Courier Reports Year-End Financial Results: Revenue Up 5 Percent; EBITDA Comparable to Previous Year

NORTH CHELMSFORD, MA—November 20, 2014—Courier Corp., one of America’s leading innovators in book manufacturing, publishing and content management, today announced fourth-quarter and full-year results for its fiscal year ended Sept. 27, 2014.

Fourth-quarter revenues in fiscal 2014 were $84 million, up marginally from $83 million in last year’s fourth quarter. Income from continuing operations was $7.2 million or $.63 per diluted share, compared to $6.8 million or $.60 per diluted share in last year’s fourth quarter. During the quarter, Courier sold its Creative Homeowner publishing business; as a result, Creative Homeowner is accounted for in both periods as a discontinued operation.

For the full year of fiscal 2014, sales were $283 million, up 5 percent from $271 million for fiscal 2013. Income from continuing operations was $8.7 million or $.76 per diluted share. Fiscal 2014 results include non-cash impairment charges of $6.0 million related to FastPencil, a California software startup Courier acquired last year, partially offset by a reduction in the related contingent consideration liability of $4.1 million. Excluding this net impairment charge of $1.9 million or $.13 per diluted share, income from continuing operations was $10.2 million or $.89 per diluted share, compared to $11.5 million or $1.00 per diluted share in fiscal 2013. This year’s earnings decline was primarily attributable to operating losses at FastPencil.

Details of the net impairment charge and other items, including reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to GAAP, can be found in the tables at the end of this release. One such non-GAAP measure is EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization), an additional indicator of the company’s operating cash flow performance. Courier’s EBITDA, adjusted for the net impairment charge, was $42 million for both fiscal year 2014 and 2013.

Apart from FastPencil, trends were positive in both of Courier’s business segments. In book manufacturing, sales for the year were up in all three of the company’s principal markets of education, religion and trade. In publishing, fourth-quarter profits were up at both Dover Publications and Research & Education Association (REA), which helped the segment reduce its full-year operating loss by nearly 90 percent from last year, to less than $200,000.