBP7.9 million pretax loss in the same period the prior year, boosted in the current year due to a significant reduction in net financing expenses to GBP2.1 million from GBP11.2 million.
Revenue grew 8% to GBP161.4 million from GBP149.4 million, as like-for-like sales rise 2.7%, which the company said was driven by continuous improvements in quality and range for both card and non-card products, new merchandising initiatives, and further market share gains as stores mature.
Card Factory will pay an interim dividend of 2.5 pence, up from 2.3p the year before, and said it will pay a special dividend of 15p, returning GBP51.1 million of excess cash to shareholders.
"We continue to focus resolutely on maintaining our very strong competitive position and further improving and developing our value retail proposition. The business is well prepared for the important Christmas trading season, and we remain confident of the group's future prospects both in the near and longer term," Chief Executive Richard Hayes said in a statement.
By Karolina Kaminska; [email protected] @KarolinaAllNews
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