It's nice to see the market reacting positively to CARD's earnings, with the stock rising 10% to 194.8 pence today.
Perhaps the market is finally recognising how well this business is run - in a very tough environment for retailers, CARD reported an annual underlying ebitda margin of 20.5% and an underlying operating margin of 18.0%, compared with respective figures of 22.3% and 19.7% for the prior year. Net debt fell 12%, another plus. And the following snippet from the results interested me:
Card Factory wrote:We are now also exploring other opportunities to extend our reach beyond 1,200 stores in the UK and internationally to drive profitable growth. Encouragingly, some initial trials with Aldi in the UK, in an Australian retailer, and with a franchise partner in Jersey show that the Card Factory brand is a footfall driver that has real resonance; we will pursue these types of opportunities to open new routes to market where we see attractive returns.
Sounds good to me. Bring on 5 June, when the AGM takes place and we will get a trading update.