Sales in the year to 30 July were down, though, by 6.3% to £382.3m, which chairman Miles Emley said reflected continuing pricing pressure "and our own unwillingness to take on work on uneconomic  terms".

In a surprise move the PLC also revealed that it has put St Ives House, its landmark headquarters building in Southwark, south London, up for sale and is considering a move to leased space in the Blackfriars area of the capital.

Operating profits prior to restructuring charges and one-off items increased from £10.2m to £16m, while underlying pre-tax profits jumped by £7.1m to £14.4m. Last year’s loss of £7.2m was reversed, leaving a pre-tax profit figure of £8.1m for the year.

Chief executive Patrick Martell said he was pleased to report "significant progress" in the repositioning of the business, despite trading conditions that continued to be challenging.

The group’s net debt is now just £2.7m (2009: £19m).

During the year St Ives closed its Andover and Edenbridge web offset plants, consolidated some operations in its exhibitions and events wing, and reduced headcount in a number of areas, resulting in a £6.3m charge.

In June the group acquired data management business Occam for £11.7m, a deal viewed as a key part of its strategy to grow ‘beyond print’ services and ensure customers maximise the return on their print spend.

The group’s commercial products wing, which includes Occam along with direct response, point-of-sale, and exhibitions and events, is back in profit after losing money last year. On reduced sales of £214.7m it made an operating profit of £2.4m (2009: £2m loss on sales of £232.3m).

Revenues in media products (including books and magazines) slipped by 4.7% to £147.2m, largely due to an 8.4% fall in magazine printing revenues due to title closures, and pagination and run length cut backs. The loss of the IPC magazine contract, which accounted for 3% of group sales last year, is not reflected in the figures because it largely took effect after the year end. In its statement St Ives said: "We have been successful in replacing a significant part of this work for the coming year."

St Ives’ share price was up 4.25p at 81.75p at the time of writing.