According to its latest accounts, the Leicester-based business recorded a pre-tax loss of £368,610 in 2010, an improvement on the £2m loss recorded the previous year. Its turnover was down from £22.7m, to £22.3m

The improvement in its financial performance has been down to a cost-cutting exercise the company has been undertaking. It has reduced its employee count from 250 to 219, trimming its wage bill from £7.5m to £6.5m.

It also completed a refinance during the year to increase available funding. This included re-financing its existing equipment finance from HSBC to Close Print, which reduced its monthly kit payments by £30,000. The total facility went from £2.3m to £3m, introducing £700,000 of additional cash to the business on 30 June 2010.

PPG also introduced a new invoice discounting facility, switching from HSBC to GE, which increased the facility from £3.5m to £4m. This improved advanced payment levels from 80% to 85% and introduced £200,000 of additional headroom.

As a result of these moves net debt increased £1.5m to £7.2m.

Post-balance sheet events have seen the financial turnaround continue, with the sale of the group's Enderby property, in February 2011, for £1.3m - of which £739,000 was used to settle the outstanding commercial mortgage, while £500,000 was re-injected into the business.

The company is now refocusing on high margin work, as well as its non-print business.

Group chief executive Chris Bowen said: "In the previous year we recorded a huge loss and had to take action. The market is declining; it is stupid to chase low margin work. We are experts in colour critical work and that is where we need to focus."

The company is also reducing its dependency on print, with the target to reduce its print dependent turnover from 80% to 50% in the next three years. Its Fastant print distribution and direct mail business currently produces 20% of the group's turnover and is expected to continue to grow.

Bowen said that the company predicted it would achieve an £11.5m turnover in the first half of this financial year, to the end of March 2011, and a pre-tax profit of £190,000. According to its unaudited results, the company has achieved a turnover of £11.8m and a pre-tax profit of £188,000.

He said: "Last year we faced a number of exceptional items, but we hit the deck clear of exceptional costs. We expect to record a small increase in overall turnover this year, most of that will be through Fastant, but our profit should push £500,000."

Exceptional items totalling £696,000 included a legal settlement arising from an employment dispute of £270,000 and the rebuild of an XL press not covered by insurance, which added £105,000. The redundancies also added a further £127,000.