Card Factory delivers strong rise in full year profits

Full year pre-tax profits at greeting card maker Card Factory almost doubled to £83.7m driven by strong sales and new store openings.

Revenues were up 8% to £381.6m, with sales at the Getting Personal online unit up 7.5%.

Underlying earnings per share rose 17.2% to 19.1p and shareholders will be rewarded with a final dividend of 6p a share, up from 4.5p.

In November, the company returned £51m to shareholders via 15p-a-share special dividend.

“We believe that there is significant potential for further returns of surplus cash to shareholders in line with our stated policy,” Card Factory said.

It added that it had started initiatives to provide “partial mitigation of margin headwinds”, in particular foreign exchange and the new UK National Living Wage which came into force last week.

The company said the 2016 results were boosted by like-for-like sales growth in existing stores and improvements in quality and range of both card and non-card products.

It also opened a net 50 new stores opened in the period, bringing its total estate to 814 at year end and sees a strong pipeline of further new store opportunities for the current year.