CARD factory has seen revenue surge during the first six months of the year, but the greeting cards retailer still ended up in the red.

EBITDA surged by 202.6 per cent, reaching £23.6m in the first half of the year, while revenue jumped by 16.3 per cent to stand at a healthy £116.9m. However, they lost £6.5m in the first half of the year while net debt remained close to £100m.

Chief executive Darcy Willson- Rymer said that "the delivery of the growth strategy set out in July 2020 — and the broader retail environment itself — has obviously been impacted by Covid-19. However, it is clear that the right way forward is to transition Card Factory from being a store-led card retailer into a market leading, omni-channel retailer of cards and gifts."

Card Factory said it plans to pivot its focus towards the complementary gifting and party markets. The company announced the ambitious target of over £600m of sales for 2026, with the expectation that approximately 20 per cent of revenue will come from the online store and via retail partnerships. Card Factory share price slumped by over 8 per cent yesterday following its results.

(c) 2021 City A.M., source Newspaper