Card Factory
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| Company type | Public company |
|---|---|
| LSE: CARD | |
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1997 |
| Founders | Dean & Janet Hoyle |
| Headquarters | Wakefield, West Yorkshire |
Key people | Geoff Cooper (Chairman) Darcy Willson-Rymer (CEO) |
| Products | Greeting Cards, Calendars |
| Revenue | £422.1 million (2018)[1] |
| £83.4 million (2018)[1] | |
| £58.3 million (2018)[1] | |
| Owner | Invesco (27%) Artemis (12%) Old Mutual Global Investors (10%) |
Number of employees | 9,936 (2018)[1] |
| Website | www |
Card Factory is a chain of greeting card and gift stores in the United Kingdom founded in Wakefield by Dean Hoyle and his wife Janet; the first store opened in 1997. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange.
History
Dean Hoyle left school with no qualifications, having a self confessed greater interest in football.[2] With his wife Janet, from 1993 they began buying cards wholesale, and selling them from the back of their van at car boot sales and public open air events.[2]
In 1997, they opened their first shop under within the holding company Sportswift Ltd, purposefully choosing secondary retail locations which were cheaper.[2] After opening a few stores, whilst Janet founded and headed up the internal design and print function, Dean concentrated on expanding the business, with a nominal target of 500 retail outlets.[2] This gave the company a profit margin advantage over rivals, including Clinton Cards.[3]
The couple built a board to expand the business, including: Keith Pacey (chairman of Maplin); Richard Hayes (managing director, their ex bank manager); Chris Beck (commercial director, ex Grant Thornton); Darren Bryant (group finance director, ex PricewaterhouseCoopers).[2] On 28 November 2008, Card Factory purchased about 80 of the 288 stores from failed greetings card company Celebrations Group (which traded as Card Warehouse and Cardfair), as part of a rescue package, securing around 500 of the 1,800 jobs at Celebrations.[4]
The couple put the business up for sale in January 2010[2] and on 8 April 2010, Charterhouse completed the £350 million purchase of the company which at the time operated 480 stores.[5] This enabled Dean Hoyle to later buy Huddersfield Town F.C.[2] On 14 July 2011, Card Factory purchased gettingpersonal.co.uk for an undisclosed sum.[6] In May 2014, the company floated via an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange.[3]
In December 2020, Costcutter boss Darcy Willson-Rymer was appointed as chief executive.[7]
Operations
The company operates some 1,000 stores.[8] Macmillan Cancer Support is the company's chosen charity; Card Factory donations to the charity had totalled £1 million by 2008[9] and £3 million by 2014.[10]
Controversy
The company has been successfully prosecuted for Health and Safety infringements on a number of occasions. Incidents have included poor stock management,[11] overstocking of stores,[12] damaged equipment, inadequate risk assessments and staff training.[13]
References
- ^ a b c d "Annual Results for the year ended 31 January 2018" (PDF). Card Factory. Retrieved 16 March 2019.[permanent dead link]
- ^ a b c d e f g Nicola Harrison (26 March 2010). "Dean and Janet Hoyle". Retail Week. Retrieved 21 May 2014.
- ^ a b Nick Bubb (19 May 2014). "Nick Bubb's verdict: Are the Card Factory and Game IPOs growth stories?". Retail Week. Retrieved 21 May 2014.
- ^ "Wakefield card firm Card Factory's rescue package saves 500 jobs". Yorkshire Evening Post. 28 November 2008. Retrieved 15 July 2011.
- ^ "Card Factory's £350m Private Equity Sale Completed". Yorkshire Evening Post. 8 April 2010. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
- ^ "GettingPersonal.co.uk (Online retailer of Personalised Gifts) is sold to Card Factory for undisclosed sum". Manchester Evening News. 14 July 2011. Retrieved 14 July 2011.
- ^ Ackerman, Naomi (21 December 2020). "Card Factory appoints Costcutter's Darcy Willson-Rymer as new CEO". www.standard.co.uk. Retrieved 22 December 2020.
- ^ Brown, Jakki (21 August 2019). "Card Factory Hits The 1,000 Store Milestone". PGBUZZ.net. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
- ^ "Charity cash on the cards from Dean - Local". Spenborough Guardian. Archived from the original on 1 February 2011. Retrieved 15 September 2008.
- ^ "Macmillan has been working in partnership with Card Factory since 2006, and that year saw their total reach £3 million". Macmillan Cancer Support. Retrieved 10 February 2015.
- ^ "Card retailer culpable for pensioner's fall". Health and Safety at Work. 1 October 2008. Archived from the original on 29 June 2013. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
- ^ "Firm fined over safety breach". WalesOnline. 30 October 2008. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
- ^ "Health and safety breaches cost firm over £40,000". Leicester City Council. 10 December 2009. Archived from the original on 2 November 2013. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
External links
