Card Factory plc is a retailer of

greeting card A greeting card is a piece of card stock, usually with an illustration or photo, made of high quality paper featuring an expression of friendship or other sentiment. Although greeting cards are usually given on special occasions such as birthday ...

s and gifts in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

founded in

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 109,766 in the 2021 census, up from 99,251 in the 2011 census. The city is the administrative centre of the wider Metropolit ...

by Dean Hoyle and his wife Janet. The first store opened in 1997, and by 2020 the company had over 1,000 stores. The company also operates two retail websites and has mobile apps for both iPhone and Android. It is listed on the

London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

History

Origins to 2009

Dean Hoyle left school with no qualifications, having a self confessed greater interest in

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

. With his wife Janet, from 1993 they began buying cards wholesale, and selling them from the back of their van at

car boot sale Car boot sales or boot fairs are a form of market in which private individuals come together to sell household and garden goods. They are popular in the United Kingdom, where they are often referred to simply as 'car boots'. Some scientific ...

s and public open air events. In 1997, they opened their first shop under within the

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...

Sportswift Ltd, purposefully choosing secondary retail locations which were cheaper. 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. This gave the company a profit margin advantage over rivals, including

Clinton Cards Clintons, previously branded as Clinton Cards, is a chain of stores in the UK founded in 1968 by Don Lewin and best known for selling greeting cards. It also sells soft toys and related gift products. It was listed on the London Stock Excha ...

. 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 Grant Thornton is a multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the seventh-largest in the world by revenue and the sixth-largest by number of employees. The network consists of independent accounting an ...

); Darren Bryant (group finance director, ex

PricewaterhouseCoopers PricewaterhouseCoopers, also known as PwC, is a multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is one of the Big Four accounting firms, alon ...

). On 28 November 2008, Card Factory purchased about 80 of the 288 stores from failed

greetings card A greeting card is a piece of card stock, usually with an illustration or photo, made of high quality paper featuring an expression of friendship or other sentiment. Although greeting cards are usually given on special occasions such as birthdays ...

company

Celebrations Group Celebrations Group was a chain of British greeting cards stores. Most of their stores traded under the names of Cardfair and Card Warehouse. Celebrations Group was formed in 2006, when it purchased part of the Greeting Card Group from administrato ...

(which traded as Card Warehouse and Cardfair), as part of a rescue package, securing around 500 of the 1,800 jobs at Celebrations.

2010s

The couple put the business up for sale in January 2010 and on 8 April 2010, Charterhouse completed the £350 million purchase of the company which at the time operated 480 stores. This enabled Dean Hoyle to later buy

Huddersfield Town F.C. Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional association football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. They compete in , the third tier of English football. Huddersfield Town were founded on 15 August 1908. T ...

On 14 July 2011, Card Factory purchased gettingpersonal.co.uk, an online retailer of personalised gifts, for an undisclosed sum. In May 2014, the company floated via an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

on the

. In April 2015, the company launched its own website, cardfactory.co.uk. In 2019, the company began supplying cards to

Aldi Aldi (German pronunciation: ), stylised as ALDI, is the common company brand name of two German multinational family-owned discount supermarket chains operating over 12,000 stores in 18 countries. The chain was founded by brothers Karl and ...

Matalan Matalan Retail Ltd is a British clothing and homewares retailer based in Knowsley, Merseyside, founded by John Hargreaves in 1985. In August 1988, its operations director at the time, Duncan Sullivan, transformed Matalan into an out-of-town wa ...

and

The Reject Shop The Reject Shop is an Australian discount variety store chain selling a range of goods such as food, snacks, gift cards and party, health and beauty aids, cleaning supplies, storage, kitchenware, homewares and seasonal items in 375 store locat ...

2020s

Card Factory shops were shut for much of 2020 and the beginning of 2021 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Revenue from the website more than doubled during this period, and the website was relaunched in August 2020 to enable cards to be personalised, matching similar offerings to

Moonpig Moonpig is an internet-based business whose head offices are situated in London and Guernsey. The company's business model is mainly selling personalised greeting cards, flowers and gifts. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a const ...

and Funky Pigeon. In late 2020, the company launched mobile apps for both iPhone and Android devices. In December 2020,

Costcutter Costcutter is a convenience shop symbol group operating as two separate entities with different ownerships in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. It previously had stores in Poland. The shops are independently owned and join the gro ...

boss Darcy Willson-Rymer was appointed as chief executive. In 2024, Card Factory sold an exclusive

East 17 East 17 are an English pop boy band started by Tony Mortimer, Brian Harvey, John Hendy, and Terry Coldwell in 1991. They are best known for their 1994 hit single " Stay Another Day", which was the UK Christmas number one that year. The g ...

Christmas card A Christmas card is a greeting card sent as part of the traditional celebration of Christmas in order to convey between people a range of sentiments related to Christmastide and the holiday season. Christmas cards are usually exchanged during ...

to mark the 30th anniversary of the band's Christmas single ''

Stay Another Day "Stay Another Day" is a song recorded by British boy band East 17, released on 21 November 1994 by London Records as the third single from their second album, ''Steam'' (1994). The song was written by band member Tony Mortimer with Rob Kean an ...

''. A portion of the revenue raised by sales of the card were donated to

music therapy Music therapy, an allied health profession, "is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music t ...

charity Nordoff and Robbins.

Operations

The company operates some 1,000 stores.

Macmillan Cancer Support Macmillan Cancer Support is one of the largest British charities and provides specialist health care, information and financial support to people affected by cancer. It also looks at the social, emotional and practical impact cancer can have, an ...

is the company's chosen charity; Card Factory donations to the charity had totalled £1 million by 2008 and £3 million by 2014.

Controversy

The company has been successfully prosecuted for Health and Safety infringements on a number of occasions. Incidents have included poor stock management, blocking of fire exits, overstocking of stores, damaged equipment, inadequate risk assessments and staff training. In 2008, the company was fined £15,000 after an elderly woman tripped over a cardboard box that had fallen from a display area in an aisle and fractured her thigh. She was rushed to a local hospital, where she had to undergo an emergency hip operation. She later died while recovering from the incident, after catching

Clostridioides difficile ''Clostridioides difficile'' ( syn. ''Clostridium difficile'') is a bacterium known for causing serious diarrheal infections, and may also cause colon cancer. It is known also as ''C. difficile'', or ''C. diff'' (), and is a Gram-positive spec ...

. The company was fined under Regulation 3 of the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995, for failing to report the incident promptly. In December 2024, the company faced criticism for not meeting recommended gender diversity targets on its board. Despite a prior commitment to achieve 40% female representation by December 2024, the company maintained only two women on its six-member board, stating it was not in shareholders' interests to appoint an additional director solely to meet this target.

References

External links

Card Factory website
{{Authority control Greeting cards British brands Retail companies of the United Kingdom Retail companies established in 1997 Companies based in Wakefield 2014 initial public offerings Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange Companies in the FTSE SmallCap Index 1997 establishments in the United Kingdom Companies established in 1997