Card Factory shares dip as footfall slumps

Card Factory has sounded yet another alarm over the health of Britain’s high streets, saying slumping footfall has led to softer sales.

Shares in the greetings cards and gifts retailer slipped 15p, or 4%, to 367.8p after it said an “overall reduction in footfall offset continuing growth in average spend” and meant like-for-like sales in its first quarter were “softer than levels recently achieved”.

The comments follow downbeat assessments of consumer confidence from the likes of Next and reports of lacklustre sales blamed on unpredictable weather.

Reiterating a full-year like-for-like sales target of between 1.4% and 3.2%, new boss Karen Hubbard said Card Factory was “not completely immune to the weaker consumer confidence seen in 2016” but “the market for greetings cards in the UK has proven highly resilient in the past”.

As at April 30, the high street chain had 834 shops.