Ennis reports Q3 EPS 44c vs. 29c a year ago

Reports Q3 revenue $110.2M vs. $103M a year ago. Keith Walters, Chairman, CEO and President, commented by stating, "We are pleased with our performance for the third quarter. For the seventh consecutive quarter, revenues and operating income improved on a year-over-year basis due to continued strong customer demand for our products and our disciplined cost management and pricing strategies. Our gross profit margin increased to 30.4% for the current quarter from 28.4% for the same prior year quarter, an increase of 2.0%. Our prior year gross profit margin was impacted by inflationary factors and the transitional increase in expense from the consolidation of a few of our underperforming manufacturing facilities. Our EBITDA increased from $15.4 million to $20.8 million over the same prior year quarter. The demand for paper remains solid but we are beginning to see import competition in the North American Paper and Writing market. We continue to monitor incoming order volumes as well as rising raw material and other input costs so that we can proactively adjust our pricing and costs accordingly. At the end of the current quarter, we completed the acquisition of School Photo Marketing. School Photo Marketing provides printing, yearbook publishing and marketing related services to over 1,400 school and sports photographers around the country. This addition brings with it many exciting possibilities to service this new channel with products produced through Ennis manufacturing operations. We believe we have one of the strongest balance sheets in the industry, with no debt and significant cash. Our profitability and strong financial condition will allow us to continue operations and fund acquisitions without incurring debt. Given those strengths, we also anticipate timely access to credit should larger acquisition opportunities materialize as we continue to explore strategic opportunities in the acquisition arena to increase profitability."