Moonpig Group PLC (LSE:MOON) forecast annual revenue at the upper end of its £270mln-£285mln guidance range and said it expects customer purchase frequency to be 15% above pre-pandemic levels at the year end.
The online card and gift retailer reported revenue of £142.6mln for the six months to 31 October 2021, a fall of 8.5% on the same period last year, which benefited from increased online shopping as a result of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions.
Compared with two years ago, before the pandemic struck, revenue soared by 115%, reflecting significant growth in the company’s customer base and purchase frequency.
Underlying profit (adjusted EBITDA) amounted to £35mln in the first half, a fall of 15.1% on last year but 132.5% higher than in the first half of 2019/20.
The adjusted EBITDA margin of 24.5% is consistent with the medium-term target of 24%-25%, Moonpig said.
The company delivered 19.5 million orders in the first half, up from 9.5 million two years before.
The retention rate for customers acquired during the pandemic is high, with 89% of year-to-date revenue derived from existing customers, it said.
The company’s app accounted for over 42% of orders during the period, while gifting accounted for 48% of total revenue, up from 44% last year.
Moonpig chief executive Nickyl Raithatha said the half-year results demonstrated “even stronger customer retention and our highest-ever proportion of revenue from gifting”.
“With revenue more than doubling over the past two years, we are confident that we have achieved an enduring transformation in the scale of our business. The long-term opportunity remains vast, and we have never been in a better position to capture this growth,” he added.