industry retail founded 1997 founders dean & janet hoyle headquarters wakefield west yorkshire key people geoff cooper chairman richard hayes ceo products greeting cards calendars revenue 353.3 million 2015 1 operating income 79.4 million 2015 1 net income 33.2 million 2015 1 owner invesco 27 % artemis 12 % old mutual global investors 10 % number of employees 6 500 2014 website www.cardfactory.co.uk card factory southside wandsworth london card factory store in huddersfield west yorkshire card factory shop in wetherby west yorkshire card factory is a chain of greeting card and gift stores in united kingdom founded by dean hoyle and his wife janet ; the first store opened in 1997 . it is listed on the london stock exchange and is a constituent of the ftse 250 index . contents 1 history 2 operations 3 controversy 4 references 5 external links history edit dean hoyle left school with no qualifications having a self confessed greater interest in football . 2 with his wife janet from 1993 they began buying cards wholesale and selling them from the back of their van at car boot sales and public open air events . 2 in 1997 they opened their first shop under within the holding company sportswift ltd purposefully choosing secondary retail locations which were cheaper . 2 after opening a few stores whilst janet founded and headed up the internal design and print function dean concentrated on expanding the business with a nominal target of 500 retail outlets . 2 this gave the company a profit margin advantage over rivals including clinton cards 3 allowing their advertising to claim that they have not increased prices for ten years . the couple built a board to expand the business including keith pacey chairman of maplin ; richard hayes managing director their ex bank manager ; chris beck commercial director ex grant thornton ; darren bryant group finance director ex pricewaterhousecoopers . 2 on 28 november 2008 card factory purchased about 80 of the 288 stores from failed greetings card company celebrations group which traded as card warehouse and cardfair as part of a rescue package securing around 500 of the 1 800 jobs at celebrations . 4 the couple put the business up for sale in january 2010 2 and on 8 april 2010 charterhouse completed the 350 million purchase of the company . 5 this enabled dean hoyle to later buy huddersfield town f.c. 2 on 14 july 2011 card factory purchased gettingpersonal.co.uk for an undisclosed sum . 6 in may 2014 the company floated via an initial public offering on the london stock exchange . 3 operations edit the company currently employs around 6 500 people 5 mostly in front line positions in its stores . their advertising claims they have not increased prices for ten years . macmillan cancer support is the company s chosen charity ; card factory donations to the charity had totalled 1 million by 2008 7 and 3 million by 2014 . 8 controversy edit the company has been successfully prosecuted for health and safety infringements on a number of occasions . incidents have included poor stock management 9 overstocking of stores 10 damaged equipment inadequate risk assessments and staff training . 11 references edit a b c preliminary results for the year ended 31 january 2015 . card factory . retrieved 26 march 2015 . a b c d e f g nicola harrison 26 march 2010 . dean and janet hoyle . retail week . retrieved 21 may 2014 . a b nick bubb 19 may 2014 . nick bubb s verdict are the card factory and game ipos growth stories . retail week . retrieved 21 may 2014 . wakefield card firm card factory s rescue package saves 500 jobs . yorkshire evening post . 28 november 2008 . retrieved 15 july 2011 . a b card factory s 350m private equite sale completed . yorkshire evening post . 8 april 2010 . retrieved 10 april 2010 . gettingpersonal.co.uk online retailer of personalised gifts is sold to card factory for undisclosed sum . manchester evening news . 14 july 2011 . retrieved 14 july 2011 . charity cash on the cards from dean local spenboroughguardian archived 1 february 2011 at webcite macmillan has been working in partnership with card factory since 2006 and this year saw their total reach 3 million . . macmillan cancer support . retrieved 10 february 2015 . card retailer culpable for pensioner s fall . health and safety at work . 1 october 2008 . retrieved 5 may 2013 . firm fined over safety breach . walesonline . 30 october 2008 . retrieved 5 may 2013 . health and safety breaches cost firm over 40 000 . leicester city council . 10 december 2009 . retrieved 5 may 2013 . external links edit card factory website getting personal website wikimedia commons has media related to card factory . v t e ftse 100 ftse 250 companies of the united kingdom 3i infrastructure aa aberdeen asset management aberforth smaller companies trust acacia mining aggreko aldermore group alliance trust allied minds amec foster wheeler ao world ascential ashmore group assura atkins auto trader group aveva balfour beatty bankers investment trust barr a.g. bba aviation beazley group bellway berendsen berkeley group holdings bank of georgia bh macro big yellow group b & m european retail value bodycote booker group bovis homes group brewin dolphin holdings british empire trust britvic brown n. btg plc cairn energy caledonia investments capital & counties properties card factory carillion centamin cineworld city of london investment trust clarkson close brothers group cls holdings cmc markets cobham computacenter countryside properties countrywide cranswick crest nicholson cybg daejan holdings dairy crest debenhams dechra pharmaceuticals derwent london dfs dignity diploma domino s pizza drax group dunelm group edinburgh investment trust electra private equity electrocomponents elementis entertainment one essentra esure euromoney institutional investor evraz f & c commercial property trust fidelity china special situations fidelity european values fidessa group finsbury growth & income trust firstgroup fisher james & sons foreign & colonial investment trust g4s galliford try gcp infrastructure investments genesis emerging markets fund genus go ahead group grafton group grainger great portland estates greencoat uk wind greencore greene king greggs gvc holdings halfords group halma hansteen holdings harbourvest global private equity hastings group hays henderson group hicl infrastructure company hill & smith hiscox hochschild mining homeserve howdens joinery hunting ibstock icap ig group holdings imi inchcape indivior inmarsat intermediate capital group international personal finance international public partnerships investec ip group jardine lloyd thompson jd sports john laing group john laing infrastructure fund jpmorgan american investment trust jpmorgan emerging markets investment trust jpmorgan indian investment trust jrp group jupiter fund management just eat kaz minerals keller kennedy wilson europe real estate kier group ladbrokes laird lancashire holdings londonmetric property man group marshalls marston s mccarthy & stone meggitt mercantile investment trust metro bank millennium & copthorne hotels mitchells & butlers mitie moneysupermarket.com group monks investment trust morgan advanced materials murray international trust national express group nb global ncc nmc health ocado group onesavings bank p2p global investments pagegroup paragon group of companies paypoint paysafe pennon group perpetual income & growth investment trust personal assets trust petrofac pets at home phoenix group holdings playtech polar capital technology trust polypipe premier farnell pz cussons qinetiq rank group rathbone brothers redefine international redrow regus group renewables infrastructure group renishaw rentokil initial restaurant group rightmove rit capital partners riverstone energy rotork rpc group safestore saga savills scottish investment trust scottish mortgage investment trust segro senior serco shaftesbury shawbrook bank sig plc smith ds smurfit kappa group softcat sophos spectris spirax sarco engineering spire healthcare sports direct ssp group stagecoach group st. modwen properties supergroup svg capital synthomer talktalk group tate & lyle ted baker telecom plus temple bar investment trust templeton emerging markets investment trust thomas cook group tritax big box reit tr property investment trust tullett prebon tullow oil ubm udg healthcare uk commercial property trust ultra electronics holdings unite group vectura group vedanta resources vesuvius victrex virgin money weir group wetherspoon j d w h smith william hill witan investment trust wizz air woodford patient capital trust wood group workspace group worldwide healthcare trust zoopla retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title card factory & oldid 718972514 categories retail companies of the united kingdomretail companies established in 1997companies based in wakefieldhidden categories use dmy dates from november 2013commons category with local link same as on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia commons languages add links this page was last modified on 6 may 2016 at 19 32 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view