Board Appointment

RNS Number : 7884C

Card Factory PLC

20 April 2017

 

Card Factory plc

Board Appointment

Kris Lee appointed as CFO

Card Factory plc ("Card Factory" or the "Group"), the UK's leading specialist retailer of greeting cards, dressings and gifts, is pleased to announce the appointment of Kristian (Kris) Lee to the Board as Chief Financial Officer.

Kris has extensive experience in senior financial and commercial roles in the retail sector.  For the past five years, he has been Group CFO of The Edinburgh Woollen Mill Group, the fast growing privately owned retailer with over 1000 UK stores across a number of brands including The Edinburgh Woollen Mill, Peacocks, Austin Reed, Country Casuals, Viyella, Jane Norman and Ponden Home.  The role encompassed wide commercial and strategic responsibilities including Finance, IT, E-Commerce, Distribution, M&A and business turnarounds.

Prior to joining The Edinburgh Woollen Mill Group, he held senior finance roles at Brighthouse Retail, General Healthcare Group and Caudwell Group. He also spent 14 years at Allsports (Retail) Ltd and the John David Group plc (now JD Sports Fashion plc).

Kris will succeed Darren Bryant who, as announced on 26 January, is to retire from the role after eight years with the Group.  Kris's appointment will take effect at a date to be agreed once his departure date from Edinburgh Woollen Mill has been finalised.  Kris's current employment terms include a twelve month notice period.

Karen Hubbard, CEO of Card Factory, said:

"In Kris, we have found an outstanding successor to Darren who has made a significant contribution to the sustained growth of Card Factory over the past eight years and leaves with our best wishes for the future.  Kris has significant financial and commercial experience within retail and a clear passion for the sector.  He also has the energy, drive and entrepreneurial mindset that will fit well with the Card Factory culture and will be invaluable as we move forward with our growth strategy.  I very much look forward to working with him."

Kris Lee said:

"Card Factory has a fantastic track record of growth and is a business I have admired greatly for a number of years.  I am very excited to be joining and look forward to working with Karen, the Board and all Card Factory colleagues."

There are no disclosures required pursuant to Listing Rule 9.6.13.

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For further information, please contact:

MHP Communications                                                                   020 3128 8100

John Olsen / Simon Hockridge

Notes to Editors:

Card Factory is the UK's leading specialist retailer of greeting cards, dressings and gifts. It focuses on the value and mid-market segments of the UK's large and resilient greeting cards market, and also offers a wide range of other quality products, including small gifts and gift dressings, at affordable prices. Card Factory principally operates through its nationwide chain of over 850 Card Factory stores, as well as through its online offerings: www.gettingpersonal.co.uk and www.cardfactory.co.uk.

The Group's clear strategy is focused on four pillars of growth:

- continuing to grow like-for-like sales in existing stores;

- continuing to roll out profitable new stores;

- continuing to focus on delivering business efficiencies; and

- increasing penetration of the complementary online market.

Card Factory commenced operations in 1997 with just one store and has expanded its store estate primarily through organic growth into a market-leading value retailer with a nationwide presence. The Group's stores are in a wide range of locations including on high streets in small towns through to major cities, shopping centre developments, out-of-town retail parks and factory outlet centres.

Since 2005, Card Factory has developed a vertically integrated business model with an in-house design team, an in-house printing facility and central warehousing capacity of over 360,000 sq. ft.  This model differentiates the Group from its competitors by significantly reducing costs and adding value to customers in terms of both price and quality, underpinning the Group's motto: "compare the quality, compare the price".

In the financial year ended 31 January 2017, the Group achieved revenue growth of 4.3% to £398.2m (FY16: £381.6m) and underlying EBITDA growth of 3.8% to £98.5m (FY16: £95.0m) at a margin of 24.7% (FY16: 24.9%).

 

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