Moonpig: customer purchasing starting to normalise

Moonpig: database of reminders exceeds 50m
Moonpig: database of reminders exceeds 50m

Moonpig has posted its maiden results as a PLC, and has flagged that the incredible growth at the business fuelled by the pandemic will be tempered in the future as life in general settles down to a new normality.

Group sales in the year to 30 April more than doubled, rising by 113% from £173.1m to £368.2m, while adjusted EBITDA was also up 107% to £92.1m. 

However, non-adjusted pre-tax profits grew by just 3%, to £32.9m, after taking into account IPO costs, legacy incentive costs and charges or credits relating to the pension provision and associated indemnity asset at Greetz in the Netherlands.

Moonpig said it delivered 50.9m orders in the period “helping our customers to stay connected with their loved ones during lockdown”.

The group noted: “As restrictions have eased, we have seen customer purchase frequency start to normalise from elevated levels, and we expect this to continue until frequency is approximately 5% ahead of pre-Covid-19 levels, in line with previous expectations.”

The business had grown its database of reminders to over 50m by the financial year-end. “Our goal remains a hyper-personalised customer reminder journey, which we view as a driver of future growth”.

However, in the medium-term the group reiterated plans to target sales growth “in the mid teens” and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 24%-25%.

Chief executive Nickyl Raithatha described the period as a “milestone year” in the firm’s plans to become “the ultimate gifting companion”.

“We have completed a three-year technology and data re-platforming project, which allows us to leverage our unique gifting dataset in new ways by personalising the customer experience and accelerating the pace at which we deploy innovation,” he stated. 

“The scale of our proprietary data, with over 50 million reminders set, is a growing source of competitive advantage. Our customer proposition continues to improve, with enhancements to our card and gifting ranges, and more delivery options than ever before.”

He described the long-term growth opportunity as  “vast”, with the majority of the card and gifting market still offline, and said Moonpig had “never been in a better position to capture this growth”.

The group added a raft of new gifting brands during the period, including Lego and Cath Kidston, and also brought in Sunday deliveries through its partnership with Royal Mail. 

Moonpig’s share price fell by nearly 10% to 382.22p on the news. The group was valued at around £1.2bn when it floated in February, with shares priced at 350p at the time.