Card Factory CEO takes home bumper pay rise
The chief executive of Card Factory has seen his pay packet jump to more than £1.5m after the company’s sales surged.
The West Yorkshire-headquartered retailer has handed Darcy Willson-Rymer the pay rise for its latest financial year, taking home £942,559 in the prior 12 months.
The main change to the CEO’s salary was the £531,567 bonus he received based on what Card Factory’s average share price in the three months to 31 January, 2024.
As of that date, Card Factory’s share price stood at 93.4p.
The annual report comes after Card Factory posted a revenue of £542.5m for its financial year to 31 January, 2025, a rise of 6.2 per cent.
Over the same period, according to figures filed with the London Stock Exchange, the retailer’s pre-tax profit slipped by 2.3 per cent to £64.1m.
Card Factory hails ‘strength and resilience’
At the time, Willson-Rymer said: “Our performance in FY25 demonstrates the strength and resilience of Card Factory and our strategy as we continue to evolve the business into a leading global celebrations group.
“We delivered strong revenue growth, outperforming the wider celebration occasions market.
“Further expansion of our store estate combined with continued development of our gift and celebration essentials categories, were key drivers of our performance.”
“We are now halfway into our ‘Opening Our New Future’ growth strategy and I am pleased with what we have achieved across the business.
“With entry into new markets, including the US, and expansion of existing partnerships, we are reaching more customers, in more locations.”
“As we move into FY26, good momentum has continued during our Spring seasons.
“Despite an uncertain and inflationary backdrop, we remain confident in our ability to deliver mid-to-high single-digit percentage profit growth, underpinned by our strategic focus, our ongoing productivity and efficiency programme and our strong financial discipline.
“I want to thank our dedicated colleagues whose passion and focus on helping our customers celebrate life’s moments, continues to drive our success.”
Card Factory’s share price plummeted in September 2024 despite the return of its interim dividend after a revenue boost.
Its shares went from being priced at 143p each down to 105p in a handful of days and as low as 79.6p before they started to rebound.
However, Card Factory’s share price has not fully recovered and is currently standing at 95p.