Photobox sees mobile boost

Photobox said that a rise in shoppers using their mobiles helped to drive its profits up nearly a fifth in the past year, although sales growth was slower than in previous periods. 

The online photo printers, which bought greetings card brand Moonpig for £120m in 2011, is expected to seek a flotation or sale as early as next year. 

Its sales rose 14 per cent to £147m, with one-third of orders made from mobile devices. 

Adjusted ebitda grew 19 per cent to £19.7m in the year ended April 2013, ranking the company alongside other mid-tier e-commerce players such as cycling brand Wiggle.

Photobox faces strong competition from rivals such as Hewlett-Packard's Snapfish and Funky Pigeon, owned by WHSmith, but claims to have around one-quarter of the market for online photo printing in the UK and France. 

The company is looking to diversify into a wider range of personalised gifts. 

"The market potential behind gifting is really limitless," said Stan Laurent, its chief executive.  

However, Mr Laurent called on Royal Mail to introduce a more flexible delivery service.

"We shouldn't be constrained by [a last daily] pick-up at 5pm, certainly not in London," he said. 

"I expect the process of preparing for an IPO will lead to some changes [at Royal Mail]." 

Photobox is considering following Amazon's push into same-day delivery. 

"We do same-day manufacturing and shipment," said Mr Laurent. "That's good, but we don't think it's good enough frankly."

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