Wakefield-based greeting card and gift retailer Card Factory said its revenue increased 69% to £198 million in the six months to July 31, 2022, “predominantly due to the increased number of available trading days in the period.”

The company’s stores were closed for over two months due to lockdown restrictions in the first half of the prior year.

Card Factory said it made a first-half profit before tax of £14.3 million compared to a loss before tax of £6.5 million in the prior year’s first half.

Card Factory CEO Darcy Willson-Rymer said: “We are pleased to report a strong performance through the half which reflects continued good momentum within the business, as well as the reversal of lockdown trends with customers choosing to return to the high street.

“The pronounced shift in spend back towards stores supports our continued conviction in the value of our store estate within our customer proposition and as an enabler in our omnichannel ambitions.

“During the half, we have made good strategic progress as we focus on evolving our customer proposition across different channels and taking it to new markets.

“We recently opened stores in central London for the first time, with two trial stores forming part of our strategy to increase our presence in underpenetrated markets.

“We have also rolled our new model store format out to include five stores as we focus on evolving the in store customer experience.

“The inflationary pressures we are all facing into are well known, however the pre-emptive actions we have taken, such as the fixing of energy costs until September 2024 and targeted price increases, have helped to offset these.

“Despite these ongoing challenges, we remain confident that our customers will continue to want to celebrate life’s moments and that value for money is increasingly important to them.

“Card Factory offers great value for money across a range of products and price points, and our experience so far this year confirms how well this resonates with consumers.

“Whilst we remain mindful of the challenging economic backdrop as we head towards the Christmas season, we feel well placed to navigate this and retain our focus on transitioning Card Factory to a market leading omnichannel retailer of cards and gifts.”