4imprint sees profits above expectations as revenues improve

Promotional merchandise distributor 4imprint said its it expected annual operating profit to be above forecasts as revenue was on track to hit a better-than-expected £1bn.

The company on Friday said that total order counts in its primary North American business were 11% above pre-Covid pandemic 2019 levels. Average order values were 14% above 2019, resulting in overall demand revenue of 27% above the same comparative.

“New customer acquisition has remained encouraging, and the retention statistics reliably reflect the growing customer file,” the company said in a trading update.

“Management's expectation for full year 2022 operating profit is also now above the highest analyst forecast in the market.”

4imprint said this was driven by revenue volume gains, productivity of its reconfigured marketing portfolio, relatively stable gross margins and operational gearing relating to semi-variable and fixed costs in the business.

It also sounded a note of caution and noted that current geo-political and broad economic factors “may well affect the group's performance during the balance of the year”.

“In particular, we are cognisant of potential issues relating to possible further Covid variants, supply chain disruption, inventory availability, increasing cost of product, availability and cost of labour, the effect of inflation on our customers' budgets and the general threat of economic recession.”