Australia’s biggest printer expects to be debt-free by 2017 but had little else to report at its first AGM in the black since 2010.

PMP slashed its debt by 42 per cent last year to a record low $51.7m, meaning it has paid back net debts of more than $200m in seven years, and chairman Matthew Bickford-Smith says the company wants to ‘eliminate financial risk from operating risk’.

“It is our intention to… hold sufficient cash reserves within the business to enable us to go about our day to day business without the reliance upon external funding,” he says.

Bickford-Smith also restated PMP’s desire for ‘necessary’ industry consolidation, but says while the company is ‘ready’ to participate in consolidation, no opportunities have yet presented themselves.

The chairman is however ‘sure some form of rationalisation will occur’ in the heatset market.

[Related: Ups and downs of PMP]

Chief executive Peter George also implied consolidation is necessary, saying in his outlook that prices will remain ‘subdued’ because of industry over-capacity.

PMP switched out a non-executive director, appointing Anthony Cheong to replace the retiring Sik Ngee Goh, and re-elected Bickford-Smith as chairman.

The print giant made a net profit of $3.4m last year compared to the $70.2m loss of FY2013 as the company slashed its operating expenses 16.5 per cent to $900.3m, including cutting staff expenses by 18 per cent.

Sales revenue dipped below $900m, falling 7.8 per cent to $899.2m and propped up by $9.2m of other revenue. EBIT before significant items fell 14.7 per cent to $28.8m.

The company was weighed down by a 72 per cent drop in directories volumes, losing PMP $50m all by itself in just one year as they increasingly go online and major client Sensis emphasises its digital growth.

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