£350m deal for couple who started selling cards from back of a van

The business, which has about 430 stores in the UK, could be acquired by buy-out firm Charterhouse as soon as this week, according to reports.

The business is owned by husband and wife Dean and Janet Hoyle and now has about 4,500 staff after being set up in 1997.

Dean Hoyle – a lifelong Huddersfield Town fan who became chairman and took majority control of the football club last year – is said to have begun selling birthday cards from the back of a van in 1993.

The company, which aims to be cheaper than rivals such as Clinton Cards, weathered the recession well with pre-tax profits of 22m on revenues of 170m in the year to January 2009.

Charterhouse reportedly fought off competition from other suitors including Permira, Cinven, Summit Partners and Warburg Pincus.

Card Factory and Charterhouse declined to comment.

The reported sale of Card Factory came amid news that the founders of online media database Gorkana are in line for a pay-out of up to 20m after the firm was sold to a private equity company.

Gorkana, which provides job and contact information for journalists and public relations firms, was yesterday snapped up by Exponent in a deal understood to be worth nearly 25m.

The private equity firm has agreed to buy the company through its media monitoring business Durrants, creating a combined business with a turnover of more than 40m.

The entrepreneurs who launched Gorkana in 2003, Alex Northcott and Michael Webster, will see their equity stakes – 54 per cent and 36 per cent respectively – bought by Exponent as part of the deal, which will also include a small stake for both founders.

A 10 per cent holding owned by David Webster – Michael's father and the former chairman of the Safeway supermarket chain – is also understood to be part of the deal. Gorkana takes its name from a Gurkha sergeant who saved Northcott's life during army exercises in 1994.