Clinton Cards is mulling closing its underperforming Irish stores as the greetings card retailer issued a profit warning this week.

Managing director Clinton Lewin said no decision had been made on any closures but added that “everything is under review”.

The retailer blamed its 13 Birthdays stores in Ireland for “weaker trading” that led to the profit warning, with Lewin saying that its stores have suffered in the “extremely bad” trading conditions in the country.

Clinton Cards said that since its last statement on May 13, revenue has been lagging 2% behind internal expectations. As a result, it now expects full-year group adjusted operating profit for continuing operations to be flat.

However, Clinton Cards said it continues to work with “significant headroom” across all its banking covenants.

Topics