Counselor Top 40 distributor Cimpress (asi/162149), the parent company of Vistaprint and former Top 40 firm National Pen, saw profitability plummet despite a top-line sales rise in the first six months of its 2025 fiscal year.

The publicly traded company released financial results on Jan. 29 that showed half-year net income of $48.5 million, down from about $62.7 million the year prior. That translated to diluted net income per share of $1.86, a decline from the previous year’s $2.31.

Cimpress operates on a fiscal calendar, and its 2025 half-year concluded Dec. 31, 2024. For that period, Cimpress increased total sales across all business channels by nearly 4% to about $1.74 billion.

For the three-month second quarter in particular, which also concluded December 31, Cimpress managed a nearly 2% year-over year sales rise, with revenue reaching about $939.16 million. Promo distributors’ collective sales in the fourth quarter of 2024, which corresponds to Cimpress’ Q2 2025 fiscal quarter, rose 1.4%, according to the Distributor Quarterly Sales Survey from ASI Research.

Notably, Cimpress generated an annual basis net income increase of 5% to $61 million, or $2.36 per diluted share, which was up from the prior year’s $2.14.

Nonetheless, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) for Cimpress declined 16% year over year in Q2 to $154.7 million. For the half-year, EBITDA dropped 8% to about $266 million.

The number jumble amounts to this: “We delivered disappointing financial results in our second quarter and therefore our full-year 2025 results will be lower than we originally expected,” said Cimpress CEO Robert Keane.

Keane explained that Cimpress had anticipated an EBITDA decline in Q2 due to the non-recurrence of $12 million from one-time favorable items in the same period last year, as well as the shortened holiday buying season compared to last year. Still, things went even worse than expected.

“We also experienced additional unplanned one-time headwinds to profitability,” Keane said. “In Canada, there was a postal strike during the holiday peak that kept our customers from buying holiday cards given the uncertainty of deliverability, which reduced profits by about $1.8 million, and we had a $2.9 million charge for a land duty tax in Australia related to our 2019 re-domiciliation to Ireland that we are appealing. All together these items weighed on year-over-year profitability by over $16 million.”

Performance by Vista, National Pen, PrintBrothers & The Print Group

Cimpress’ Vista division, which includes its flagship Vistaprint business, increased sales in Q2 2.5% to $497.67 million. For the half-year, business was up 5% to nearly $927.2 million.

Speaking about Vista’s Q2 specifically, Keane said: “Revenue was on plan in Europe, and on plan globally for focus categories like promotional products, apparel, signage, and packaging and labels that showed continued strength with year-over-year bookings growth rates that ranged from high single-digits to high teens. This strength was offset by year-over-year declines in bookings from the seasonally important consumer products (-3%) and business cards and stationery (-4%) driven by the North American market.”

“We delivered disappointing financial results in our second quarter and therefore our FY2025 results will be lower than we originally expected.” Robert Keane, Cimpress (asi/162149)

PrintBrothers and The Print Group, Cimpress’ upload and print businesses, grew Q2 revenue year over year by 5% ($174.5 million) and 7% ($98.6 million), respectively. For the half-year, PrintBrothers rose 5% to $334.9 million; The Print Group was up 6.5% to $182.7 million.

“Order growth and increased fulfillment for other Cimpress businesses drove revenue strength across the businesses,” Keane said. “Lower per-order quantities partially offset those strengths.”

National Pen grew Q2 2025 revenue by 1% to $131.42 million. For the half-year, sales topped up 3.7% to nearly $224.83 million.

In Q2, National Pen drove growth through ecommerce, cross-Cimpress fulfillment for other Cimpress businesses and telesales. However, said Keane, “these growing channels were offset by revenue declines in mail order where National Pen continued to optimize for efficiency of direct mail advertising. Segment EBITDA declined $2.1 million year over year, driven by higher inbound freight costs and product mix shifts that weighed on gross margin.”

Cimpress is forecasting that its total company-wide full-year sales will rise at least 3%, but is predicting that earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization will decline “no more than 6%.”

Based on estimated 2023 North American promotional product revenue of $310 million, Cimpress ranked 10^th on Counselor’s most recent list of the largest distributors in the industry.