The retailer specialises in a value-for-money range of greetings cards, gifts, wraps and bags. 

It has its own manufacturing facility in Yorkshire, where most of its cards are produced. 

In a trading update, Card Factory said that sales for the 11 months to 31 December 2022 were £432.6m, compared with £337.3m for the same period in the prior year.

Card Factory’s board now expects EBITDA in the financial year to 31 January to be “at least” £106m, compared with previous estimates of just under £97m.  

“Performance over the period benefitted from good momentum across the business and the ongoing reversal of lockdown effects as customers continued to return to the high street,” the business said. 

Store revenue was up 7.1% on a like-for-like basis. 

“Sales for cardfactory.co.uk were impacted in December by the Royal Mail strikes but the performance remained comfortably ahead of pre-pandemic levels.”

Online sales were down 27.6%, but were still much higher than pre-pandemic. 

Regarding the outlook, Card Factory said it was monitoring the cost pressures affecting the sector and remained mindful of the challenging economic backdrop. 

However, it remains confident in its value-for-money proposition and the level of ongoing customer demand.

“We have continued to successfully manage inflationary pressures during FY23. We are hedged on energy costs until September 2024 and have a currency hedge in place for the majority of our FY24 requirements at rates favourable to the current market.”

Card Factory’s share price has risen by nearly 19% since the start of the year. At the time of writing it was 93.13p, not far off the 52-week high of 96.22p (low: 38.60p).