Report for today’s agm expects ‘consolidated revenue growth’ at online greetings retailer
Moonpig held its annual general meeting today, 19 September, and the online greetings and gift retailer issued an upbeat trading update in advance.
“Trading remains in line with expectations and we reiterate existing guidance,” the report from ceo Nickyl Raithatha and cfo Andy MacKinnon said of performance for this financial year so far, starting 1 May, following the 2022-2023 full year results which showed “resilient profitability and robust cash generation”.
Today’s update continued: “We continue to deliver innovation for our customers and are encouraged by adoption levels for new features, including our Moonpig Plus subscription service in the UK, the Greetz app in the Netherlands, and creative card features, such as video messages, across both brands. The work to re-platform our Experiences business is progressing well, with several segments of the user journey already upgraded.”
In the year to 30 April, 2023, the company’s revenue grew to £320.1million, up 5.2% on the previous 12 months as it increased the prices of its cards, but pre-tax profits dropped to £34.9m, down 12.6% year-on-year, while adjusted EBITDA was up 12.4% to £84.2m.
The company’s annual report shows how the importance of the UK market has been bolstered in the last couple of years, compared to the contribution from its Netherlands business.
The UK is shown as accounting for 81% of sales with 17% coming from the Netherlands’ side in 2022-2023, having adjusted from the 2020 split of 71% in Britain and 27% for the Dutch market, for its four online brands – Moonpig, Greetz, Buyagift and Red Letter Days, with the latter two acquired as the Experiences arm in July 2022.
The update said that, in the context of the continued challenging macroeconomic environment, the group “continues to expect pro forma revenue to grow at a low single digit percentage rate in the first half of the current financial year, underpinned by the Moonpig brand, which remains in growth”.
For the full financial year, the company continues to expect “consolidated revenue growth at a mid to high single digit percentage rate”, with all brands returning to growth in the second half, and adjusted EBITDA margin is expected to remain resilient.
In the annual report, group chair Kate Swann said: “Moonpig group has demonstrated resilience, profitability, and strong cash generation while putting in place the foundations for growth,” and Nickyl added: “We have laid the ground work for our expected return to organic revenue growth in FY24.”
When the annual report was released on 29 June, the group’s share price rose to 146.40p then, over this past weekend, it rose again to 170p before dropping back to 165.30p this morning.
At the agm, the annual report and financial statements were accepted, and all directors re-elected with PricewaterhouseCoopers re-appointed as auditors.
