Revenue rose 4% to £350.2m for the 12 months to 31 October 2014 (9% excluding currency effects), despite a slowdown in sales in the second half of the year arising from negative geopolitical and economic news.
In particular, weakness in the Chinese economy "held back sales" in the second half of the year while the political situation in the Middle East and Ukraine was said to have affected customer confidence.
Domino chief executive Nigel Bond said: "China is our biggest market and GDP [growth] is falling in China at the moment and that's causing some confidence issues. Europe had a good year but that first period from November to March benefitted from a return of confidence coupled with pent-up demand."
While Domino missed its target of 25 N-Series digital press installs in 2014, originally stated in December 2013 and reiterated in its latest 2014 interim results, it recognised revenue on 19 presses in the year.
Bond said that while the firm had fallen short of its install target, it had "taken orders for 27" digital label presses, adding that he was "really pleased" with the sales performance.
The 27 orders included "two or three" of the seven-colour N610i that was launched at Labelexpo Americas.
Domino chairman Peter Byrom said: "Our latest full-colour digital label press has been well received by customers and we are seeing increasing adoption of digital printing technology among label converters."
Underlying pre-tax profit (excluding the effect of the £32m write-down of Domino's investment in TEN Media in 2013) rose 9% to £57.6m (2013: £53m). Net profit for the year was £44.6m (2013: £5.8m).
Research and development costs were down slightly at £18.2m (2013: £19.5m before exceptional costs), reflecting timing differences in project spend that are expected to reverse in 2015 when R&D will likely top 2013's spend.
Domino chief executive Nigel Bond said: "There is no shortage of opportunity for our business to grow. The overall sales performance this year, in both the core business and new digital press products, gives me confidence in our ability to deliver medium-term sales increases at or above global GDP growth.
"As we look forward to 2015 and beyond, it is clear the digital printing business has great potential but requires significant investment. While I expect to see sales progression in 2015, progress in profit will be held back as we plan to invest further in research and development and in the broader sales and support organisation, helping to fuel future growth."
