26-27_Cardsharp.qxp_Layout 1 20/05/2025 14:22 Page 2
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Buffett Time The world’s greatest investor, Warren Buffett, is finally retiring at the youthful age of 94. What a man. If you had invested £400 in just one of his fund’s shares in the early 1980s, it would be worth £2.1 million today. So, to Cardsharp’s mind, when he speaks, it is well worth listening. Warren Buffett’s recent retirement press conference was an absolute tour de force! Unlike Trump, who insists on an allies and sycophants-only policy for his events and only responds to carefully constructed easy bats, Warren took questions from all and sundry with real candour and sharp humour, which belied his advanced age. He was dismissive of private equity saying it produces only short-term rewards and its obsession with cost cutting robs potentially successful businesses of longterm investor returns. And what amused Cardsharp was his description of EBITIDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and
amortisation) which appear so often in financial reports these days as “Bullshit Earnings”, which “aim is to flatter” and urged investors to take these into account, as invariably the aim of quoting EBITIDA is to try and excuse and rationalise performance problems or add an extra unwarranted gloss to the figures. This set Cardsharp thinking about the recent financial performances of
two companies very close to our industry’s heart that have recently been in the news for financial performances. Namely Cardfactory and IG Design. Firstly, Cardfactory, our largest specialist greeting card retailer with over 1,000 roof tops in the UK. Its financial results for the year ending January 31 were published recently and in Cardsharp’s modest opinion they were pretty impressive, all things 26 PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
Above: Warren Buffett right up to his retirement at 94 has spoken a lot of sense. Bottom left: IG Design Group has mooted it is looking to sell off its Americas business, but it is no cause for a party.
considered. Overall sales were up 6%, thanks mainly to increased gift sales, while even its card sales were up by 0.7%. Revenue for the year was comfortably over half a £billion, rising from £510 million to £542 million in the 12 month period. The dreaded ETIBIDA tries to make out that there was a 6.3% rise in adjusted profit, whereas that profit before tax actually fell by £1.5 million to £64 million. But even then, mused Cardsharp, these are pretty respectable results, given the general health of the economy and consumer confidence, not to mention the ongoing challenges of bricks and mortar retailing. The plc also announced an increase in the dividend from 0.3 pence to 4.8 pence. Moreover, in contrast to most listed retailers who have been issuing gloomy warnings on future earnings, because of the increased rate of National Insurance Employers’ contribution and National Minimum Wage, the Cardfactory board seems relatively positive about the future and is particularly bullish about the company’s overseas trading relationships. Given that one of Cardfactory’s major investors, is the hugely successful Australian entrepreneur Brett Blundy, Cardsharp wonders whether Oz could be a major focus of attention going forward. Yet as ever with Cardfactory, the City was