Cimpress (asi/162149) increased sales, but earnings declined through the first nine months of its fiscal year, and tariff-related challenges have compelled the Counselor Top 40 distributor to raise prices on some products and to withdraw a previously issued guidance on its projected financial performance.

That’s according to a quarterly financial report that Cimpress, the parent company of Vistaprint, former Top 40 distributor National Pen, Counselor Top 40 supplier Goldstar (asi/73295) and others, released on Wednesday, April 30.

The Dundalk, Ireland-headquartered company operates on a fiscal year, with its third quarter ending with March. For the first nine months of the fiscal year, Cimpress’ revenue across all its business divisions (not just promo) rose about 3% compared to the same period the prior year, reaching $2.53 billion. In the most recent three-month quarter – the third – companywide sales ticked up 1% on an annual basis to nearly $789.5 million.

The bottom line didn’t fare so well. For the first nine months of the fiscal year, Cimpress’ net income declined over 31% when looked at against the comparative period from the year prior, tallying $40.27 million, or $1.61 per basic share ($1.56 per diluted share).

Things were worse in the third quarter specifically: Cimpress experienced an $8.2 million loss for the three-month stretch. Shareholders lost $0.33 per share. Cimpress said higher operating expenses, unrealized losses on currency hedges and higher income tax expenses were key factors that led to the loss.

“We are taking action in our supply chain to significantly reduce our exposure to (promotional products, apparel and gifts) sourcing where China is the country of origin.” Robert Keane, Cimpress (asi/162149)

Through the first nine months of the fiscal year, Cimpress reported that its various business divisions all increased sales. These include Vista (including Vistaprint), National Pen, PrintBrothers and The Print Group. Cimpress didn’t break out sales for Goldstar in particular. The firm said its business divisions all increased revenue in Q3 too, except for National Pen, which was nearly flat, being down about 0.3% compared to the prior year’s third quarter.

“Fulfillment for other Cimpress businesses and its e-commerce channel drove revenue growth [for National Pen] that was partially offset by a revenue decline in the mail order channel in North America,” the company reported. “Mail order declines were a continuation of recent trends that are partially driven by our choice to reduce advertising spend in that channel.”

Cimpress’ fiscal third quarter corresponds to the calendar year first quarter. For Q1 2025, research from ASI shows that, collectively, promotional products distributors’ sales were down 3.6% year over year. During the same period, promo suppliers’ collective sales declined on average by 4.8%.

Tariff Challenges

Cimpress CEO Robert Keane discussed tariffs that President Donald Trump’s administration has imposed or threatened in a letter to investors in the quarterly financial report.

While noting that much of Cimpress’ Canadian and Mexican fulfillment complies with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement and is therefore not affected by tariffs, Keane said that Cimpress is experiencing headwinds from other import levies, particularly those on China.

New ASI Research delivers industrywide findings on Q1 #promoproduct distributor & supplier sales, as well as questions related to Made-in-USA demand, product price increases, business outlook, top end-markets for sales & how firms of different sizes fared https://t.co/s6FUOLXl4C

— Chris Ruvo (@ChrisR_ASI) April 21, 2025

“We expect the promotional products, apparel and gifts (PPAG) industry at large will face increased input costs from the increased tariffs on Chinese goods,” Keane wrote. “There are some PPAG products we sell, particularly drinkware and other hard goods, that exclusively or nearly exclusively originate from China, while other PPAG products like apparel have more diverse countries of origin. We are taking action in our supply chain to significantly reduce our exposure to PPAG sourcing where China is the country of origin.”

Still, Keane added, the changes will take months to fully implement and Cimpress anticipates cost hikes in the near term. “We expect to raise prices to at least partially offset these tariff costs and have already implemented pricing changes on some impacted products,” Keane said. “For these products where price increases are being used, it is not possible to forecast what impact this may have on customer demand.”

Based on the uncertainty of the current tariff environment and its potential impact on costs and customer demand, Cimpress withdrew prior financial guidance for its fiscal year 2025 and beyond. The firm had been projecting a 3% sales increase in FY2025.

Tariffs have been the defining issue for the promotional products industry in 2025. The market imports the vast majority of products it sells in the United States. Soaring tariff rates are making products/importing much more expensive, disrupting importing and prompting a scramble to adapt sourcing practices while creating marketplace uncertainty that contributed to the industrywide Q1 sales declines.

Based on estimated 2023 North American promotional product revenue of $310 million, Cimpress ranked 10th on Counselor’s most recent list of the largest distributors in the industry. The new rankings are due out this summer.