In a statement to the London Stock Exchange released today, the company said that demand for its technology and services products remained strong, but that the promotional cheque and direct mail sectors were experiencing subdued demand.

In addition, volumes of commodity print procured by its print sourcing division were lower but this had only a "small profit impact".

Communisis chief executive Steve Vaughan said the trend reinforced his belief that a focus on technology and services was "the right thing in the long term".

While the technology side of the business remained strong, customer demand for direct mail "continues to soften", the company said.

Vaughan predicted that direct mail would recover from the recession but the trend towards more personalised, targeted campaigns was being accelerated by the financial downturn.

"Direct mail won't come back to where it was a two years ago in terms of carpet bombing campaigns," he said. "We are taking out the capacity for high-volume, commodity work and repurposing the Leeds factory."

On the transactional mail sector, Vaughan said that there was beginning to be a convergence of thinking between marketing and financial departments in businesses – widely regarded as key to the successful adoption of mixed promotional and transactional (transpromo) mailings.

"We are not seeing transpromo yet but there is evidence of joined up thinking," he said.

"Timetabling of statements is beginning to get smarter for example so you don't have promotional mailshots going out on a Thursday without the call centre capability to handle the extra demand over the weekend."

Communisis's share price fell nearly 5% to 29p on the news.

Also see: T-Mobile awards five-year print contract to Communisis