Moonpig founder nets £42m from card company sale

THE founder of greeting cards firm Moonpig has landed a multi-million pound pay-out after selling the company he founded 12 years ago for £120 million.

Selling the business to European digital photo printing company PhotoBox will bring a 42m windfall for chairman Nick Jenkins who held a 35 per cent stake in the company.

Jenkins, who will reinvest in the combined company and continue as an adviser to the its board, said the deal would also help Moonpig.

"We can now offer a much wider range of photographic products to our customers while adding our own Moonpig creativity," he said.

"We can also take our core greeting card product to countries which would be difficult to access as a standalone business."

PhotoBox operates across Europe and has 11 million members while Moonpig has three million customers and ships more than 12 million cards per year.

The two firms will continue to operate as separate brands but the newly formed group is expected to increase sales and accelerate growth. PhotoBox said its turnover in 2010 was 72m, while Moonpig's turnover in the year to April was 38m.