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Technology platform Moonpig Group, which specialises in the internet-based trade in personalised greeting cards, has posted a 3.8% rise in revenue for the first half of its latest year, with a total of £158m being attributed to strong sales at its Moonpig brand.
But while revenue showed a rise of 10% year-on-year and profit went up to £41.8m from £41.4m in the previous year, the personalised card firm, which was launched by Shopshire-born Nick Jenkins in 2000, reported a loss of £33.3m before tax.
This contrasted with a profit of £18.9m a year ago and was largely attributed to a £56.7m non-cash impairment charge in its Experiences division.
The latter offers users a voucher-based redemption scheme on spa days, cooking classes, day trips, outdoor adventures, fast cars and food experiences – and post-pandemic, the firm took a hit on accumulated vouchers which end users belatedly sought to redeem.
The 2025 Half Year Announcement stated: “Current trading remains in line with our expectations. Growth has been underpinned by consistent strong sales and orders at Moonpig and is supported by steady progression at Greetz. Given ongoing macro headwinds in gifting, trading remains challenging at Experiences and we remain focused on delivering our transformation plan. Accordingly, our expectations for full year revenue remain unchanged.”
The report added: “Our business is well positioned to deliver sustained growth in revenue, profit and free cash flow, driven by our continued focus on data and technology. With respect to the medium-term, we continue to target double digit percentage annual revenue growth. To reflect continued growth of high-margin revenue streams such as Plus subscription fees, we have increased our medium-term target for Adjusted EBITDA margin from a range of 25% to 26% to a range of 25% to 27%.”
Nickyl Raithatha, CEO, said: “We are pleased to report continued growth in revenue for the Group, driven by double-digit revenue growth at the Moonpig brand. Moonpig’s performance has been underpinned by robust growth in order volumes, powered by our multi-year investments in technology and innovation and the structural market shift to online. Raising our medium-term profit margin target demonstrates our confidence in the outlook for the business.”
She added that Moonpig, which has four brands (Moonpig, Greetz, Red Letter Days and Buyagift) continued to innovate to attract and retain customers. To date, more than 17 million innovative card creativity features have been used to customise cards, including audio and video messages, AI-generated text suggestions, stickers and flexible photos.
Ahead of Christmas, Moonpig also launched and AI-driven feature which allows customers to add their own handwriting to selected cards: by creating their handwriting as a font saved to their account, customers can type a message and see their handwriting seamlessly appear within the card.
According to Card Factory PLC, UK consumers spend some £1.4bn in the greeting cards sector each year and a Royal Mail study, conducted late last year, found nine out of 10 people still select and post cards to friends and relatives. The same study also suggested that 63% of people preferred to receive Christmas well wishes via a card, compared to 11% for text message or WhatsApp.
However, declining popularity for Christmas cards was reported by the business secretarial service Moneypenny, which suggested festive card sales fell from a peak spend of £186m in 2016 to £161.8m in 2020, with analysis pointing to the soaring cost of stamps.
● With a first class stamp now costing £1.65 and second class priced at 85p, Royal Mail has stated that final postage dates for this Christmas are Wednesday, December 18 for second class and Friday, December 20 for first class.
