Communisis PLC Regulatory News (CMS)

26 Jun 2008 07:00



26 June 2008

Communisis plc

("Communisis" or the "Company")

Trading Update

Communisis plc (LSE: CMS), the leading provider of marketing communication services, is pleased to provide the following update on trading for the six months to 30 June 2008.  

Both trading and progress with the Company's strategy have continued well during the period and management expects to report operating profit after restructuring costs for the period in line with market expectations.  

During the last six months, we have continued to execute on Stage 2 of our strategy, focusing hard on increasing cross-selling within our customer base and concentrating on value-based services. We believe these efforts are having the desired effect, delivering a number of customer wins during the period that have not only grown our customer base but also taken us into some new parts of the market.  In Print Management our new business model led by IT products underpinning strong print procurement processes was selected by a number of new customers in the first half.  This includes a 3-year agreement with Starbucks for print management based on our "IQ" product. We have also agreed to expand the geographic reach of our European-wide print management arrangement with Procter and Gamble to cover the USA. Our customer base expanded during the half, with new contracts with Anglian Water, Flextronics and Thyssen Krupp.

In Direct Mail, we are pleased to be working with the Woodland Trust as a provider of their direct mail production, and so this represents an important new customer for our Leeds factory and new growth for us in the Charities sector.  During the period we saw strong growth in our work with RBS group companies, including Direct Line and Churchill Insurance, as well as very encouraging take-up of our new digital print facility.  We have also won work with Tesco Direct for a programme which will run throughout 2008.

In Statements, we continue to expand our business and receive enquiries on our Transpromotional plans which will see marketing information appear alongside statements and bills.  We have signed a significant contract during the period with one Financial Services customer to redevelop their document composition process which has the potential to support Transpromotional mailing in the future.

Communisis Chief Executive, Steve Vaughan, commented:

"I am pleased with the progress we have continued to make during the first half of this year, both in terms of adding to our capabilities and in building out our customer base. We have continued to win business in sectors where we are already well known, including financial services, and used our new business model to develop a presence in other areas."

Communisis will report Interim Results for the period ended 30 June 2008 on 27th August 2008.