Moonpig signs off year with jump in profits
MOONPIG.COM, the online greetings card company, reported a 20 per cent rise in sales last year driven by growth at both its core and personalised card divisions.
The internet retailer, founded 12 years ago by ex-commodities trader Nick Jenkins, said sales rose £7m to £45.8m in the year to 30 April.
Profits jumped 10 per cent to £12m compared with £10.9m the previous year, according to the latest accounts filed on Companies’ House.
Moonpig’s founder Jenkins sold the business in July last year to Photobox, a venture capital-backed online photo business, for £120m.
The group said net margins were hit by the government’s clampdown on a VAT loophole on shipments between Guernsey – where Moonpig’s cards are produced – and the UK.
It was also forced to take a £770,000 write down on the freehold value of its factory in Guernsey after a fall in property prices.
Jenkins, who was given the nickname Moonpig at school, spent eight years working for Glencore in Russia before coming up with the idea for the greetings card business while studying for an MBA at Cranfield.
He was inspired by his own habit of Tippex-ing the messages on cards he bought for friends and replacing them with his own greetings.
The company now employs 109 people and sends out more than 12m cards a year. It also sells the rights to its card designs to other publishers including Paperlink, Disney and The Great British Card Company.
Jenkins still acts as an adviser to the business, which also sells bouquets and personalised mugs, posters and T-shirts.
PhotoBox, which claims to be Europe’s largest online photo processing service with 22m members, last week reported a loss of £22m after writing down the value of its acquisition of Moonpig.