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| EBF > SEC Filings for EBF > Form 10-Q on 4-Jan-2013 | All Recent SEC Filings |
4-Jan-2013
Quarterly Report
Overview
Ennis, Inc. (formerly Ennis Business Forms, Inc.) was organized under the laws of Texas in 1909. Ennis, Inc. and its subsidiaries (collectively referred to as the "Company," "Registrant," "Ennis," or "we," "us," or "our") print and manufacture a broad line of business forms and other business products (the "Print Segment") and also manufacture a line of activewear (the "Apparel Segment") for distribution throughout North America. The Print Segment distributes business products and forms throughout the United States primarily through independent dealers. This distributor channel encompasses print distributors, stationers, quick printers, computer software developers, and advertising agencies, among others. The Apparel Segment produces and sells activewear, including t-shirts, fleece goods and other wearables. Distribution of our activewear throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico is primarily through sales representatives. The distributor channel encompasses activewear wholesalers and screen printers. We offer a great selection of high-quality activewear apparel and hats with a wide variety of styles and colors in sizes ranging from toddler to 6XL. The apparel line features a wide variety of tees, fleece and shorts.
On February 10, 2012, we acquired from Cenveo Corporation ("Cenveo"), and its subsidiaries, Cenveo Resale Ohio, LLC, and Printegra Corporation, certain assets of Cenveo's document business, including the manufacturing facilities branded under the names of PrintXcel and Printegra for $40.0 million plus the assumption of certain trade liabilities. The cash portion of the purchase price was funded by borrowing under our line of credit facility. The original purchase price of $40.0 million was subsequently reduced to $36.2 million as a result of an adjustment made during the quarter ended August 31, 2012, to the acquisition date inventory balances and pursuant to the terms of the purchase agreement. The combined sales of the purchased operations were $74.4 million during the twelve month period ended December 31, 2011. The acquired assets will continue to be operated under their respective trade names of PrintXcel and Printegra. We expect the acquired assets will expand our pressure seal and high color commercial print capabilities, as well as our business check product lines, which will be sold through our independent distributor network.
On September 30, 2011, we purchased all of the outstanding equity of PrintGraphics, LLC ("PrintGraphics"), as well as associated land and buildings for an aggregate of $6.0 million in cash. PrintGraphics has locations in Vandalia, Ohio and Nevada, Iowa. The sales of the purchased operations were $15.1 million during the twelve month period ended December 31, 2010. The acquisition of PrintGraphics continues our strategy of targeted growth in the Print Segment of products to further service our existing customer base.
Business Segment Overview
We are one of the largest providers of business forms to independent distributors in the United States and are also one of the largest providers of blank t-shirts in North America to the activewear market. We operate in two reportable segments: Print and Apparel. For additional financial information concerning segment reporting, please see Note 14 of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements beginning on page 18 included elsewhere herein, which information is incorporated herein by reference.
Print Segment
The Print Segment, which represented 63% and 62% of our consolidated net sales for the three and nine months ended November 30, 2012, is in the business of manufacturing, designing and selling business forms and other printed business products primarily to distributors located in the United States. The Print Segment operates 49 manufacturing locations throughout the United States in 19 strategically located states. Approximately 95% of the business products manufactured by the Print Segment are custom and semi-custom products, constructed in a wide variety of sizes, colors, and quantities on an individual job basis depending upon customers' specifications.
The products sold include snap sets, continuous forms, laser cut sheets, tags, labels, envelopes, integrated products, jumbo rolls and pressure sensitive products in short, medium and long runs under the following labels: Ennis®, Royal Business Forms®, Block Graphics®, Specialized Printed Forms®, 360º Custom LabelsSM, Enfusion®, Uncompromised Check Solutions ®, VersaSeal®, Witt Printing®, B&D Litho®, Genforms®, PrintGraphicsSM, Calibrated Forms®, PrintXcel™ and Printegra ®. The Print Segment also sells the Adams-McClure® brand (which provides Point of Purchase advertising for large franchise and fast food chains as well as kitting and fulfillment); the Admore ® brand (which provides presentation folders and document folders); Ennis Tag & LabelSM (which provides tags and labels, promotional products and advertising concept products); Atlas Tag & Label® (which provides tags and labels); Trade Envelopes ® and Block Graphics® (which provide custom and imprinted envelopes) and Northstar® and General Financial Supply®(which provide financial and security documents).
The Print Segment sells predominantly through private printers and independent distributors. Northstar also sells direct to a small number of customers, generally large banking organizations (where a distributor is not acceptable or available to the end-user), as does Adams-McClure, where sales are generally through advertising agencies.
