UK’s Card Factory sees annual profit ahead of market expectations

Jan 10 (Reuters) – British greeting cards retailer Card Factory (CARDC.L) forecast annual core earnings ahead of market expectations on Tuesday as people rushed to its high-street stores to buy Christmas cards amid strikes at Royal Mail, which hurt online sales.

The company expects full-year core earnings to be at least 106 million pounds ($128.8 million), compared with analysts’ current consensus of 96.9 million pounds.

Sales jumped more than 28% to 432.6 million pounds in the 11 months ended Dec. 31, while like-for-like store revenue grew 7%, helped by strong Christmas trading and value offerings.

The retailer said the return of customers to high-street stores and the impact of strikes at postal and parcel firm Royal Mail saw online sales fall 27.6% year-on-year, but were more than 85% higher compared to pre-pandemic levels.
($1 = 0.8227 pounds)

Reporting by Radhika Anilkumar and Aby Jose Koilparambil in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D’Souza and Subhranshu Sahu

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