Dealing with the financial obligations from its acquisition of Tewkesbury web printer Cooper Clegg cost the group almost £4m. Combined with other write-offs, charges and bad debts, this resulted in a bottom-line loss for the year to 30 September 2009 of £6.8m (2008 loss: £1.5m).
Turnover fell from £139m to £74.7m due to the disposals of Pindar Set and Cooper Clegg. Sales from continuing operations were 1.6% higher at £74.7m.
Pindar said the group had been hit by a combination of "misjudgement and misfortune".
"It's been a fairly tortured 12-24 months working through these issues and we've had a long reflection about where we're going and what we need to do differently to generate the profit that we believe our efforts warrant," he said.
Head office costs have been slashed by £2m and new executives put in place for sales and operations, while Pindar has "re-inserted himself" into the business.
"In the first six months of this financial year, we were just shy of breakeven, which is a massive improvement on the previous year," he said.
The company is also grappling with a final salary pension scheme deficit that grew from £16m to £27.5m.
"We are far from alone in this and the government has to sort something out on pensions," Pindar added.
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