The printing industry generally sells its products either through sales made predominantly to end users, a market dominated by a few large manufacturers, such as Moore Wallace (a subsidiary of R.R. Donnelley), Standard Register, and Cenveo, or, like the Company, through a variety of independent distributors and distributor groups. While it is not possible, because of the lack of adequate statistical information, to determine the Company's share of the total business products market, management believes the Company is one of the largest producers of business forms in the United States distributing primarily through independent dealers and that its business forms offering is more diversified than that of most companies in the business forms industry.
There are a number of competitors that operate in this segment, ranging in size from single employee-owner operations to multi-plant organizations. We believe our strategic locations and buying power permit us to compete on a favorable basis within the distributor market on competitive factors, such as service, quality, and price.
Distribution of business forms and other business products throughout the United States is primarily done through independent dealers, including business forms distributors, stationers, printers, computer software developers, and advertising agencies.
Raw materials of the Print Segment principally consist of a wide variety of weights, widths, colors, sizes, and qualities of paper for business products purchased from a number of major suppliers at prevailing market prices.
Business products usage in the printing industry is generally not seasonal. General economic conditions and contraction of the traditional business forms industry are the predominant factor in quarterly volume fluctuations.
Our Print Business Challenges - In our Print Segment, we are engaged in an industry undergoing significant changes. Technology advances have made electronic distribution of documents, internet hosting, digital printing and print-on-demand valid, cost-effective alternatives to traditional custom printed documents and customer communications. In addition, the economic downturn and the associated credit crunch created highly competitive conditions in an already over-supplied, price-competitive industry, continue to present challenges today. Thus, we believe we are facing the following challenges in the Print Segment of our business:
• Transformation of our portfolio of products
• Excess production capacity and price competition within our industry
• Continued economic uncertainties
The following is a discussion of these business challenges and our strategy for managing their effect on our print business.
Transformation of our portfolio of products - Traditional business documents are essential in order to conduct business. However, many are being replaced or devalued with advances in digital technologies, causing steady declines in demand for a large portion of our current product line. The same digital advances also introduce potential new growth opportunities, such as print-on-demand services and product offerings that assist customers in their transition to digital business environments. In addition, we will continue to look for new market opportunities and niches, such as the addition of our envelope offerings, healthcare wristbands, secure document solutions, innovative in-mold label offerings and long-run integrated products with high color web printing that provide us with an opportunity for growth and differentiate us from our competition. Transforming our product offerings in order to continue to provide innovative, valuable solutions to our customers on a proactive basis will require us to make investments in new and existing technology and to develop key strategic business relationships.
Excess production capacity and price competition within our industry - Paper mills continue to adjust production capacity through downtime and closures to attempt to keep supply in line with demand. Due to the limited number of paper mills, paper prices have been and are expected to remain fairly volatile.
Despite a continued competitive marketplace, we have generally been able to pass through increased paper costs, although it can often take several quarters to push these through due to the custom nature of our products and/or contractual relationships with some of our customers. We expect this trend to continue, however, any new downturn in the economy or continued protraction of the current recovery may limit our ability to recover all these costs. As such, we will continue to focus our efforts on effectively managing and controlling our product costs to minimize the effects of the foregoing on our operational results, primarily through the use of forecasting models and production and costing models. However, an inherent risk in this process is that our assumptions are inaccurate, which could have a negative impact on our reported profit margins.
Continued economic uncertainties - As a result of the past recessionary conditions, the economic climate has been volatile and challenging. Decreased demand and intense price competition resulted in a significant decline in our revenue during the past several fiscal years. Although we have seen improvement in some economic indicators within our markets, a generally weak domestic job market, global economic instabilities, a rather anemic domestic economic recovery and domestic policy uncertainties have and will continue to present a challenging environment for revenue growth. As we cannot predict the pace or continuance of the domestic economic recovery, the impact of continued global economic instability, nor the impact of domestic policy decisions, we continue to focus on customer retention, expanding our growth targeted products and continuing to develop new market niches. In addition, we have a proven history of managing our costs during tough economic times and would not expect this to change in the future.
Apparel Segment
The Apparel Segment represented 37% and 38% of our consolidated net sales for the three and nine months ended November 30, 2012, and operates under the name of Alstyle Apparel ("Alstyle"). Alstyle markets high quality knitted activewear (including t-shirts, tank tops and fleece) across all market segments. The main products of Alstyle are standardized shirts manufactured in a variety of sizes and colors. Approximately 97% of Alstyle's revenues are derived from t-shirt sales, which make up 89% of domestic sales. Alstyle's branded product lines are sold mainly under the AAA® and Murina® brands.
