Card Factory - The Piazza Centre - geograph

Card Factory 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 Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

founded in

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...

Dean Hoyle Dean Hoyle (born 16 April 1967) is the founder and former owner of Card Factory and the chairman of Championship side Huddersfield Town. In 2015, Hoyle became chairman and majority shareholder of British discount retailer, The Works. According ...

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 London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...

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, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

. 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 securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

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 known for selling greeting cards, together with soft toys and related gift products. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange a ...

. 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 the world's seventh-largest by revenue and sixth-largest by number of employees professional services network of independent accounting and consulting member firms which provide assurance, tax and advisory services to private ...

); Darren Bryant (group finance director, ex

PricewaterhouseCoopers PricewaterhouseCoopers is an international professional services brand of firms, operating as partnerships under the PwC brand. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounting ...

). 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 birthday ...

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 Charterhouse may refer to: * Charterhouse (monastery), of the Carthusian religious order Charterhouse may also refer to: Places * The Charterhouse, Coventry, a former monastery * Charterhouse School, an English public school in Surrey London ...

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 football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The team have played home games at the Kirklees Stadium since moving from Leeds Road in 1994. Th ...

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 investment ...

on the

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

Aldi Aldi (stylised as ALDI) is the common company brand name of two German multinational family-owned discount supermarket chains operating over 10,000 stores in 20 countries. The chain was founded by brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht in 1946, when t ...

Matalan Matalan is a British fashion and homeware retailer based in Knowsley, Merseyside. It was established by John Hargreaves in 1985, and is still owned by the Hargreaves family. , the company employed over 13,000, and had 230 stores in the United K ...

and

The Reject Shop The Reject Shop Limited () 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 356 sto ...

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, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. 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 consti ...

and

Funky Pigeon WHSmith (also written WH Smith, and known colloquially as Smith's and formerly as W. H. Smith & Son) is a British retailer, headquartered in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of high street, railway station, airport, port, hospital and ...

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

Costcutter Costcutter Supermarkets Group is a business based in the United Kingdom and Ireland primarily operating as a symbol group supplier to various independently owned convenience shops and off-licences. It has operations in the United Kingdom, the ...

boss Darcy Willson-Rymer was appointed as chief executive.

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, a ...

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, overstocking of stores, damaged equipment, inadequate risk assessments and staff training.

References

External links

Card Factory website

Getting Personal 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 1997 establishments in the United Kingdom Companies established in 1997