Card Factory (LON:CARD) reported its preliminary results for the year to January-end.

The high street card retailer said that like-for-like sales fell 0.1%, compared to growth of 2.9% the year before.

This was attributed to a drop in footfall across the period.

Meanwhile, underlying profits totalled £84.9 million, down from £94 million reported the previous year.

Card Factory also announced a total ordinary dividend per share, of 9.3p, as well as a special dividend of 5p per share which was paid back in December.

In addition, Card Factory also said it was continuing with the opening of new stores, with 51 opening across the period, bring its total estate to 972.

Karen Hubbard, Chief Executive Officer, commented:

“We delivered a robust performance for the year, maintaining flat like-for-like sales despite a tough consumer environment. Our focus has been on continual improvements to our customer offer, producing better, more innovative ranges of everyday and seasonal cards and maintaining our quality and value positioning, while also being more efficient and driving savings across the business. EBITDA for the year however, was impacted by lower footfall and Getting Personal’s disappointing performance.

“We continue to look to leverage our unique, vertically integrated model to improve our competitive advantage and drive margins. We have further initiatives planned for the current year which will bring further production back to the UK, whilst also implementing additional plans that will allow an improved focus on customer service in store.”

The first Card Factory location was opened in 1997. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of FTSE 250 Index.

Shares in Card Factory are currently +3.9% as of 10:41AM (GMT).