News January 27, 2023
Cimpress Appoints Florian Baumgartner as CEO to Its Vista Division
Robert Keane will continue to lead Top 40 distributor Cimpress, parent company of Vista, as CEO. The publicly traded company also announced a weak financial performance for its fiscal year 2023 Q2.
Cimpress (asi/162149), a Top 40 promotional products distributor, has appointed Florian Baumgartner CEO of its Vista division, which includes the company’s flagship brand – online seller of print and branded products Vistaprint.
Robert Keane had been serving as CEO of Cimpress and the Vista division in particular following the departure of Trynka Shineman as Vistaprint CEO in 2019. Keane is continuing as CEO and chairman of Cimpress, but turning over the Vista chief executive role to Baumgartner, whose appointment is effective Feb. 1.
“Florian’s passion and experience are founded on customer obsession and a desire to create products that customers love,” said Keane. “I value Florian for the high bar that he holds for himself and his teams, in particular around talent and execution, and I have found him to be genuinely invested in the personal well-being and professional success of everyone he works with. These behaviors align well with the leadership style Vista needs moving forward.”
Baumgartner joined the Vista executive team in October 2019. Since then, he has overseen country teams and manufacturing operations outside of North America, Vista’s promotional products business, customer care and recent acquisitions, including Depositphotos, VistaCreate and 99designs by Vista.
Prior to joining Cimpress, Baumgartner held leadership roles at Amazon, where he helped develop and scale the European retail and international fresh businesses. Before that, Baumgartner, who has a PhD in innovation management, served as a strategy consultant at McKinsey & Company, supporting retailers and consumer goods companies in growth and efficiency initiatives.
“I expect Florian and the Vista executive team will continue consistently improving the value we deliver to customers while returning Vista’s profitability to its prior highs and beyond,” Keane said.
Speaking of financial performance: Cimpress had a tough fiscal year 2023 second quarter – a three-month period concluded on Dec. 31, 2022. Total global revenue across all of Cimpress’ business divisions for the quarter declined about a 0.5% year over year to $845.2 million. The picture was a bit brighter for the half-year: Total worldwide sales were up 2.74% to nearly $1.55 billion.
Still, Cimpress has reported a net loss so far through its fiscal year. In Q2, net loss was at $140 million, or -$5.34 per sale. For the first six months of the fiscal year, loss is reported at $165.44 million, or -$6.31 per share.
Declines in consumer product sales were among the factors that weighed down topline sales growth in Q2. Rising costs due to the overall inflationary marketplace hurt earnings, as did restructuring expenses and a non-cash lay out.
Keane said strong sales and a return to profitability lie ahead, with much stronger performance expected in fiscal year 2024. “The investments we have made over the past years have given us the talent, capabilities and competitive advantages to significantly improve the value that we deliver to our customers,” he said.
Based on estimated 2021 North American promotional products revenue of $464 million, Cimpress ranked fifth on Counselor’s most recent list of the largest distributors in the industry.