Card Factory share price: Company revenue climbs during maiden year on stock market

Card Factory Plc’s (LON:CARD) share price has opened flat today, despite the company finishing its first year as a listed company with a 6.8p per share dividend. The greetings cards and gifts retailer went public in 2014 and said that underlying operating profit rose to £79.4 million for the year ended January 31 – an increase of £6.5 million from a year earlier.

Company revenue rose to a total of £353.3 million, an increase on last year’s £326.9 million year end result. Card Factory believes that the rise is attributed to its opening of 51 new stores across the UK and the 23 percent growth in revenue of its steadily developing online cards and gifts store, Getting Personal.
Despite this positivity, shares in the company opened today at 299p and had fallen to 285p by 08:47 GMT.
Like-for-like sales grew 1.8 percent, a meek result when compared with its 3.1 percent increase of last year. However, Card Factory blamed declining sales of Christmas card box sets and stronger promotional campaigns from competitors for the outcome.
The company seems little fazed by the slowing of sales growth, instead pushing ahead with its plans to open 50 new stores this year as it works towards its goal of having 1,200 in total in the next 10 years. The firm also saw a reduction in its net debt to £101.4 million from £346.9 million, thanks to the money raised in its Initial Public Offering (IPO) and its debt refinancing deal, which was finalised in June 2014 and included a £180 million term loan facility and a £20 million revolving facility.
“Overall, we are in an excellent position and we remain confident of our future prospects. We will continue to strongly defend our market leading position, whilst maintaining our focus on delivering best-in-class margins,” Chief Executive Richard Hayes said in a statement.
As of 13:41 GMT, Wednesday, 25 March, Card Factory PLC share price is 286.20p.

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