- Card Factory’s underlying profits grew by 6.3% to £66m last year
Card Factory sales were lifted by price hikes last year as higher costs weighed on profitability.
The high street retailer told investors on Wednesday it continues to expect a ‘mid-to-high single digit’ percentage rise in 2025 adjusted pre-tax profits, and offered assurances the US tariffs are unlikely to materially affect performance.
London-listed Card Factory revealed underlying profits growth of 6.3 per cent to £66million for the year ending January 2025.
However, pre-tax profits slipped by £1.5million to £64.1million as gross margins were hit by greater salary costs following increases in the National Living Wage.
Revenue still expanded by 6.2 per cent to £542.5million thanks to price hikes and strong store demand for everyday ranges like stationery, soft toys and confectionery.
A further uplift was provided by the acquisitions of gifts and celebrations wholesaler Garven and greeting cards seller Garlanna, which helped boost partnerships revenue by 30.6 per cent to £22.2million.
Good forecast: Card Factory does not expect tariffs to affect its performance this year
Darcy Willson-Rymer, chief executive of Card Factory, said the result ‘demonstrates the strength and resilience of Card Factory and our strategy as we continue to evolve the business into a leading global celebrations group.
‘Despite an uncertain and inflationary backdrop, we remain confident in our ability to deliver mid-to-high single-digit percentage profit growth.’
Card Factory believes profits will be weighted towards the second half of the period due to the living wage rising from £11.44 to £12.21 per hour in early April.
It forecasts no ‘material impact’ on its financial performance from tariffs, which have led to massive turmoil in stock markets, a slowdown in trade flows, and raised fears of a worldwide recession occurring this year.
‘There is a confident tone regarding the outlook,’ noted Russell Pointon, analyst at Edison Group.
Yet Card Factory shares were 3.9 per cent lower at 95.7p just before midday on Wednesday, making them one of the FTSE All-Share Index’s fallers.
President Donald Trump recently imposed a 10 per cent baseline tariff on imported US goods, along with a 25 per cent tax on steel and aluminium products and a 145 per cent tariff on most Chinese goods.
He also briefly introduced ‘reciprocal’ tariffs on dozens of countries before pausing them for 90 days.
China has retaliated with tariffs of 125 per cent on US products, while Canada has slapped duties worth about £32billion on some imports.
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