Roughly a week after it announced it was cancelling its planned purchase of LSC Communications due to objections from the Department of Justice, Quad released its results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2019.
Sales in the period decreased 1.2% compared to last year’s second quarter, to $1.0 billion. Excluding revenue from its January 2019 purchase of Periscope, sales would have dropped 2.4%.
Quad attributed the sales decline to ongoing print industry volume declines and pricing pressures as well as the negative impact from foreign exchange, which was partially offset by revenue from the company’s new initiatives and an increase in paper sales. With the lower sales, Quad reported a second quarter net loss of $14.7 million compared to net earnings of $9.5 million in last year’s second quarter.
In his remarks accompanying the release of the quarterly results, Quad chairman, president, and CEO Joel Quadracci emphasized that the company continues to devote more resources to diversifying its operations to offer more services than just printing and manufacturing to its customers. One example of Quad’s new approach was the recent purchase of DTX Company, which allows companies to build direct relationship with its customers. These new initiatives, Quadracci said, are aimed at offsetting expected “headwinds” in the printing industry.
For the first six months of 2019, revenue was $2.0 billion, up 1.3% over the first half of 2018, but the company had a net loss of $37.5 million compared to earnings of $6 million a year ago.
