In a trading update issued today (21 August), the PLC said that profits in the first half to 28 August would be below market expectations.

Its share price fell by 1.75p to 7.5p on the news, an 18.9% drop. The 52-week high is 11.38p, low: 6.25p.

The group’s biggest chunk of business comes from online print sales, which are likely to increase by 10% to £8.7m in the six months to 28 August. But sales at agency Tangent Snowball are predicted to fall 20% to £4.5m

Snowball went backwards after two key clients cut their budgets, and it has also offloaded its Australian operation. Tangent will take a £250,000 hit for redundancy costs.

The agency counts a host of big names on its client list, including Which?, the Labour Party, Citroen, Carlsberg and Dunhill.

Tangent said some Snowball resources had been diverted into its online print operations: “Overall our focus for the business remains to be generating more revenues online.”

The news was more positive at parts of its print wing. Printed.com sales are set to jump 30% to £3.6m for the half-year, while Ravensworth “continues to perform well” with sales up year-on-year.

Earlier this month Printed.com launched a new “photography collection” as a result of customer demand, including products targeted at the fine art and photography markets such as Giclée and framed prints.

It has invested in new Epson Stylus Pro printers for its Newcastle site as part of the move.

However, sales at business card specialist Goodprint will again be lower, although the firm said the new team there had “the right skill set to progress.”

Group operating profits for the full year are now expected to be around the same as last year when the business posted a big jump in underlying operating profits, which rose 53% to £2.5m.