Card Factory has been given a double boost as sales exceeded expectations on the re-opening of stores and the company completed a £225m refinancing package.
The Wakefield retailer had warned in January that it was in danger of breaching banking covenants as continuing local and national lockdowns hit sales.
But now it says the re-opening of non-essential retail in the various nations of the 海角视频 across April has seen sales exceeding expectations, with like-for-like sales in the first five weeks only marginally down on the same period in 2019.
The company said it was seeing fewer customers in its stores, but that was offset by those who did come spending more. It said it would “continue to monitor changes to customer behaviour to meet their needs”.
Sales from the company’s online channels have fallen as customers have also been able to shop in stores, but this was above pre-pandemic levels and in line with management expectations, it said.
The company also announced that it had completed a refinancing package with its existing banking syndicate, with facilities of £225m giving more liquidity than the previous £200m package.
The new facilities are made up of a £100m revolving credit facility, a £75m term loan facility and £50m Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS) facilities. Restrictions on dividends will apply while the CLBILS facilities remain outstanding.
Chief executive Darcy Willson-Rymer said: “I am pleased we have secured increased banking facilities, which afford the group the headroom required to focus on realising the growth strategy.
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“In particular, enhancing our card-led proposition through all sales channels and accelerating the increase in our capability and capacity to fulfil sales demand via our online channel, and so capitalise upon the move to online adopted by more customers over the last year.
“We welcome our colleagues and customers back into our stores, providing the quality ranges at competitive prices which our customers have missed whilst stores were closed.
“As national restrictions are eased, we continue to prioritise providing a safe working and shopping environment in all our stores. The strong trading performance in our stores over the last few weeks reflects the extensive preparations to maximise meeting our customers’ needs completed by the wider Card Factory team.”