Online print market leader Cimpress has presented its latest quarterly report. In view of the ongoing pandemic situation, this is not just about figures, but also about strategy.
Cimpress CEO Robert Keane addressed investors in a letter. Overall, the company has so far weathered the Covid 19 pandemic well, emphasized Keane. In the past fiscal year, he said, Cimpress had $2.6 billion in sales and posted $349 million in pretax profits. Although the figures achieved were not desirable by the standards of normal fiscal years, Cimpress had shown great agility. Unlike other companies in the market, it has been able to expand its market position with targeted investments. Keane hopes that this advantage will also be reflected in the order books with the overall economic recovery: The CEO expects higher profits again in the coming fiscal year.
While other companies struggled to survive the pandemic and initially had to consolidate, Cimpress continued to invest during the crisis – and even increased volumes in the last quarter of fiscal 2021. Vistaprint in particular was able to benefit from this. It wasn’t all investment, though, Keane said: compared to before the pandemic, Cimpress’ annual fixed costs were reduced by $30 million. A newly implemented “flexible capital structure” has helped borrow money on better terms, he said. This is to be invested in the future – and for Cimpress that clearly means mass customization and online sales: “In the multi-decade industry shift from offline service providers to mass customization online players like Cimpress, we are the clear market leader in a highly fragmented market,” Keane highlighted. This position is to be expanded in the future.
In his annual letter to investors, Keane elaborated on Cimpress’ strategy for the future. According to the CEO, the most important goal is to increase the company’s value in the long term. In order to achieve the maximum intrinsic value per share (IVPS) in the long term, investments would also have to be made in the short and medium term, which would put a strain on the company’s capital. Keane noted that the Corona pandemic also had positive effects – especially in the area of corporate culture: “Constraints and incentives are powerful,” said the CEO – goals have thus become clearer: “We have learned how fast we can be when we unite behind a common goal,” said Keane. The decentralized corporate structure has proven stress-resistant, he said; employee performance has also been boosted by switching to telecommuting.
