MARKHAM, ON, March 26 - PLM Group today reported its financial results for the three and 12 months ended December 31, 2006.
Management Commentary
"2006 proved to be a very good year for PLM overall," said Barry N. Pike, Chairman and CEO. "We were able to grow our sales substantially, increasing our market share, and providing significant cash which allowed us to pay our first dividend to shareholders. The pre media and large format digital print segment of our business continued to experience very soft market demand and, as a result, its financial results were far below our expectations." "As we look forward to 2007, we expect a significant challenge resulting from an increase in new printing equipment in the market."
"During the fourth quarter of 2006, the Board of Directors approved a plan to restructure our operations. This will allow the Company to relocate the pre media and digital large format print operations to our main production facilities in Markham. This move will allow us to combine the pre media operations with PLM's print based pre media as well as to combine the digital large format printing with PLM's print on demand and specialty finishing operations," said David Stuart, President and COO. "We will incur future costs to complete this restructuring (some of which were reflected in the fourth quarter results) the balance of which will be reflected as we go through 2007, but that this restructuring will reduce future operating costs and provide new opportunities to grow sales in these areas."
Said Peter Bradley, Executive Vice President and CFO: "PLM's solid profit performance in 2006 resulted in very strong cash flows for the Company and puts us on a very firm financial footing as we go into 2007."
Conclusion
PLM expects the printing industry to remain intensely competitive in 2007, making it imperative for the Company to continue to focus on strategic marketing and sales, expense management, operational efficiency gains and maximization of the value of recent investments.