OREANDA-NEWS. On 17 April 2009 was announced, that shareholders in AS “PRESES NAMS” (PN) approved the company’s 2008 annual reports at a meeting today.  They received information from the company’s board and council about last year’s operating results, as well as conclusions from an independent auditor on the 2008 reports.  The shareholders approved the auditing firm of “Ernst & Young Baltic” as the auditor for 2009 annual reports, and they also gave their approval to amendments to the company’s statutes.

“PRESES NAMS” board chairman Igors Stepanovs told the shareholders that a major event in 2008 was the establishment of a new book printing facility, Jansili, in the town of Silakrogs in the Riga District.  Concentrating printing capacities in a single location allows the company to implement a management system that is effective and transparent, to ensure the full range of book production services, to optimise working hours and consumption of materials, to reduce logistics cots and, in the long term, increase income in the book printing sector.  The company has also begun to offer two new products which are unique in the Baltic States.  Total investments in the Jansili facility in 2008 were LVL 6.8 million.  The plant is focused largely on export markets, and PN has launched a major marketing campaign to find new clients in Scandinavia, Russia and Western Europe.

“Over the last few years, there has been an ongoing decline in the printing sector due to lower purchasing power,” says Stepanovs.  “What’s more, the government raised the VAT rate on print products at the beginning of 2009.  For these reasons, we’re focusing more on how PN can improve its competitiveness in the local and external market.  In reaction to rapid changes in the printing sector, the company is undergoing restructuring.  We will be more active in our marketing attempts, we will implement flexible price policies, we will review individual aspects of our work, focus on specific target product groups, and strike a better balance between the amount of work that our employees do and the volume of orders which we receive.”

Stepanovs also told shareholders that operating indicators in 2008 were affected by a series of major factors, including a bit of delay in the opening of the Jansili facility – something which did not make it possible to make full use of production capacities right from the start.  Other issues include greater competition in the printing market in the Baltic States, a high rate of inflation which pushed costs up, and the fact that work on a printing plant for newspapers and magazines was suspended.

The company’s financial results reflect the external complications, but also investments that were made in the company’s future growth.  In 2008, the company had post-tax losses of LVL 7.5 million, of which more than LVL 2 million can be attributed to a reassessment of the value of equity resources.

As has been reported in the past, restructuring is continuing at PN, the aim being to strengthen the company’s marketing operations, to find new markets, to expand into Germany and Scandinavia, to set up a network of representatives and agents in European countries and Russia, to find new partners at international and local book shows, to implement more flexible pricing policies, and to implement a series of other improvements.

The stock company PRESES NAMS was established on February 20, 1991, and provides high-quality printing services of various kinds – printing of newspapers and magazines, printing of books, and other types of printing services.  The major shareholder in PN is SIA LASCO Investment (100% owned by AS “Latvijas kugnieciba”).