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Card Factory saw pre-tax profit decline to £24.3m from £28.4m, despite like-for-like sales growth of 1.5% - swinging positive from a like-for-like decline of 0.2% in the same period last year as reported in the half year report for the period ending 31 July 2019.
Revenue grew 5.5% to £195.6m and the company saw its leverage increase to 1.93x (pre-IFRS 16 leases).
The company reported a robust sales performance with cardfactory.co.uk sales growing 25% and 26 net new stores opened which drove additional revenue growth.
Card Factory mentioned several headwinds such as increased stock levels for Brexit contingency planning and increases in the National Living Wage.
Despite this, the company said the underlying card market remains resilient and it is the clear market leader with a growing market share.
Karen Hubbard, chief executive officer, commented:
'We have delivered a satisfactory sales performance in the first half of the year. A strong seasonal performance, which saw another year of record sales for both Valentine's Day and Mother's Day, was achieved against the backdrop of an increasingly challenging UK high street environment and consequent weaker footfall. The successful seasonal trading, combined with more sophisticated use of data and improvements to our customer experience, gives us confidence for the key Christmas trading period ahead.'
'We are pleased with the progress made on the strategic initiatives that are underway. These include using consumer insight to develop our customer proposition across all channels and a number of commercial partnerships. Maintaining a sharp focus on the execution of these various initiatives is a key priority for the senior leadership team.'
'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.' At 9:55am: (LON:CARD) Card Factory Plc share price was +4p at 166p