4imprint, formerly Bemrose, has posted interim pre-tax losses of 45.3m compared to a 1.5m profit for the same period last year.


The results are the first the company has released since the restructuring which saw it jettison the
last of its print interests, diary printer Charles Letts (PrintWeek, 18 August).


Chairman Rodger Booth said the losses were misleading: "Obviously they're not trading losses. They're attached to the disposal of the printing divisions - Charles Letts, Henry Booth and Bemrose Derby."


4imprint took a 21m exceptional loss on Letts when it sold it to a management team headed by managing director Gordon Presly.


Goodwill, which had
to be passed through the company accounts, totalled over 30m, while a surplus in the former Bemrose
pension scheme accounted for 12m.


Booth said that profits for 4imprint's continuous operations were up from 1.05m in the first half of last year to 1.58m and that sales for
on-going operations stood at 44.1m, up from 1999's figure of 32.2m.


"Significantly, last week 20% of our US turnover came from the Internet, from nothing a year ago," he added.
4imprint's shares fell 22p to 483p following the results.


Story by John Davies.