A tough economy caused a decline in business for Hallmark’s mammoth greeting card operations in 2002, but increases in other areas allowed the Kansas City, Mo.-based company to post a 5.7 percent increase in net revenues.

The privately owned company announced Thursday that in 2002 it had net revenues of $4.2 billion, up 5.7 percent from 2001 totals.

The company, which operates a major production facility in Lawrence, said its North American greeting card, stationary, ornaments and gift wrap business saw a 1 percent decline in revenues in 2002.

The decline was offset by increases in Hallmark subsidiary Binney & Smith, which manufactures Crayola brand products. The crayon maker reported a 2 percent increase in revenues.

Hallmark Entertainment, the division that oversees the Hallmark Channel cable network, nearly doubled its revenues in 2002. Company officials said the large increases were attributed to a recovery from threatened writers’ and actors’ guild strikes in 2001, which slowed the company’s ability to produce new films and cable programs.

The world’s largest greeting card manufacturer, which is owned primarily by the Hall family and the company’s employees, doesn’t release profit totals. But Hallmark officials said the company was able to contribute $40.9 million to its Employee Profit Sharing and Ownership Plan. The contribution represented 8 percent of eligible earnings of the company’s estimated 20,000 employees.

Hallmark employs 860 people at its Lawrence plant, which is the primary production facility for the company’s Shoebox Greetings line. The plant also is the facility that produced the Christmas card for the White House. The company is the largest private employer in Lawrence.