Clinton cards sales rise as cost cutting pays off
BRITISH greeting cards retailer Clinton Cards posted a 26 per cent rise in first-half adjusted pre-tax profit yesterday, helped by higher sales across all product categories.
The firm, which put its Birthdays brand into administration last year and later bought back 196 of those stores, said it would seek the board’s approval to repurchase up to 14.9 per cent of its issued share capital.
It currently has about 206.9m shares outstanding.
While trading at the start of the second half had been more subdued than the first half, Clinton Cards said it had cut costs.
Capital expenditure, fell from £5.9m to £2.2m. Debts were also cut to £35.9m from £45.1m during the period.
For the six months to the end of January, the company reported adjusted pre-tax profit of £20.7m. Sales rose 20.8 per cent to £226.1m.