Vistaprint 2012 Annual Report Download - page 3

Dear Fellow Shareholder:
Fiscal 2012 was a solid year for Vistaprint. We grew 25 percent over the prior year, passed the
milestone of $1 billion in annual revenue, and implemented the accelerated growth investments that we
first announced on July 28, 2011. The cost of those investments, which are intended to fuel greater
customer value, scale advantages, higher organic revenue growth and operationally-based competitive
advantage, resulted in a 38 percent year-over-year decrease in U.S. GAAP earnings per share to
$1.13. Cash from operations remained robust at $140.6 million.
We strengthened our traditional core business in three broad areas. First, we took foundational steps
toward a more customer-centric organization: we extended the availability and reach of our customer
service, improved the customer buying experience, reduced the intensity of email marketing, and
upgraded the quality of several key products. Second, our marketing teams invested in lifetime value-
based advertising to augment our new customer growth. Third, our manufacturing teams accelerated
investment in production process improvements, employee training, supply chain management, and
engineering so as to improve quality and reliability and to lower unit manufacturing costs.
Beyond our core, we laid foundations for future growth by expanding into market adjacencies. We
acquired Albumprinter to bring top-quality photo albums to European customers and Webs to build our
strength in digital marketing solutions for small businesses. We closed on the acquisition of assets of
Printbell, a small startup in India, and negotiated what became our July 2012 indirect equity investment
in Namex in China. Related to these Asian investments, we opened our Singapore office to manage
our growing presence in Asia Pacific.
In addition, over the last fiscal year, we began a multi-year ramp of resources throughout our company
to ensure the scalability of our business. First, in fiscal 2012, we increased our investment in
technology and development by 38 percent, to $129 million. We believe that our technology and our
resulting capabilities have been and will remain fundamental drivers of Vistaprint’s competitive
advantage. Second, we expanded G&A expenditures by almost 49 percent, to $105 million, building
our strength in areas such as human resources, legal and finance. We anticipate that we will see
leverage in both technology and development and G&A costs over the long term; however, given our
ambitious growth plans, our strategy called for these types of up-front investments in our core
technology and administrative infrastructure.
We believe our strategy will deliver significant value and in the last year we acted on that belief through
our repurchase of almost ten million shares, or 23 percent of the shares that were outstanding as of the
end of fiscal 2011.
While we made significant progress over the last year, we must continue to focus on strong execution in
order to meet our long-term strategic and financial goals. We expect the next year, fiscal 2013, to be
another year of deep investment in our multi-year strategy, and will be working as diligently as ever to
deliver greater customer value, to acquire large numbers of new customers, to improve manufacturing, to
integrate our investments in adjacent markets, and to further the size and strength of our technology teams.
Importantly, I would like to thank our valued employees for their talent and contribution to our
company’s success. Vistaprint employs over 3,700 people across 13 countries. Their drive and
dedication have built Vistaprint to its currently strong state and will be essential to our future. Because
of them, I am confident in our ability to progress toward the goals we have laid out.
My expectations for Vistaprint remain high — as the founder, as the CEO, and as a shareholder. But each
successive year of solid results reinforces my belief that we are building a transformational and enduring
business that will create great value for our customers, our employees, and our long-term shareholders.
Yours very truly,
Robert S. Keane
Chairman of the Management Board, President and CEO
Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
The statements in this letter concerning our expectations for the future growth and development of our business and anticipated
effects of our strategy and investments constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under
the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Our actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these
forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including but not limited to those contained in the Risk
Factors section of this Annual Report.