Card Factory
| |
Public company | |
Industry | Retail |
Founded | 1997 |
Founders | Dean & Janet Hoyle |
Headquarters | Wakefield, West Yorkshire |
Key people |
Geoff Cooper (Chairman) Karen Hubbard (CEO) |
Products | Greeting Cards, Calendars |
Revenue | £398.2 million (2017)[1] |
£87.8 million (2017)[1] | |
£65.7 million (2017)[1] | |
Owner |
Invesco (27%) Artemis (12%) Old Mutual Global Investors (10%) |
Number of employees | 6,500 (2017)[2] |
Website | www.cardfactory.co.uk |
Card Factory is a chain of greeting card and gift stores in United Kingdom founded by Dean Hoyle and his wife Janet; the first store opened in 1997. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange, and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
History
Dean Hoyle left school with no qualifications, having a self confessed greater interest in football.[3] 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.[3]
In 1997, they opened their first shop under within the holding company Sportswift Ltd, purposefully choosing secondary retail locations which were cheaper.[3] 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.[3] This gave the company a profit margin advantage over rivals, including Clinton Cards.[4]
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).[3] 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.[5]
The couple put the business up for sale in January 2010[3] and on 8 April 2010, Charterhouse completed the £350 million purchase of the company.[6] This enabled Dean Hoyle to later buy Huddersfield Town F.C.[3] On 14 July 2011, Card Factory purchased gettingpersonal.co.uk for an undisclosed sum.[7] In May 2014, the company floated via an Initial Public Offering on the London Stock Exchange.[4]
Operations
The company operates some 900 stores.[6] Macmillan Cancer Support is the company's chosen charity; Card Factory donations to the charity had totalled £1 million by 2008[8] and £3 million by 2014.[9]
Controversy
The company has been successfully prosecuted for Health and Safety infringements on a number of occasions. Incidents have included poor stock management,[10] overstocking of stores,[11] damaged equipment, inadequate risk assessments and staff training.[12]
References
- 1 2 3 "Preliminary Results for the year ended 31 January 2017". Card Factory. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
- ↑ "About us". Card Factory. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Nicola Harrison (26 March 2010). "Dean and Janet Hoyle". Retail Week. Retrieved 21 May 2014.
- 1 2 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.
- 1 2 "Card Factory's £350m Private Equite Sale Completed". Yorkshire Evening Post. 8 April 2010. Retrieved 10 April 2010.
- ↑ "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.
- ↑ Charity cash on the cards from Dean - Local - SpenboroughGuardian Archived 1 February 2011 at WebCite
- ↑ "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. 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. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Card Factory. |