Net sales for ARC in the first quarter of 2018 dropped about 1 percent from that period last year, and EBITDA dropped by about $2.6 million. The financial highlights are in the image below, and here is management commentary:
"We are starting to see our sales declines moderating, while we experience a return to growth in our more traditional business lines. This is encouraging and clear evidence that we are making progress against our strategic objectives laid out last year," said K. "Suri" Suriyakumar, Chairman, President and CEO of ARC Document Solutions. "Our renewed focus on ARC's print business gained considerable traction during the quarter with a 2.1% increase in CDIM."
"While our efforts to protect our print business and grow our tech business are starting to show results, recent experience shows that we must continue to make changes as we move forward and stay ahead of the curve in an ever-changing business environment," said Mr. Suriyakumar. "We remain upbeat about the coming year and our strategic direction, and in pursuit of further progress, we will continue to support initiatives that are growing, but shrink costs associated with products and services that have not."
"Medical costs were exceptionally high during the period, having a 140 basis point impact on our operating margins and a two cent impact on earnings per share. Despite these costs, gross margin declined just 30 basis points," said Jorge Avalos, Chief Financial Officer. "Negative cash flow from operations was due to changes in working capital, and more specifically the timing of payables. This is a trend that is likely to be familiar to our long-term investors, and as usual, we expect this trend to reverse by the second half of the year, and anticipate strong cash flows for the year as our forecast demonstrates."
Click here to read the entire press release on ARC's website
