Led by its manufacturing business, total sales rose 3% at Courier Corp. for the fiscal year ended September 25, to $257.1 million and the company returned to profitability, posting net income of $7.1 million compared to a loss of $3.1 million in fiscal 2009. The fiscal 2009 loss included one-time charges of $20.4 million, while the fiscal 2010 results included a $4.7 million impairment charge associated with Creative Homeowner.
Creative Homeowner continued to be Courier’s main trouble spot in fiscal 2010 as the home improvement publisher had a $2.6 million loss on a 18% decline in in sales. To further reduce costs, Courier has sharply reduced headcount at CH, and integrated all but CH’s editorial operations with that of its other publishing businesses, Dover Publications and REA. Overall, sales in the publishing segment fell 2%, to $46 million, as gains of 4% and 16% at Dover and REA, respectively, were offset by declines at CH.
On the book manufacturing side, sales rose 5%, to $222.8 million, as all three of its printing areas had a sales increase in the year, helped by higher demand for four-color work and shorter print runs through Courier Digital Solutions. Sales to the education market were $92.4 million, up 6% from fiscal 2009, led by sales of college textbooks. Sales to the religious market rose 6%, to $63.4 million, for the full year, reflecting gains at Courier’s largest religious customer, and sales to the trade market were up 6%, to $59.5 million, helped by increased demand for four-color books. The company noted that CDS achieved a small operating profit in the year, ahead of expectations.Dover used CDS's short run capabilities to re-introduce 70 out-of-print titles, and other publishers are looking at CDS for short run printing.
Courier sees more improvement for fiscal 2011, with sales increasing between 5% to 12% and earnings per share also likely to rise, helped by an $18 million decline in capital expenditures. The company believes the Creative Homeowner will become "cash positive" in the new fiscal year. Since it acquired CH, Courier has reduced the overall staff from about 200 fulltime and parttime employees to 20 fulltime editorial employees backed by the publishing group's infrastructure.
