Business
Trading Update
Trading Update.
About this update from Card Factory Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n \nRNS Number : 5405B Card Factory PLC 11 January 2018 \n\n11 January 2018\nCard Factory plc (\"Card Factory\" or the \"Group\")\nTrading update\nA solid Christmas trading period\nCard Factory, the UK's leading specialist retailer of greeting cards, dressings and gifts, is pleased to announce a trading update for the 11 months ended 31 December 2017. \n· Total year-to-date sales growth of 5.9% (11 months ended 31 December 2016: +4.3%) \n· Strong year-to-date like-for-like store sales growth of 2.7% (11 months ended 31 December 2016: +0.4%), with solid performance over the Christmas trading period\n· 48 net new UK stores opened in the period, with 50 net new stores expected by the year end\n· cardfactory.co.uk had a strong Christmas trading period from a low base\n· gettingpersonal.co.uk sales performance is broadly flat for the year to date\n· Continued margin pressure leading to expected underlying EBITDA for the year to be in the range £93.0-£95.0m\nRecent trading performance\nThe Group delivered a solid level of sales growth in the Christmas period driven by a combination of like-for-like sales growth and new store roll out. This has contributed to strong year-to-date like-for-like store sales growth of 2.7% (11 months ended 31 December 2016: +0.4%). \n48 net new UK stores were opened in the period, bringing the total UK estate to 913 stores as at 31 December 2017. In addition, the Group opened six new trial stores in the Republic of Ireland over the period. Looking ahead to our next financial year ending 31 January 2019, the Group has a good pipeline of new store opportunities and we remain confident of continuing our historic opening rate of approximately 50 net new UK stores per annum. \ncardfactory.co.uk, our transactional site, continues to grow strongly from a low base. Including sales from cardfactory.co.uk, total Card Factory year-to-date like-for-like sales grew by 3.0% (11 months ended 31 December 2016: +0.5%).\nSales performance over the Christmas period at gettingpersonal.co.uk, our online personalised gifting business, was disappointing which has resulted in a broadly flat sales performance year to ...