Our Markets

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 25 years ago our ambition has grown to support customers in all their celebration needs. As such we define our market as Celebration Occasions, estimated as an £13.4 billion addressable market in the UK. Within this, our historic core is the £1.4 billion UK greeting card market. This has provided a platform for growth within the adjacent c. £10 billion gift and c. £2 billion UK celebration essentials markets.

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 FY23 - key highlights

19.9

Number of cards bought per UK shopper, per annum

827m

Number of cards purchased in the UK, up from 811m in FY22

80%

Proportion of UK adults who purchased greeting cards

_{Source: cardfactory annual UK Greeting Card Market Survey FY23 (4,501 recipients) commissioned with Dynata, February 2023.}

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. Existing partners include The Reject Shop in Australia and Liwa in the Middle East. With our acquisition of SA Greetings in South Africa, we now have our first presence within that market both as a retailer and wholesaler.

c. £80bn+

Card, gifts and celebration essentials market size

Markets of interest

USA, Canada, Middle East, India, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa