CARD Factory has swung back to a profit for the past half-year after the relaxation of pandemic restrictions helped sales surge.

Shares in the high street retailer moved higher in early trading yesterday.

The London-listed firm posted a pretax profit of £14.3m for the six months to July, rebounding from a £6.5m loss over the same period a year earlier. It came as revenues lifted by 69.4 per cent to £198m for the six month period, compared with the previous year.

This was driven by an 81.8 per cent jump in store revenues following a "shift of customer spend back towards the high street".

Card Factory said it expects to be able to continue to manage cost inflation through "targeted price increases" and measures to improve efficiency.

Shares in the company improved by 1.4 per cent to 46.05p in early trading yesterday and were down 1.3 per cent at close of play.

PA

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