Vistaprint 2013 Annual Report Download - page 3

Dear Fellow Shareholder:
Fiscal year 2013 was another year of progress as we continued to turn Vistaprint toward the new bearing we
publicly announced just over two years ago. As part of this multi-year strategic reorientation, we have been
implementing major changes and improvements across most parts of our business, including the following
achievements during the last fiscal year:
‰We raised the value that we provide to customers of our core Vistaprint brand through improved pricing
transparency, enhanced user experience, upgraded substrate quality and expanded customer service.
‰Through process improvements, manufacturing engineering and supply chain management, we
increased delivery reliability and product quality, extended our leadership in mass customization, and
lowered our costs of production.
‰We invested heavily in advertising, the financial justification of which we based upon multi-year
customer lifetime value.
‰We continued our multi-year transition of the Vistaprint brand away from predominantly free and deeply
discounted prices toward a brand which small business owners recognize as simply a better place to
promote their business.
‰In the European Home & Family market we strongly grew our Albelli brand, part of Albumprinter, as we
rolled out improved products and user experience functionality.
‰For digital products such as websites and small business Facebook pages, we continued with the
integration of the Webs technology into our much larger Vistaprint brand’s digital business while
maintaining strong growth for the Webs brand as a leader in the “freemium” space of this market.
‰We began to lay foundations for future growth in Asia by building out and launching our India manufacturing,
website, customer service and marketing operations. Likewise, we began sharing our manufacturing and
management knowledge with Namex, our minority equity investment in China.
‰Strong investment in technology and development powered many of the above projects. We are driving
our technology capabilities forward through themes of enabling strategic priorities, effective delivery and
platform development.
None of the above is a short-term initiative: we expect to continue progressing on each of them for the
foreseeable future. While progress was made, not everything went according to plan in FY 2013. In Europe
and Australia we faced significant revenue shortfalls relative to our budget due in part to our own execution
errors and in part to headwinds associated with our move away from direct marketing tactics focused
predominantly on hard discounts. Although these prior practices were effective in driving near-term
revenue, we believe we need to improve our relevance to customers who seek not only great prices, but
also other value drivers such as quality, pricing transparency, service and great graphic content. Finally, our
slower revenue growth forced us to re-assess the speed at which we could drive profit growth relative to the
objectives we set two years ago.
Last year we grew revenue 14 percent to $1.2 billion. Our GAAP earnings per share of $0.85 exceeded the
target we set at the beginning of the fiscal year, although it declined 25 percent year over year as we
continued to invest consistent with the strategy discussed above. Cash from operations remained strong at
$140 million. We purchased 1.9 million of our ordinary shares during FY 2013, in addition to the 9.9 million
shares that we purchased in FY 2012. As a result, our share count is 4% lower than it was at the end of
fiscal 2012 and 24% lower than it was at the end of fiscal 2011.
Importantly, I would like to thank each of our employees for their hard work and dedication last year. At year
end Vistaprint employed over 4,000 team members in 19 different locations. Without their talents we could
never have moved forward as we did over the past fiscal year and as we expect to do in the future.
Looking to that future – as the founder, as the CEO, and as a shareholder – my expectations for Vistaprint
remain high. I continue steadfast in my belief that we are building a transformational and enduring business
for the long term. Thank you for your confidence and support of Vistaprint as we continue to create value for
our customers, provide rewarding opportunities for our employees, and seek strong financial returns for our
long-term shareholders.
Sincerely,
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.