Moonpig more than doubles revenue as lockdown delivers trading boom
Online card retailer Moonpig has more than doubled its revenue in its first annual results since a bumper London stock market float earlier this year.
The greetings card specialist posted revenue of £368.2m in the year to the end of April, a huge jump from the £173.1m recorded in the previous year.
Reported pre-tax profit ticked up three per cent to £32.9m as the pandemic fuelled record trading.
Moonpig said the growth reflected both an increase in its customer base and higher purchase frequency.
However, shares in the company dropped more than six per cent as it warned the rate of growth would slow.
Over the last year Moonpig completed a three-year revamp of its platform and delivered more than 50m orders.
For the full year, Moonpig’s app accounted for 37 per cent of all orders. It also topped the app charts on iOS and Android on several occasions.
The retailer said it had also brought in a number of new services, including augmented reality e-cards and Sunday delivery.
Moonpig, which saw its shares jump 25 per cent following its initial public offering in February, said it had seen trading start to ease from record highs during the pandemic.
It expects purchase levels to reduce to approximately five per cent ahead of pre-Covid levels, in line with previous expectations.
Moonpig forecast full-year revenue of between £250m and £260m in 2022 — below trading for this year but roughly 45 per cent to 50 per cent higher than 2020.
“With stores of high street rivals shuttered and supermarkets the only main rivals in lockdown, it’s little surprise Moonpig rooted out a surge in new customers, and its e-commerce platform was geared up to sell plenty more celebratory ranges alongside cards, a product mix which should bode well for future growth,” said Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.
“The easing of restrictions risks sales at the company coming down to earth with a bump but the stop start nature of the recovery, has kept the sales rolling in for now, albeit at a slower pace.”
In the medium term the company said it will target annual revenue growth in the mid-teens and an adjusted Ebitda margin of roughly 25 per cent.
“The past year was a milestone year for Moonpig Group as we accelerated the delivery of our strategy to become the ultimate gifting companion, doubled both revenue and Adjusted Ebitda, dispatched over 50m customer orders and floated on the London Stock Exchange,” said chief executive Nickyl Raithatha.
“In the past year we have delivered an enduring transformation and step-change in the scale of our business. The long-term growth opportunity remains vast, with the majority of the card and gifting market still offline, and we have never been in a better position to capture this growth.”