4Imprint Regulatory News (FOUR)

18 Apr 2007 11:00

4imprint Group PLC18 April 2007 Chairman's Statement - AGM At last year's Annual General Meeting, I described the way in which the 4imprintGroup was organised and managed, the opportunities for growth, and the strategythe Board was intent on pursuing. Today I would like to update you on theprogress we have made during the last twelve months and the prospects for theyear ahead. First and foremost however, I want to reconfirm, that the core strategy wepursue is the achievement of sustained growth of shareholder value, and that theBoard and Management are totally committed to that objective. When I spoke to you last year, I described the Group structure as being based ontwo geographically based Divisions; a European Division and a US Division.During the last 12 months, the Group structure has evolved into three Divisionswhich are as follows:- (a) The Trade Division (b) The European End User Division (c) The North American Division First, the Trade Division. This is a UK based business, supplying promotionalproducts to downstream distributors of these products. A year ago it comprisedonly the Product Source / MT Golf Companies based in Manchester. As you willhave already seen, this Trade business has been doubled in size with, annualsales in excess of £25m / annum, through the acquisition of Supreme at the endof last year. This acquisition makes the 4imprint Group's Trade Division thelargest UK based supplier of "company badged" promotional products to the UKdistributor market. Furthermore Shareholders will have seen that we are in theprocess of integrating the Product Source / MT Golf and Supreme companies into asingle unit based on the Supreme site at Blackpool. Synergies from this mergerare expected to be over £1 1/2 m / year, and the integration should be completeby late summer of this year. This is an attractive development for the Group,since the combined businesses have excellent growth prospects for sales in UK,Western Europe, and longer distance markets. Furthermore the production anddesign capabilities which Supreme brings to the Division provide a strong basefor extending the range of products it can offer. Turning now to The European End User Division; this Division services theBusiness client with its requirements for promotional products in three ways:- a) A Field Sales business which uses sales representatives and catalogues to sell to a wide range of small/medium sized businesses. b) A Corporate Programmes business which provides "blue chip" clients for example major banks with a bespoke design and procurement service for Corporate Promotions. c) A Product Promotion business which services clients for example major beauty care companies with bespoke design/procurement for Product Promotions. 4imprint supplies these services from its bases in Manchester, London andGermany. This Division has total sales of over £50m / annum and all sectors ofthe Division have good growth capabilities. Our Germany based business, theKreyer company, which has Field Sales and Corporate Programmes sectors also fitsinto this Division. The Third Division is the North American Division which is almost entirely aDirect Marketing business based on Catalogue/Internet Marketing. It is thelargest and fastest growing Direct Marketing business for Promotional Productsin North America. The 4imprint Inc model is being continuously refined andsharpened with strongest emphasis on customer service, acquisition andretention. Growth prospects in North America, underpinned by the general growthof web based selling to which the promotional products market is well suited,are excellent. Furthermore, opportunities are developing in the UK, where4imprint have a similar model and which is already showing the rapid growth ofits much larger US sister company. Opportunities are also opening up in WesternEurope which the Group is presently carefully assessing. Turning now to the prospects for this year. I am pleased to advise Shareholdersthat Sales in the first quarter of the year have been encouraging across allthree Divisions with particular strength in the US Direct Marketing sector andin our new acquisition, Supreme. The project of integrating the two sectors ofthe Trade Division onto the Supreme base in Blackpool is proceeding well and ison schedule for completion in late summer. The benefits of the integrationshould start to accrue during the second half of the year. Overall, the Board expects 2007 to be another year of progress for your Company. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange