Company: DLX
Filing Date: 2025-02-21
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000027996-25-000051
Chunk: 57

Company: DELUXE CORP
Filing Date: 2025-02-21
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 7
Chunk 57
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 pace that surpasses revenue growth. Our operations continue to benefit from our disciplined pricing actions and comprehensive cost management practices. In 2023, we launched our North Star program with the objective of enhancing shareholder value by (1) accelerating our adjusted EBITDA growth, (2) increasing cash flow, (3) reducing debt, and (4) improving our leverage ratio. We have started to realize the benefits of our North Star initiatives, as evidenced by the improvement in both adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin for 2024 compared to 2023, excluding the impact of business exits. A key driver of this improvement was a 14% reduction in the costs of our corporate operations for 2024, as compared to 2023. We also reduced net debt by $52 million from the previous year-end.

Realignment – Effective January 1, 2024, we realigned our organizational structure to better reflect our portfolio mix and offerings, and we updated our reportable segments to correspond with these changes. We did not operate under the new segment structure prior to January 1, 2024. Information regarding our realigned reportable segments can be found under the caption "Note 17: Business Segment Information" in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements located in Part II, Item 8 of this report.

Business exits – Over the past three years, we made strategic decisions to exit certain of our businesses. In 2022, we sold our Australian web hosting business, as well as our strategic sourcing and retail packaging businesses. In 2023, we sold our North American web hosting and logo design businesses, completing our exit from the web hosting space. Additionally, in 2023, we entered into agreements to exit our payroll and human resources services business, facilitating the transition of our U.S. and Canadian customers to other service providers. These customer conversions were substantially completed during 2024.

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We believe that these business exits allow us to concentrate our resources on our growth businesses, while optimizing our operations. Further information regarding these business exits can be found under the caption "Note 6: Divestitures" in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements located in Part II, Item 8 of this report. 

2024 Financial Results

Highlights of our 2024 financial results compared to 2023 include:

•Consolidated revenue – Decreased by $70 million to $2.12 billion, primarily due to the continuing secular decline in order volumes for checks, business forms, and some business