Moonpig owner Photobox full-year EBITDA jumps 19%

The group, which specialises in personalised products, said its biggest brands - photo gift etailer Photobox and Moonpig - both achieved double digit sales growth as they widened their product ranges and expanded overseas.

EBITDA margin increased 0.7 percentage points to 13.4% over the year and gross margin improved to 52.5% of revenue, benefiting from higher volumes, productivity improvements and better cost management.

Sales jumped 16%, adjusted for currency exchanges, to £101m at the Photobox brand as personalised products and the wall décor category continued to grow ahead of the market, according to the group.

It said that its investment in product breadth and customer acquisition was delivering “solid results”.

Photobox is also growing outside its core markets in the UK and France, most notably in Australia where it launched in October 2012.

Moonpig revenues jumped 15% to £46m as its evolved product range helped boost gift purchasing at the cards specialist.

The group has created the Incubator, a new team focused on business development, product expansion and international growth, and which drove its acquisition of StickyGram, which specialises in transforming Instagram photos into magnets, in June. The service has already been expanded to offer personalised phone cases.

The Incubator team has also developed and launched PaperShaker, which targets the invitations and announcements market, in the UK and France with further European expansion planned soon.

Photobox chief executive Stan Laurent said: “We are very pleased to report on another year of progress, with the group making significant strides in its ambition to strengthen its leadership in the online market for personalised products. Our leading brands PhotoBox and Moonpig are increasingly focused on bringing their leading product ranges and customer experience to international and mobile users.

“We’re also excited by our recent acquisition of StickyGram and the launch of PaperShaker adding further breadth and depth to both our product offering and geographic reach. As a result of these developments,coupled with our continued investment in mobile and social innovation, we are confident of continued growth in the future.”

The group, which is backed by private equity firms including Index Ventures and Highland Capital Partners, said it had achieved “solid sales momentum” across all brands in its current financial year and it is confident this will continue in the lead up to Christmas.

It plans to maintain top line growth in the full year while investing in its three main growth areas of international, mobile and social services as well as broadening its product offer.