Sales at Moonpig slipped in the first half compared with last year’s pandemic-induced spike – but have still more than doubled on the same period in 2019.

Turnover in the six months to 31 October was down 8.5% year-on-year at £142.6m, but was more than twice the level achieved in H1 2019 when sales were £66.3m.

Over the summer Moonpig flagged that growth would be tempered as life settled down to a new normality.

Adjusted EBITDA was £35m (2020: £41.2m), while reported pre-tax profit was down 43.2% at £18.7m.

Moonpig said the transformation in the scale of the business was “enduring”, with 19.5m orders delivered and strong customer retention – 89% of sales this year have come from existing customers.

Gifting rose to a new high of 48% of revenues, and Moonpig expanded its gift range and launched new packaging formats and designs “to elevate the recipient experience”.

CEO Nickyl Raithatha said he was confident the group had achieved “an enduring transformation in the scale of our business” and described the long-term opportunity as “vast”.

“Moonpig Group continues to successfully deliver against its strategy to become the ultimate gifting companion. Our new technology and data platform continues to make it easier for customers to remember, find, create and send the perfect greeting card and the perfect gift to their loved ones. As a result, our half year results demonstrated even stronger customer retention and our highest-ever proportion of revenue from gifting,” he stated.

Annual revenue is now expected to be at the upper end of the forecasted range of between approximately £270m and £285m.

Moonpig shares rose by nearly 5.6% after the announcement, to 378p (52 week high: 499.95p, low: 279.80p).

The online greetings card and gifting business floated in February with a valuation of £1.2bn.