Postal group wins record sales in age of email

May 21 2009 by Peter McCusker, The Journal

AN envelope and mailing company has posted record sales and a 50% rise in profits and is recruiting despite fears of a tougher market this year.

Two years since it was bought by its senior management, Encore Envelopes has seen turnover climb almost 10% to £29.6m and pre-tax profits increase from £1.3m to £1.96m.

Russell Croisdale, managing director of the Washington company, says the results reflect on the hard work of its dedicated 275 workers.

But he says 2009 is proving challenging, with margins under severe pressure from rising paper costs and European competitors fighting hard for greater UK market share. He said: “We are very pleased with how things are going. We made a healthy profit and our margin increased from 20% to 21.1%.

“We have been able to keep the whole factory going and we are all working extremely hard.

“However, the latest figures show Royal Mail volumes are down by 12% and with email now taking business, this is having a knock-on effect across the industry. Paper costs have gone up by almost 20% and we cannot pass that on to customers.

“Prices are also falling across the industry with our European competitors chasing more sales in the UK and these factors are now putting margins under increasing pressure.”