Card Factory sees FY profit ahead of expectations

(ShareCast News) - Card Factory said on Thursday that it is confident of delivering full-year underlying pre-tax profit slightly ahead of analyst consensus as it reported a rise in sales for the 11 months to the end of December and announced the departure of its chief financial officer.Total sales in the 11 months were up 4.3%, with like-for-like sales up 0.4%. This was a slowdown from 8.1% and 2.8% growth, respectively, the previous year.The company said it is likely to exceed the range of analysts' expectations for underlying profit before tax for the year to 31 January 2017, which currently stands at between £80.9m and £83.0m.Card Factory opened 51 new stores in the period, bringing the total estate to 865 stores as at 31 December 2016. Looking ahead to its next financial year ending 31 January 2018, the group said it has a good pipeline of additional new store opportunities and remains confident of continuing its historic opening rate of approximately 50 net new stores per annum. Also on Friday, Card Factory said its chief financial officer Darren Bryant has decided to retire after eight years with the group, but will stay on until a successor has been identified and through a transitional period. Chief executive Karen Hubbard said: "As I approach my first anniversary with the business, it is pleasing to report that Card Factory has traded well through the competitive Christmas trading period with customers once again responding well to our card and non-card ranges. As a result, like-for-like store sales in the fourth quarter of the financial year have returned to our expected range."Whilst all retailers will clearly face cost pressures in 2017, the proven strength of our retail proposition, underpinned as ever by our unique vertically integrated model, provides our business with significant competitive advantage. We believe that this will enable us to further increase our market share as we have done every year since the business was formed in 1997."At 0914 GMT, the shares were up 3.8% to 253.16p.