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The whole market is down because of the new variant and over sold, could be a big push up on monday.
Card is still in a good position and any SP drop here like all the other stocks is just down to the market fear in total and nothing to do with Card F as we still don't look like being any more shut downs to cope with.Full steam ahead next week.
Welcome Trust have purchased 3% of Card factory this week. They must think it's a good investment.
Buy,buy,buy.
Then buy as much as you can.
No lockdown coming in the UK
Total over reaction on the market.
Just my opinion of course.
70p a share by January.
New record at my local Card Factory shop today.
5 yes 5 cashiers serving at the same time.
Aisles full of Customers and a big queue at the till.
Reminded me of an Octopus with arms all over the place.
Lasted about 20 minutes then 2 of the staff swung onto restocking the shelves.
Looked like a well oiled machine to me.
Deja vu? ref Clintons Cards 'It said margins had been significantly weaker as a result of clearing old stock in the January sales and increased sales of lower margin gifts. It is undertaking a strategic review under its new chief executive. "The outlook for the second half of the current year is below our previous expectations but the changes we are undertaking to the business will deliver significant benefits in future years," said Darcy Willson-Rymer'
That ended well...
Bought another 30,000 at about 51p. Fingers crossed.
Not yet.I think it will drop a bit more than top up
Top up time - this will only repeat the last Covid drops
Please everyone don’t panic sell today
Correction 53.71
Retry. Good summary. I topped up Thursday at 51.7p. GLA.
I will be stocking up tomorrow on card without black Friday deals and a few more shares.
This seems like a great share and expect good growth in the years to come after the debt is sorted(which looks more likely by the day will come from profit not shareholder dilution ) . Next will be the online battle with the pigeon and the pig, and I would expect in 3 years, card is giving them a good run for there money in the online business . As a minimum card will bent the price they can charg, thus limiting there advertising budget. Supermarkets have always sold cards and card factory has flourished in this time as they currently are and will continue to do so in the future.
Not concerned about the store presence, where I live we have a few small local shopping centres full of charity shops and Trafford centre. Both always seem busy and I believe that cards for under £2 for special loved ones are easily purchased in advance hence the increase in basket spend,. Although I am not so sure that the basket reduction will ever come and higher values due to less visits may stay for the foreseeable. But this should not damage profitability, but got enough practical experience of consumer retail so; I just wonder what the effect on efficiency is, leading to less hours of labour us? It must be easier to serve 1 person 5 cards then 1 cards to 5 people. And retailers like card do benefit from tight arsh shoppers like me.
But I do see a potential rebrand once the cash is available, 1000 plus high streets shops all the same branding as the website with a solid reputation for good value. That will be priceless to share price in 5 years time.
Might even splash the cash and get the wife a personalised wine glass.
Brown-nose Bogle,
Why is that private information? I asked you that, because I believe that you're insincere. The 'hail Simes20' was a bit of a giveaway. Why were you looking at CF's staff vacancies? Are you invested in the company? Are you shorting it? Are you unemployed? I agree that it doesn't look like a great company to work for, but neither does anywhere in the retail sector imo. Does that alone make CF a poor investment? I didn't realise that I needed to include staff satisfaction in my DCF calculations
Neanderthal why would I disclose such private information ?.?
I will leave that to your chest pumping selves to self congratulate each other, on your very astute investments ?
And I would just like to point out that I was only doing research on staff hours/vacancies and that it backed up Simes 20 posting's, doesn’t look a good company to work for, staff turnover very high, go as far as to say higher than estate agent juniors.
Card Factory
VIP members can get early access to Card Factory's Black Friday deals.
It means they can get offers like three for two on Christmas card boxes and personalised gifts - and get them before anyone else.
To sign up as a member, head to Card Factory's website.
You'll need to put some personal details in, such as your phone number and email address, to create an account.
Then, you'll be emailed about offers and discounts you can get when shopping at the retailer.
