Following publication of its Q3 interim management statement this morning, chief executive Andy Blundell said that there remained a "reasonable balance of risk and opportunities".

"We're very aware of the challenges within the market, but pleased with progress, which is there or there abouts, and very pleased to have put the KBC facility in place because getting financing is a key challenge for the sector generally," he added.

The renewal of its loan facility with Belgium-based KBC, which will fall due for repayment in February 2012, will give Communisis total committed debt facilities of £50m – more than twice its current £25m debt.

Blundell, who took over as chief executive at the start of this month following the departure of Steve Vaughan, reiterated the company's half-year prediction that its second-half results would improve on its first half and that it expected that improvement to continue throughout 2010.

Direct mail remains the biggest challenge for the Business Process Outsourcing specialist, despite a recovery in volumes towards the end of the first half of 2009.

The company said that there had been "no significant improvement yet in the volume of higher-value personalised mailings" and that there was "continued margin pressure", although Blundell said that he expected a recovery in higher-value volumes "certainly from the start of next year".

Transactional print and print sourcing were both in-line with expectation, while demand for Communisis's technology and service offering remained strong. Progress in cross-selling services to clients from different parts of the business was also "encouraging", the company added.

See this week's PrintWeek for an in-depth interview with Communisis's new chief executive.