In his annual letter to shareholders Keane, the mass customisation giant’s chairman and chief executive, outlined a number of key takeaways the business had learned during the worst of the pandemic situation. 

He described the resulting constraints and incentives as “powerful”.

“We learned quickly what we could do without and reduced costs accordingly. We learned how fast we can move when aligned around common objectives within the context of these constraints and incentives,” he said. 

The group has removed over $30m (£21.9m) of annual cash costs from its structure and is “more efficient as a result”.

“We now know what's possible and don't need a pandemic in the future to move with that type of speed,” Keane stated. 

Cimpress pivoted to remote working during the pandemic, with many team members now moved to a remote-first model. Keane said the group was investing in this way of working “so that it becomes a competitive advantage to the recruitment, retention and engagement of top talent”.

It has also freed up capital by reducing its office footprint accordingly. 

Keane noted that one of the other key aspects was “giving back”, which he said had never been more important. 

“Our businesses actively supported small businesses and communities around the world over the last year through grants, donations, advice, and products,” he said. 

Cimpress has also accelerated its carbon pollution reduction targets by setting a net-zero carbon goal by 2040.

“We continued our high standards for using only responsibly harvested forest products and we implemented a plan to eliminate problematic plastics and to use much more recycled and recyclable content for packaging and products,” he added. 

The group also worked to increase the diversity of team members and the inclusiveness of its company culture. 

Keane also said that Cimpress’ decentralised structure had “proved to be resilient under stress”, with its operations benefiting from Cimpress-wide financing, and sharing know-how from its different operations. 

“Our choice to operate as a group of relatively autonomous businesses with only a few, but powerful, central capabilities, proved to work well in times of extreme market turbulence,” he added. 

For the full year to 30 June 2021 group sales at the business were $2.59bn, up 4% on 2020. 

Cimpress also provided a comparison with the pre-pandemic results for 2019 for context, when total sales were $2.75bn. 

In Q4, the quarter most impacted by the initial pandemic lockdowns and restrictions last year, sales were up 49% to  $351.75m (2020: $244.5m), and just 2.4% down on the same period in 2019. 

At Vistaprint, Cimpress’ biggest single business, sales for the year were $1.44bn, up from $1.34bn in 2020. EBITDA slipped from $366m to $324.7m. 

Cimpress said that Vistaprint was continuing to progress on a multi-year project to rebuild its technology infrastructure. 

The business launched new sites in eight countries, including the UK in Q4 2021.

At its Upload & Print division, comprised of PrintBrothers (WirMachenDruck.de, Druck.at and DrukWerkDeal) and The Print Group (Pixartprinting, Exaprint, Easyflyer and the UK’s Tradeprint), sales for the year were flat at reported currency rates, and down 7% on a constant currency basis. EBITDA for the division was down $4.7m due to the impact of the pandemic. 

PrintBrothers had sales of $421.78m for the year, while the Print Group had sales of $275.5m. 

Separately, Tradeprint’s most recent filed accounts, for the year ending June 2020, showed a £3m shortfall in sales due to the initial impact of Covid-19, with sales down 18% at £12.4m for the period. 

Keane said that, with all seven businesses based in Europe the operations had experienced two waves of lockdowns across all markets “severely impacting revenue for all businesses”. 

He said initiatives taken included “enriching our product ranges, reducing costs, investing in software and production technology and driving intra-Cimpress wholesale transactions via the Cimpress MCP marketplace.”

The National Pen operation was “hit quite hard by the pandemic” due to its core business being based around in-person events such as conferences and expos. 

Keane said the business had pivoted quickly to launch new products and had become an important part of the supply chain for face masks including those sold through Vistaprint.

Sales were $313.5m for the year, compared to $299.5m in 2020 and $348.4m in 2019. 

Sales at ‘all other businesses’, including Texas-based BuildASign and two early-stage businesses (Printi in Brazil and YSD in China), were $192m (2020: $173.8m). 

Keane said he was optimistic about the group’s prospects for 2021/22. 

“While the impact of the pandemic blurred the evidence of our progress that we believe would have otherwise been evident in our FY2021 financial results, our advantages throughout Cimpress building off of the momentum we had prior to the pandemic have only become clearer,” he stated. 

Keane also noted that during the pandemic the business had seen significant growth in physical products that made a personal impact. 

“We expect that physical products will maintain their relevance even as some aspects of our world become more digital.”