Effective July 2011, Alstyle operates in an owned manufacturing facility located in Agua Prieta, Mexico. Previously Alstyle operated in a leased manufacturing facility located in Anaheim, CA. Alstyle has three cut and sew facilities in Mexico (Agua Prieta, Ensenada and Hermosillo). In addition to its own cut and sew facilities, Alstyle also uses outsourced manufacturers located in El Salvador from time to time to supplement a portion of its cut and sew needs. After sewing and packaging is completed, the product is shipped to one of Alstyle's nine distribution centers located across the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
Alstyle utilizes a customer-focused internal sales team comprised of twenty-one sales representatives assigned to specific geographic territories in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Sales representatives are allocated performance objectives for their respective territories and are provided financial incentives for achievement of their target objectives. Sales representatives are responsible for developing business with large accounts and spend a majority of their time in the field.
Alstyle employs a staff of customer service representatives that handle call-in orders from smaller customers. Sales personnel sell directly to Alstyle's customer base, which consists primarily of screen printers, embellishers, retailers, and mass marketers.
A majority of Alstyle's sales are branded products, with the remainder being customer private label products. Generally, sales to screen printers and mass marketers are driven by price and the availability of products, which directly impacts our inventory level requirements. Sales in the private label business are characterized by slightly higher customer loyalty.
Alstyle's most popular styles are produced based on demand management forecasts to permit quick shipment and to level production schedules. Alstyle offers same-day shipping and uses third-party carriers to ship products to its customers.
Alstyle's sales are seasonal, with sales in the first and second fiscal quarters generally being the highest. The apparel industry is characterized by rapid shifts in fashion, consumer demand and competitive pressures, resulting in both price and demand volatility. However, the imprinted activewear market to which Alstyle sells is generally "event" driven. Blank t-shirts can be thought of as "walking billboards" promoting movies, concerts, sports teams, and "image" brands. Still, the demand for any particular product varies from time to time based largely upon changes in consumer preferences and general economic conditions affecting the apparel industry.
The apparel industry is comprised of numerous companies who manufacture and sell a wide range of products. Alstyle is primarily involved in the activewear market and produces t-shirts and outsources such products as fleece, hats, shorts, pants and other such activewear apparel from China, Thailand, Pakistan, and other foreign sources to sell to its customers through its sales representatives. Alstyle competes with many branded and private label manufacturers of knit apparel in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, some of which are larger in size and have greater financial resources than Alstyle. Alstyle competes on the basis of price, quality, service, and delivery. Alstyle's strategy is to provide the best value to its customers by delivering a consistent, high-quality product at a competitive price. Alstyle's competitive disadvantage is that its brand name, Alstyle Apparel, is not as well known as the brand names of its largest competitors, such as Gildan, Delta, Hanes, and Russell. While it is not possible to calculate precisely, based on public information available, management believes that Alstyle is one of the top three providers of blank t-shirts in North America.
Raw materials of the Apparel Segment principally consist of cotton and polyester yarn purchased from a number of major suppliers at prevailing market prices, although we purchase 53% of our cotton and yarn from one supplier.
Our Apparel Business Challenges - In our Apparel Segment, our market niche is highly competitive, commodity driven, and is generally dominated by a limited number of companies. The downturn in the economy and turmoil in the credit markets in 2009 and 2010 created an over-supply situation which further increased competitive pressures in this market. While the economic environment improved somewhat in 2011, which led to increased demand for
our product during the later part of fiscal year 2011 and the start of fiscal year 2012, we have seen softness in the market due to domestic and global economic uncertainties. Whether this decline is behind us or will need to be dealt with for quarters to come is unknown. However, such uncertainty and volatility in the marketplace could have unanticipated adverse effects on our business during this fiscal year and beyond. In addition, a significant reduction in the spot price of cotton added additional complexities to an already competitive marketplace. The divergence between the current purchase cost of cotton and the cost residing in most manufacturer's finished goods inventories were at historical levels, creating market valuation issues for some and sale side pressure for others. However, at this point, most of the higher cost of cotton has worked through our finished goods inventory and the divergence between the current purchase cost of cotton and the average costs in our finished goods inventory has returned to a more normalized spread. Thus, we believe we are facing the following challenges in our Apparel Segment in the remainder of fiscal 2013:
• Cotton prices and market pricing
• New manufacturing facility
• Continued economic uncertainties
Cotton prices - Cotton, which represents a significant portion of our cost, is a commodity product and subject to volatile fluctuations in price. Costs for cotton yarn and cotton-based textiles vary based upon the fluctuating cost of cotton, which is affected by, among other factors, weather, consumer demand, commodities market speculation, currency fluctuations, international actions and other factors that are generally unpredictable and beyond our control. Over the past several years, we have seen cotton prices reach levels never before seen in its history and have seen the prices recede back to levels that, while still high, are more in line with historical averages. We are able to lock in the cost of cotton reflected in the price we pay for yarn from our primary suppliers in an attempt to protect our business from the volatility of the market price of cotton. However, our business can be affected by dramatic movements in cotton prices as seen in years 2010 and 2011. The cost incurred for materials, i.e., yarn, thread, etc. are capitalized into inventory and impacts the Company's operating results as this inventory is sold, which could be anywhere from six months to a year after the materials were in fact purchased. Consequently, significant and rapid increases or decreases in cotton costs can have a material impact of the Company's operational results. As mentioned above, most of the higher cost of cotton has worked through our finished goods inventory at this point, and the divergence between the current purchase cost of cotton and the average costs in our finished goods inventory has returned to a more normalized spread. Absent some economic disruption (see below), we expect to see continuing improvement in our apparel margins in the quarters to come.
