However, chief executive Tony Rafferty stressed that trading conditions in the run up to Christmas had remained difficult. "The contraction of Q4 came as no surprise to us," he said. "And we're still fighting hard, putting good offers out there, to try and keep things moving through the franchise network.
"At the same time we're pushing these template solutions, which are there to help our franchise partners, and this very clever, sophisticated BrandDemand system aimed at big multi-sites."
The BrandDemand template-driven web-to-print system, which represents an investment "north of £800,000", has recently gone live with the first few built systems now up and running with clients of the franchise network.
Rafferty said of the software: "It's all based on InDesign Server technology – we looked at all of the JPG-based solutions out there and they are an anachronism to future need, so we built our own based upon InDesign Server.
"There was somebody else promoting something built on InDesign Server that was costing £34,000 just before Christmas – we're giving this to our franchisees for nothing and it fits into their in-house software - it's hand-in-glove, it's not two separate solutions."
The system is being targeted at larger companies with an annual print spend of £20,000 to £100,000 per year.
Meanwhile, Printing.com, which bought the Dutch print business Media Facility Group late last year, said that it had already undertaken "significant work" on system integration between the UK and the Netherlands.
"Trading across the various Dutch brands has progressed well and exhibited year-on-year growth," the company added. Printing.com will provide a pre-close trading statement on 4 April.
