Card Factory posts flat like-for-like sales following ‘challenging’ Christmas
Greeting cards retailer Card Factory has said it experienced a challenging Christmas trading period due to weaker high street footfall.
In a trading update covering the 11 months to 31 December the retailer said revenue increased by 3.4% year-on-year but like-for-like sales were broadly flat, edging down 0.1%.
Karen Hubbard, Card Factory’s chief executive, said: “The Christmas trading period was challenging due to lower high street footfall. However, Card Factory performed robustly in this competitive trading period. As a result, like-for-like store sales have remained consistent and in line with our quarter three update in November.”
The company said its festive period trading was boosted by its new store roll out which has included 51 net new shop openings in the financial year to date.
During the 11-month period Card Factory’s online sales at cardfactory.co.uk rose by 59.1%.
Card Factory also said that it expects the new financial year to continue to be difficult with EBITDA broadly flat.
Hubbard added: “Whilst we expect ongoing challenges from the consumer and macro backdrop, we continue to lead the market with our proposition, underpinned by our ongoing investment in our unique vertically integrated model which provides our business with significant competitive advantages.”