New manufacturing facility - The new manufacturing facility in Agua Prieta, Mexico ("AP") is operational, and all production has now been transitioned from our Anaheim, CA ("Anaheim") facility to the AP facility. We began producing fabric from this facility during the first quarter of fiscal 2012 and current production capabilities are on target with our original estimates. While the transition from Anaheim to AP has been completed, much still needs to be accomplished, such as increasing production levels and improving operational efficiency. We believe that operational efficiency will improve as production levels increase. However, the increase in production levels is dependent on improved market conditions (see below).
Continued economic uncertainties - As a result of the past recessionary conditions, the economic climate has been and continues to be volatile and challenging both domestically and internationally. Although we saw an increase in our apparel revenues during fiscal 2011 due to improving economic conditions, we saw a significant drop in our sales during the latter half of fiscal 2012 due to competitive pricing pressures, which we attribute to recent softness in the market. International instability and continued domestic policy and economic issues have had, and we believe will continue to have, an impact on the domestic economic environment. We are concerned with the economic discussions currently occurring in Washington, D.C. and how ultimate decisions may impact our next fiscal year. Many economic uncertainties remain for many businesses for which our government needs to provide clarity. How their actions or inactions will impact businesses, consumers and our economy in general over the short term and long term remains to be seen.
Cautionary Statements
You should read this discussion and analysis in conjunction with our Consolidated Financial Statements and the related notes appearing elsewhere in this Report. In addition, certain statements in this Report, and in particular, statements found in Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The words "anticipate," "preliminary," "expect," "believe," "intend" and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. We believe these forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions. All such statements involve risks and uncertainties, and as a result, actual results could differ materially from those projected, anticipated or implied by these statements. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, including but not limited to, general economic, business and labor conditions and the potential impact on our operations; our ability to implement our strategic initiatives and control our operational costs; dependence on a limited number of key suppliers; our ability to recover the rising cost of raw materials and other costs (i.e., energy, freight, labor, benefit costs, etc.) in markets that are highly price competitive; our ability to timely or adequately respond to technological changes in the industry; the impact of the Internet and other electronic media on the demand for forms and printed materials; the impact of foreign competition, tariffs and import restrictions; customer credit risk; competitors' pricing strategies; a decline in business volume and profitability could result in an impairment in our reported goodwill negatively impacting our operational results; our ability to retain key management personnel; our ability to identify, manage or integrate acquisitions; and changes in government regulations. In addition to the factors indicated above, you should carefully consider the risks described in and incorporated by reference herein and in the risk factors in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended February 29, 2012 before making an investment in our common stock.
In view of such uncertainties, investors should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements since such statements may prove to be inaccurate and speak only as of the date when made. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
In preparing our consolidated financial statements, we are required to make estimates and assumptions that affect the disclosures and reported amounts of assets and liabilities at the date of the consolidated financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. We evaluate our estimates and judgments on an ongoing basis, including those related to allowance for doubtful receivables, inventory valuations, property, plant and equipment, intangible assets, pension plan obligations, accrued liabilities and income taxes. We base our estimates and judgments on historical experience and on various other factors that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. Actual results may differ materially from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions. We believe the following accounting policies are the most critical due to their effect on our more significant estimates and judgments used in preparation of our consolidated financial statements.
We maintain a defined benefit retirement plan (the "Pension Plan") for employees. Included in our financial results are Pension Plan costs that are measured using actuarial valuations. The actuarial assumptions used may differ from actual results. As our Pension Plan assets are invested in marketable securities, fluctuations in market values could potentially impact our funding status and associated liability recorded.
Amounts allocated to amortizable intangibles are determined based on valuation analysis for our acquisitions and are amortized over their expected useful lives. We evaluate these amounts periodically (at least once a year) to determine whether a triggering event has occurred during the year that would indicate potential impairment.
We exercise judgment in evaluating our long-lived assets for impairment. We assess the impairment of long-lived assets that include other intangible assets, goodwill, and property, plant, and equipment annually or whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value may not be recoverable. In performing tests of impairment, we must make assumptions regarding the estimated future cash flows and other factors to determine the fair value of the respective assets in assessing the recoverability of our long-lived assets. If these estimates or the related assumptions change, we may be required to record impairment charges for these assets in the future. Actual
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