18th Sep 2014 07:42
LONDON (Alliance News) - Greeting cards retailer Card Factory PLC said strong revenue growth in the first half was driven by both its existing stores and the addition of new ones, but said that while underlying profit growth was strong, costs from its public listing earlier in the year and refinancing its debt, left it in the red.
The discount cards retailer, which floated on the London stock exchange earlier this year and is set to go into the FTSE 250, said IPO costs and senior debt refinancing resulted in a pretax loss of GBP7.9 million for the six months to July 31, compared with a pretax profit of GBP3.7 million a year earlier.
Stripping out those finance costs, Card Factory said its operating profit grew 9.3%, increasing to GBP26.1 million from GBP23.9 million last year.
That growth was driven by a 8.9% increase in revenue to GBP149.4 million, up from GBP137.2 million a year earlier. Like-for-like sales were up 2.6%.
In its maiden set of half-year results, the company said its continues to invest in the business, especially on rolling-out new stores and its online offering.
"The continued growth and further improvement in our retail proposition is particularly satisfying given that this was achieved during a period in which we completed the IPO process...We remain confident of the group's future prospects," said Chief Executive Richard Hayes in a statement.
Card Factory said trading since the start of the second half has remained in line with its expectations. It said it has a strong pipeline of further new opportunities, and is on track to open around 50 net new stores by year end.
While the company's debt refinancing contributed to its loss for the period, Card Factory said its reported net debt has reduced significantly to GBP144.2 million, down from GBP368.7 million this time last year.
Card Factory shares were trading 1.8% higher Thursday morning, at 214.35 pence per share.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; [email protected]; @rharrisdoughty
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