According to its most recent ASIC filing, the Print Media Group (PMG) subsidiary posted an after-tax profit of $2.7 million for the 12 months to 30 June 2011 along with a 14% increase in revenue to $49 million.
Ducor ceased trading on 1 July 2011 when all its activities were combined into PMG.
Lisa Stark, PMG’s general manager of sales and marketing, told ProPrint the massive increase in profit was mainly due to one-off factors – the census contract and restructuring. A “large commercial contract” win in the health sector had also played a part, she added.
Stark said the census was “a massive logistical undertaking” that had involved printing 1,000 tons of forms over six months.
The census contract saw Ducor reduce its total liabilities by 27% to $16 million, because regular payments from the Federal government had helped the company’s cash flow, she said.
The census was also responsible for a 17% rise in payments to $50 million as extra stock had been ordered to fulfil the contract, she said.
Ducor’s plant and equipment fell by 30% to $20 million, which Stark attributed to a rationalisation of presses and finishing equipment in preparation for the merger.
She said director Leo Moio had a policy of offloading “any equipment not paying its way”, as he wasn’t prepared to maintain and insure idle presses.
Ducor represents about 60-65% of the merged company’s turnover, according to Stark.
It is expected the demise of South Pacific Print Group, the Albury-Wodonga company formerly known as Paragon Printing, would have had a negative impact on results, but Stark said it would be difficult to calculate the impact due to the significant restructuring the group had experienced in the past year.
Stark said the 300-staff operation would have to focus on restraining costs and servicing clients given what she described as a troubled and competitive sector.
“As far as revenue is concerned we like everybody else are under immense pressure from the market,” she said.
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