Our vision is to be the leading omnichannel retailer in celebration occasions
cardfactory was founded on a simple, yet powerful insight: the appeal of sourcing and selling greeting cards direct to the customer at low prices. Since the opening of our first store 28 years ago our ambition has grown to support customers in all their celebration needs. The UK market for celebration occasions is large, estimated to be worth c.£13.4 billion. This includes the greeting cards market at c.£1.4 billion, gifts at c.£10 billion and the market of celebration essentials at c.£2 billion.
As part of our Opening Our New Future strategy, we are expanding our market focus from our core in greeting cards to target the broader celebration occasions market.
Greeting cards
c. £1.4bn UK
The current core of our business.
Gifts
c. £10bn UK
(Identified target) Includes categories such as soft toys, stationery, books, candles and confectionery.
Celebration essentials
c. £2bn UK
Includes party and balloon categories alongside other card adjacent categories such as wrap, bags, tape and stamps.
UK greeting cards market FY24: Key highlights
39.8m
number of UK adults who purchased a greeting card in FY25
780m
Number of cards purchased in the UK
93 %
of the adult population purchased items from the Celebration essentials category
Source: cardfactory bespoke annual UK greeting cards market surveys Feb 2023 and Feb 2024 (3034+participants annually) commissioned with Dynata.
International market presence and opportunity
Bringing our exceptional card, gift and celebration essentials offer to global consumers.
In recent years, we have been using our proven partnerships model to expand our reach internationally as we access an £80 billion market across our seven territories of interest; USA, Canada, Middle East, India, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.
cardfactory’s international expansion has been supported by targeted acquisitions to enhance capabilities in key territories. This started with the acquisition of SA Greetings (South Africa) in April 2023, Garlanna (Ireland) in September 2024 and Garven (Minnesota, US) in December 2024.
c. £80bn+
Card, gifts and celebration essentials market size
7
Markets of interest
USA, Canada, Middle East, India, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa