Card Factory is extending its reach through upping its brand’s presence in other retailers’ stores.
From November, Card Factory cards will be on sale in 440 Aldi stores in the UK. This follows a trial that has been running in 130 Aldi stores. The expanded arrangement sees Card Factory dedicated displays of single price cards, being installed in half Aldi’s store estate. (The other half of Aldi’s stores are being supplied by IG Design Group https://www.pgbuzz.net/ig-design-group-to-supply-over-400-aldi-stores-with-greeting-cards/).
Additionally, Card Factory branded concessions are now being trialled in 15 Matalan stores in the UK, while over in Australia, the trial with The Reject Shop value chain is to be rolled out in January 2020 to all of its 360 stores.
Two new franchise stores opened in Guernsey and Gibraltar, adding to one in Jersey.
Card Factory’s ceo Karen Hubbard reveals that the group is in discussion with a number of other potential retail partners in the UK and overseas.
These developments were shared as the UK’s largest specialist card retailer revealed its interim results (covering the six months to 31 July) which show how, bucking the general retail trend, its like-for-like store sales were up 1.2% while overall turnover increased 5.5% to £195.6 million. However pre-tax profit took a bit of a battering, (down 14.4%) coming in at £24.3 million.
Describing it as a “satisfactory sales performance” for the first half of the year, Karen highlighted strong seasonal performance for both Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day achieved against the backdrop of an increasingly challenging UK high street environment and consequent weaker footfall.”
Card Factory swelled its own UK store estate by an additional 26 stores and says it has a ‘strong pipeline of new store opportunities’. These include being on track to deliver approximately 50 net new UK and Republic of Ireland openings by the year end.
Karen said remains confident about the Christmas trading period ahead. “Although the current economic uncertainty continues to impact consumer confidence, we remain positive about the resilience of the card market, the strength of the Card Factory business model, and our growth opportunities for the business over the medium term.”
Top: Card Factory outperformed other retailer in achieving 1.2% increase in like-for-like instore sales.
