It’s hard not to feel that Moonpig (LON:MOON) is at something of a crossroads. The sudden announcement that CEO Nickyl Raithatha is stepping down after seven years sent the stock down nearly 10%, wiping out the modest gains it had made earlier this year.
The timing is awkward, to say the least, not because the business is in crisis, but because it’s in transition. And that makes the departure feel like more than just a changing of the guard.
The headline numbers from Moonpig’s full-year results paint a picture of cautious stability. Revenue rose 2.6% to £350.1 million, adjusted pre-tax profit jumped 16% to £67.5 million, and adjusted earnings per share climbed 18% to 15p. Free cash flow improved to £66.1 million, and the dividend is back, 3p a share after being absent last year. Not bad.
Look beyond the headline figures and it’s clear the business is leaning heavily on one brand while others falter. Statutory pre-tax profit plummeted from £46.4 million to just £3 million, thanks to a chunky £56.7 million impairment in the Experiences division. Greetz, its Dutch business, continues to limp along with a 4.7% sales drop. And Experiences, once seen as a strategic growth lever, shrank 19% year-on-year and remains “exposed to cyclical pressures.”
Meanwhile, Moonpig’s namesake brand continues to do the heavy lifting. UK card sales rose 8.6% off the back of increased order volumes and higher average spend. The customer base grew to 12 million, up from 11.5 million. Father’s Day trading was solid. In other words, the core business works, but how scalable is a greeting card and gifting platform in a market increasingly driven by digital content and fleeting attention spans?
This is where Raithatha’s exit raises an uncomfortable question, what exactly is Moonpig trying to become?
Under his leadership, the company floated in 2021, leaned heavily into tech-driven personalisation, and acquired new verticals to diversify its offer. The ambition was to transform the FTSE 250 listed firm into a broader e-commerce ecosystem, a kind of Amazon for sentiment. But with Experiences underperforming, Greetz still declining, and international expansion relatively muted, there’s a sense that Moonpig might be drifting back to its original identity, a clever, data-led greeting card retailer.
There is nothing wrong with that, unless the valuation bakes in something more.
The guidance for FY26, 8–12% growth in adjusted EPS and mid-single-digit EBITDA growth, is respectable. The medium-term targets are ambitious, double-digit revenue growth, 25–27% EBITDA margins, and mid-teens EPS growth. But without a clearly defined growth engine outside the Moonpig brand itself, there’s a risk those numbers become increasingly reliant on squeezing more out of a saturated UK market.
Raithatha leaves behind a business that is financially healthy, operationally focused, and digitally capable. But it’s also facing the kind of existential challenge that tech-forward consumer companies often do once the low-hanging fruit has been picked, growth without clear reinvention.
The next CEO will need more than just operational discipline, they’ll need a narrative. One that tells investors, customers, and even staff what Moonpig wants to be when it grows up.
Because if all we’re left with is a digital card company in a post-Covid world, then the market might start asking if this pig has already flown.