Green Earth Group NV — Earnings Release 2011

May 11, 2011

Press
Release

Business update 2011 Q1

• ‐
  Satisfactory
  start
  2011
  RSG
• ‐ Print
  Production activities are
  developing positively
• ‐ Marketing Communications business growth continues

Developments in Q1 2011

The
printing
industry
is
evolving
rapidly.
The
consequences
of
the
poor
years
2009
and
2010 are
now
becoming
apparent.
Bankruptcies
and
(partial)
plant
closures
have
drastically changed
the
mix
of
major
players
in
the
European
industry.
A
degree
of
consolidation
is slowly
becoming
apparent,
even
if
it
is
taking
the
form
of
basic
clearance.

Roto
Smeets
Group
is
seeing
the
effects
and
has
made
a
good
start
to
2011.
Despite
the disadvantage
of
not
being
able
to
pass
on
the
full
price
increases
of
paper,
the
Roto
Smeets Group
(RSG)
results
are
slightly
better
than
in
the
comparable
quarter
last
year,
when
lower raw
material
prices
had
a
favourable
effect.
In
the results of the first quarter
of 2011
there
a no
visible effects
yet
of
the recently initiated improvement.
Compared
to
the
same
period last
year,
excluding
the
Roto
Smeets
Utrecht
plant
that
closed
last
year,
turnover
increased by
4%.
This
increase was achieved despite an increase of
customer supplied paper of
30 % compared
to the first quarter
of 2010.
On
a
like‐for‐like
basis,
labour
costs
declined
by
more than
9%.

In
the
Print
Productions
business
line
there
are
indications
that
customers
are
increasingly starting
to
worry
about
the
continuity
and
capacity
available
to
them,
not
just
concentrating on
price
alone.
Roto
Smeets
Group
enjoys
a
strong
position
in
magazines,
retail
and
mail order
and
its
financial
stability
separates
us
from
its
competitors.

Because
of the previously outlined developments
in the market RSG
increasingly
receives requests
and orders from
the
Netherlands and abroad
fom new
customers.
An
example
is the multi‐year agreement that
recently
has
been
signed
with
Persgroep
Publishing
n.v.
in Belgium
for
the
production
of
the
weekly
Dag
Allemaal.
This
title
has
a
weekly
print
run
of approximately
500,000
copies,
commonly
of
196
pages.
From
July
2011
it
will
be
printed
by Roto
Smeets
Etten.
Acquiring
this
order
has
further
strengthened
the
Group's
fundamental occupancy.

Senefelder
Misset
has
completed
a
successful
first
quarter.
Besides
new
print
orders
they have
launched
a
new
service
for
magazine
publishers:
a
platform
constructing
apps
for
the iPad
and
similar
equipment.
This
new
facilitating
service
for
publishers
has
been
set
up
in

collaboration
with
the
UK
firm
Yudu
Media
and
will
be
offered
by
the
label
X‐Media Solutions,
which
Senefelder
Misset
set
up
last
year.

In
the
first
quarter,
too,
MediaPartners
Group
has
confirmed
itself
as
market
leader.
Clients are
increasingly
approaching
MediaPartners
for
strategic
and
medium‐independent
advice, which
means
that
the
MediaPartners
consultants
are
regularly
to
be
found
in
discussions
at the
very
highest
levels
of
corporate
organisations.
Since
the
New
Year
the
specialists
in Brussels
and
Amstelveen
have
created
their
first
communications
for
Achmea,
KPN,
Mora, Ronald
McDonald
Kinderfonds
and
Unilever.
The
relatively
new
key
area,
internal communications,
is
showing
exceptionally
good
growth.
De
MediaPartners
Group
turnover rose
in
Q1
2011
by
15%
compared
to
Q1
2010.

Financial position

The
corporation
has
a
solid
balance
sheet.
The
financing
facility
reported
in
the
2010
annual accounts
remains
unchanged.

Significant events, explanatory notes

It
was
decided
in
the
first
quarter
to
simplify
the
Group's
management
structure
to
reflect the
changed
size
of
the
concern
after
restructuring.
The
new
situation
is
based
on
a management
team
of
operating
company
and
staff
directors,
managed
directly
by
a chairman‐director.
This
means
that
the
post
of
COO
is
now
superfluous.

The
sales
transaction
for
the
De
Wit
Binders
premises
in
Eindhoven
is
now
complete
and
RSG is
currently
in
the
final
stage
of
completing
a
multiannual
contract
with
a
tenant
for
the premises
of
Roto
Smeets
Utrecht,
which
closed
in
2010.

Printing
Holding
conducted
negotiations
with
RSG
in
the
first
quarter
to
amend
the
price
and conditions
of
their
planned
bid
for
RSG
shares,
which
they
announced
in
2010.
The negotiations
failed
to
reach
agreement
with
RSG.
Printing
Holding
does
not
wish
to
make
a public
bid
that
has
not
been
agreed
with
RSG
and
has
therefore
decided
not
to
continue
with the
bid
process.

Prospects

The
results
achieved
in
2009
and
2010
were
more
adversely
impacted
by
the
reservation made
for
the
social
plan
and
the
extraordinary
impairments
under
the
IFRS
rules.
Given
our current
knowledge
of
the
market,
RSG
expects
to
have
to
make
no
material
extra
provision in
2011.
It
is
therefore
legitimate
to
suppose
that
the
net
results
for
2011
will
represent
a
sharp improvement
over
2010.
The
Group
can
make
no
well‐substantiated
projection
of
operational results given, among
other
things,
the
uncertainty
regarding
the
raw
materials
market.

Financial calendar

Half‐year
figures 25
August
2011 Business
update
Q3 10
November
2011 Annual
result
2011
published 15
March
2012

Roto
Smeets
Group
NV

Deventer,
11
May
2011

This
is
an
interim
announcement
in
the
meaning
of
article
5:25e
of
the
Financial
Supervision
Act [Wet
op
het
Financieel
Toezicht].

Profile

Roto
Smeets
Group
NV
is
a
publicly
quoted
company
listed
on
NYSE
Euronext
with Amsterdam
as
market
entry
point.
Roto
Smeets
Group
is
an
organisation
of
service businesses
which
transform
their
clients'
communications
messages
–
with
added
value
– into
printed
and
multimedia
productions.
The
operating
companies
are
clustered
into
two business
lines:

Print
Productions
–
dedicated
to
efficient,
full‐service,
web‐based
printing,
and
Marketing Communications
–
providing
optimum
facilitation
of
the
clients'

'own
communications channel'

by
means
of
effective,
cross‐media
communications
concepts.

Hunneperkade
4,
7418
BT
Deventer,
The
Netherlands.

+31
570
69
49
00,
info@rotosmeetsgroup.com,
www.rotosmeetsgroup.com