Top 40 promotional products distributor Cimpress (asi/162149), the parent company of Vistaprint and former Top 40 firm National Pen, recorded a $39 million net loss on sales that declined 3.1% year-over-year in the corporation’s fiscal third quarter, which corresponds to the calendar-year first quarter.

Dundalk, IE-headquartered Cimpress reported that sales for the quarter were about $578.85 million, down from $597.60 million the prior year. For Q3 2021, the $39 million loss led to per-share losses of $1.50. That was better than Q3 2020, a three-month period when Cimpress registered an overall $84.88 million loss and losses per share of $3.26 as the COVID-19 pandemic torpedoed business.

Robert Keane, Cimpress

Through the first three quarters of its fiscal year, Cimpress’ revenue is down 5% to about $1.95 billion. Reported loss through the nine-month period stands at $17.51 million, or -$0.67 per share.

Vistaprint, Cimpress’ flagship business, provided a bright spot. The global online seller of brandable print and promo products recorded a year-over-year sales gain in Q3, generating $327.45 million in revenue this year compared to $316.31 million the year past. For the first nine months of fiscal 2021, Vistaprint’s sales are essentially flat at $1.09 billion.

National Pen isn’t faring as well. Q3 sales were down 9% to $62.22 million. For the first three quarters as a whole, National Pen’s revenue stands at $244.56 million, down 8.2%.

Cimpress’ Q3 performance occurred during the same quarter in which North American promotional products distributors’ sales declined, on average, nearly 15% compared to the same three-month period in 2020.

Continued COVID-19 complications, a drop-off in sales of PPE, supply chain woes and pricing pressures – they all resulted in the industry-wide decline.

Cimpress CEO Robert Keane noted that ongoing pandemic-related challenges negatively impacted sales in the firm’s third quarter. Still, there are encouraging “signs of recovery,” Keane said.

“In March and continuing in the month of April, we saw a pickup in demand in markets where pandemic restrictions have been lifted or are less severe,” said Keane. “These data points give us confidence that demand will continue to pick up as activity resumes in our markets around the world.”

Based on estimated 2019 North American promotional products revenue of $477 million, Cimpress ranked sixth on Counselor’s most recent list of the largest distributors in the industry. The new rankings are due out in the summer of 2021.