Value-focused festive card offer has positive impact as retailer prepares for NI increases
“Successful” was the verdict from Cardfactory’s CEO Darcy Willson-Rymer on the retail group’s Christmas trading, with revenue up 4.7% in November and December.
Total sales for the 11 months ending on 31 December, 2024, hit £506.6million, a 6.2% increase on the previous year’s £476.9m, according to the trading update issued today, 14 January, as the company said: “We continue to outperform a challenging non-food retail market,” and happy staff can be seen in Cardfactory’s Christmas social media message below.
The good Christmas trading performance was driven by a higher average basket value which the UK’s largest specialist greetings retailer attributed to: “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.”
Like-for-like store revenue grew 3.0% in November and December, helped “by the strength of our seasonal Christmas offer alongside the positive impact of our ongoing space optimisation programme,” according to the company.
The 32 net new stores had a “positive impact” giving a 5.7% total store revenue increase, while LFL revenue grew 3.9%, with the statement saying it reflected “further development of our store estate and the strength of our value and quality proposition”.
There was an “encouraging” 6.1% growth in gifts and celebration essentials ranges driven by the introduction of new categories and expansion of existing ranges, alongside “positive card growth” of 1.4% LFL.
While the online LFL sales saw a 10% decline, driven predominately by the Gettingpersonal.co.uk arm, the Cardfactory.co.uk side saw a 0.5% increase in sales as the company continues to focus on driving profitable growth through higher margin product ranges.
Overall, partnerships revenue grew 23.5% to £18.9m with positive contributions from the acquisitions of Garlanna in Ireland and Garven in the States.
Darcy 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, while 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, has 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.”
However, that positive outlook will be affected by the anticipated £14m extra cost inflation caused by the upcoming changes to the national living wage and employer national insurance contributions, but Cardfactory said: “Despite these inflationary pressures, we currently expect to deliver a mid-to-high single digit percentage increase in adjusted profit before tax in FY26.”
