The company's profit fell 83% to $25.2m for the quarter, compared with $145.1m in the same quarter in 2008 largely due to restructuring and impairment charges.

However, sales grew "modestly" to $2.4bn, despite a 17.6% drop in net sales in its US segment and price declines across all products and services, the company said.

In a conference call with journalists, president and chief executive Thomas Quinlan said that the strength of the company was demonstrated by its ability to bid for Quebecor World.

He added that the company’s strength also lay in its breadth of offering and ability to "add value" across those products and applications.

"We have got the opportunity for organic growth in 2010 purely as we have the capacity," he said. "People are going to have to come back and start to [advertise] themselves again."

However, he added that the economy was still "challenged" and credit was still very difficult to come by.

Quinlan said that there was no evidence of any "rationalisation" of prices in the long-run sector.

"When you are competing against companies with one or two products, the only thing they can compete on is price," he said. "That is a very slippery slope to be on."

He said that the failure of a number of companies in the US market had little impact on capacity as the machines remained in circulation.