Turnaround
Larkspur Print and Mail is watching its traditional print work shrink while short-run digital and mail volume grow — find the recovery mix.
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Larkspur Print and Mail serves small and mid-sized businesses across the Front Range: brochures, flyers and menus on two offset presses, short-run digital work on a modern digital press, and turnkey direct-mail campaigns (print, lettershop, and postage management) for regional retailers and nonprofits. Revenue is $9.6M and EBITDA has slid to $420K (4.4%) from $1.3M three years ago.
The pattern is familiar across the industry: offset volume falls as marketing budgets move online, but Larkspur's response has been slow. The second offset press (eight years old) runs one shift instead of two, yet its lease and maintenance contract continue. The digital press, bought two years ago, has capacity to spare. And the direct-mail operation quietly became the profit engine: postage management is valued by clients who find postal regulations impenetrable, and mail volume grows every year as retailers chase response rates that email cannot match.
The owner, who founded the shop 26 years ago, wants a plan that stops the slide this year and rebuilds EBITDA toward $700K without new capital investment. You advise the owner.
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