Cimpress reports first-quarter growth of 8 percent

Cimpress reported first-quarter revenue growth was up 8%, supported by the acquisition of BuildASign and offset by negative currency movement. “Revenue growth was generally in line with the expectations we set with at the beginning of the fiscal year,” according to a shareholder report by Robert S. Keane, founder, chairman and CEO. Earnings from operations were $25.4 million, compared to a nearly $6 million loss last year.

Cimpress’ Vistaprint business saw first-quarter 2020 revenue decline 1 percent, with flat growth expected for the foreseeable future. According to Keane’s report:

Vistaprint’s segment EBITDA increased year over year by $20.6 million in Q1 FY2020. Segment EBITDA margin improved by 610 basis points. This was driven by yearover-year reductions in advertising spend of $21.6 million, a 29.1% decrease, as well as increased gross margin. These benefits were partially offset by a year-over-year increase in technology investments and consulting projects. All periods reflect the Q1 FY2020 inclusion and historical recast of Vistaprint Corporate Solutions, Vistaprint Japan and Vistaprint India into this segment. This change resulted in a small benefit to year-over-year revenue and segment EBITDA trends (less than 1 percentage point of revenue growth and about $0.4 million of EBITDA improvement). We have made many small changes across a number of areas that have improved customer value and helped to optimize our efficiency and performance, in line with the plans we shared at our August 2019 investor day. Significant advertising expense reductions that improve returns continued this quarter, similar to the trends in the second half of 2019. Vistaprint’s technology team is making steady progress on the multi-year project to rebuild Vistaprint’s technology infrastructure. During the quarter, we launched a proof of concept test site built on this new technology. We are happy with progress to date, but caution that we remain only in the very early stages of this technology development process, and we do not expect launch in our largest (U.S.) market prior to Q3 of FY2021.