Hayes said Card Factory had enjoyed an unbroken run of like-for-like sales growth since it was founded in 1997 with card buying part of the UK psyche and the average British adult buying 30 a year.
The sector, which accounts for about three-quarters of the UK economy, has enjoyed an unbroken run of growth for 21 months according to the closely watched Markit/CIPS PMI, but the pace of growth last month failed to meet City expectations.
His ongoing record is an extraordinary unbroken run of 251 appearances between the goalposts for his last two clubs, Blackburn Rovers and Villa.
On Thursday, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said prices in London fell for the first time since January 2011, ending the longest unbroken run of increases in more than 20 years.
Not just in the two years Micklethwait has been in the job but for the best part of three decades, posting an extraordinary unbroken run of six-month circulation increases since 1980.
Manufacturing was enjoying its longest unbroken run of growth in 50 years.
(The eighth week will be an unbroken run of Balanchine's two-act "Midsummer Night's Dream").
All this translates into an environment that will yield some improvement, he said, but not an unbroken run of success.
