Card Factory shares jumped 5% as the market opened on Thursday
Companies: Card Factory Plc
UK greeting cards retailer Card Factory has released a positive trading update for the 11 month period to 31 December, reporting sales growth of c.4.3% compared to FY15, and a good Christmas period with improved LFL performance. The company also announced that its chief financial officer Darren Bryant will retire after eight years with the firm.
Like-for-like store sales returned to growth during FY16 and were within the historic range in Q4. Store sales grew a meagre 0.4%, but total sales overall grew a decent 4.3% (lower than the 8.1% in the same period last year). Christmas sales were strong compared to a decent comparative period:
"Against a strong prior year comparative, Card Factory stores delivered a good Christmas trading performance with cumulative like-for-likes for the fourth quarter of the financial year returning to the historic range of 1% to 3%."
The firm's Board said it was confident of delivering FY underlying pre-tax profit ahead of general consensus, with CEO Karen Hubbard commenting:
"...it is pleasing to report that Card Factory has traded well through the competitive Christmas trading period with customers once again responding well to our card and non-card ranges."
She said the company was optimistic heading into 2017, with management expecting to increase its market share again due to "significant" competitive advantages:
"Whilst all retailers will clearly face cost pressures in 2017, the proven strength of our retail proposition, underpinned as ever by our unique vertically integrated model, provides our business with significant competitive advantage.
We believe that this will enable us to further increase our market share as we have done every year since the business was formed in 1997."
Card Factory shares jumped 5% in early trading on Thursday before dropping back slightly.