Jackbogle aka Simes20,
I just scanned through those vacancies and the majority of those that I saw were for 'SEASONAL sales assistants' that were being posted from as far back as September. Imagine that... a high street store employing additional members of staff for Christmas; it's busiest time of the year by a mile! Big, big shock. Thank you for enlightening us pal. What value stocks do you hold in your portfolio?
I don’t understand why everyone is getting worked up about low hours contracts. They are fairly standard in retail. The majority of store workers are women, some/many have children and so want to work but can’t commit to a 35hr week because of school pickups etc. The store manager has a need for extra staff around busier times - such as when office workers are on a lunch break and go shopping for cards. The low hour contracts allow many workers to do the number of hours they are able to and the store manager to cope with intra day customer peaks. Nobody seems to get excited about the extra seasonal staff (often students) who help out at the busier Xmas times. It is the same thing - intra day vs intra year.
Good reply Jackbogle.
Tbh I’m not really sure anymore.
Initially it was to make money because just before Covid my savings were in premium bonds but I never won anything! Well apart from the odd £25.
By an absolute fluke I did really well with Avacta and made a small fortune. Wife keeps telling me to call it a day and cash out snd I have tried, believe me but I’m addicted!
Only being honest and I don’t think I’m the only one.
Has anybody tried switching off from all of this?
I’m retired so the answer why I am here is most probably because I’m bored.
Every one is here for a reason, what is yours?
To get this response from a bumbling idiot .
Nobody cares ‘Jackbogle’ nobody actually cares what he says or you for that matter.
Which part of that do you or ‘simes20’ with every one of his 32 negative posts towards Card Factory not understand?
Every one is here for a reason, what is yours?
I’m guessing that the pair of you are ex Card Factory employees?
Oh look at me stooping to your level - oops!
I’m not going to filter either of you because you make me laugh! Keep it up and Welcome back.
Peeps, why not do your own research and check out the 107 pages of vacancies on the Card web site , and then all bow to simes 20 knowledge.
I picked up my Xmas cards and wrapping paper from my local Card Factory store yesterday and while I was there, I had a little chat with the woman who was working there (yes, only one member of staff on the floor, but all shelves were fully stacked and it was around 17:00). She’s been working for card factory for 8 years (quite a long stint considering she’s allegedly far more overworked than other retail employees and she’s on a zero/low hours contract). Anyway, she said that the store’s been very busy, but they haven’t had as many visits as they were having pre-Covid, which ties in with the recent RNS (refer to the part about number of transactions being lower, but spend per transaction being significantly higher). It looks like customers are purchasing in bulk this year, as opposed to making lots of different visits, which is of course a negative for spontaneous purchases, but positive in terms of putting less of a burden on staff (thus allowing them to keep the shelves stacked and reducing the need for overtime). An additional benefit, is that customers who would rather avoid crowded shops will be more willing to shop at card factory than they would if transactions were at normal levels.
I didn’t enquire further, but she still told me about Card Factory website and was surprised when I said that I was aware of it. 10/10 customer service, although I must say the staff have always been very good in my local CF.
I also did a rough price comparison yesterday between CF’s and Morrison’s cards. For the quality of card I like to send, I’d be paying approx £2.50 a card in Morrisons. In Card Factory, it was more like £1.70 a card. I buy at least 30 cards per annum, so that’s a saving of £25+ per year. On minimum wage, that’s what? 3 hours or so of labour? That’s just on cards alone. There’s no competition on pricing in my experience.
All of the above is of course irrelevant though. Let’s get back to splitting hairs over important matters like ‘ass managers’ and guessing what contracts CF staff are most likely to be on
Let's face it... There are reasonably sensible people here who may have balanced pro and anti views about the business, and there are the wild outliers. Or should that be outliars!
jedclampit, they are not throw away, they are facts. Normal practice is a full time manager and perhaps ass manager. Then a load of part time. Therefore always plenty of staff available for additional hours.
simes20, you make these throw away remarks ( as most staff are on zero/low contracted hours)
Do we know they are all on these terms. NO
To run a good retail business you need full time employed staff, So let's here from any staff to see if this is the case.
Let's just try and find the facts rather than just smear them all just to make your point.