Total first quarter revenue increased by 4.9%
Card Factory announced a trading update today (25 May) for the quarter ended 30 April 2017 to coincide with its Annual General Meeting to be held later today. It makes good reading with underlying group sales growth of +6.1%, an improvement on the FY17 full year growth rate of +4.3%. The total reported first quarter revenue increased by +4.9%. For Card Factory stores, Q1 like-for-like sales growth was at the upper end of the target range of +1 to +3%.
The company opened 11 new stores in the first quarter, bringing the total estate to 876 stores and remains on track to open a total of 50 stores for the current financial year. This includes an increasing number of stores on retail parks. Card Factory’s entry into the Republic of Ireland is progressing well, with a small number of trial stores opening later this year in addition to the 50 new stores in the UK.
Karen Hubbard, Card Factory’s ceo, said: “We have had a good start to the year with like-for-like store sales at the upper end of our targeted range. Our store opening programme remains on track and we are pleased with the performance of this year’s openings, including strong initial sales from the increased proportion of openings in retail parks. We have also seen sales growth from cardfactory.co.uk and, encouragingly, the sales performance of Getting Personal is starting to improve following recent management changes with the business continuing to target annual sales growth in excess of 10%.”
