It announced the expansion alongside its full year results for the year to 30 April 2022 – the group’s first full year of trading as a PLC.

Sales were, as expected and previously flagged, down 17.3% at £304.3m compared to FY2021, when sales had more than doubled to £368.2m as consumers flocked to online options due to the pandemic restrictions that shuttered bricks and mortar retailers. 

However, compared to the mainly pre-pandemic FY2020 sales figure of £173.1m, sales were up a whopping 75.8%. 

Statutory pre-tax profit was up 21.6% at £40m. Adjusted EBITDA margins slipped from 25% to 24.6%. 

Gifting revenue increased again to 47.7% of total sales. Moonpig said the multi-year progression reflected “successful execution against the group's strategy to grow attached gifting. It has been driven by the ongoing evolution of our recommendation algorithms, by enhancements to on-site search and navigation”.

“Our first full year as a listed company has been another transformational period for Moonpig Group – financially, operationally and strategically. We have significantly outperformed the targets set out at IPO, and recently announced the proposed acquisition of Buyagift, which will accelerate our journey to becoming the ultimate gifting companion.”

The firm also said its gross margins had not been materially impacted by cost inflation for greeting cards or gifts. Although shipping costs have gone up, including the increase in stamp prices by Royal Mail, this has been passed on to customers.

CEO Nickyl Raithatha said: “Moonpig Group has delivered an enduring uplift in revenue over the past two years, with a step-change in the size of our customer base, and with each of our customers purchasing more often than before. 

“We have further extended our market leadership in online cards, demonstrating the strength of our data-led business model and validating our significant investments in technology. Our gifting business has grown by over 100% in the past two years, and we are able to adapt with speed and agility to any changing consumer behaviours.”

The £124m acquisition of Buyagift and Red Letter Days brand owner Smartbox Group, announced in May, is expected to complete by the end of July. 

Moonpig also said it was progressing towards a “hyper-personalised” customer journey including personalised landing pages, hero messages, and a personalised promotions engine. 

Its database of customer calendar reminders grew from more than 50m to over 70m during the period. 

Moonpig is also planning to add a new product, video cards, whereby customers can add a personalised video message to their card using a printed QR code.

The Greetz business on the continent will be migrated to the Moonpig technology and data platform by the end of the year. 

The operational expansion involves new facilities in Tamworth and in Almere in the Netherlands. 

The 9,200sqm Tamworth site is set to go live over the summer. It is one hour away from a Royal Mail hub, and has an 'excellent' BREEAM environmental assessment rating. 

Moonpig said the investment rationale included operational resilience, future capacity growth, and enabled gift bundling. 

The 7,500 cards per hour, 7,400sqm Almere site is scheduled to be operational in the autumn. 

Moonpig has committed to ten year leases totalling £11.1m across the two sites. 

Moonpig’s existing in-house printing facilities are in Guernsey and Amsterdam. It has also installed printing kit at third-party providers. 

In Ireland it has launched a fully localised card and gifting proposition, with local fulfilment via a new, unnamed, printing and distribution partner.

Moonpig’s share price has been on the slide since the start of the year and was down 9% in early trading, but recovered and was 4.41% lower at 234.20p at the time of writing (52-week high: 459p, low:190.6p)

Regarding the cost of living crisis, Moonpig said it expected gifting in general “to be more resilient than consumers spending on themselves”, and in the current economic environment “we will ensure our range continues to reflect changing consumer needs”. “Our relatively low price points, and exposure to special occasion purchase patterns supporting this durability,” the group stated.

The group expects FY2023 sales to be around £350m.