Latest results

Audited Preliminary Results for the year ended 29 February 2024

Success of portfolio of portfolios strategy leads to exceptional sales up 30% and profits up 57% with full year dividend up 25%
Revenue and profit for 2024/25 upgraded

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (LSE: BMY), the leading independent publisher, today announces audited results for the year ended 29 February 2024.

“We had an outstanding year at Bloomsbury with exceptional trading leading to the highest revenue and profit in Bloomsbury’s 37 year history. Our sales are up £79m, an increase of 30% from £264m to £343m. Profit is up £18m, an increase of 57% from £31m to £49m. This dramatic increase arises from our entrepreneurial diversification strategy which has forged a portfolio of portfolios combining consumer and academic publishing across formats, territories and subject areas, a resilient model delivering long-term success.

Consumer revenue growth was 49%.  Recent success has been principally driven by the increasing demand for fantasy fiction. Sarah J. Maas is a publishing phenomenon and we are very fortunate to have signed her up with her first book 14 years ago.  Her books have captivated a huge audience, supported by major Bloomsbury promotional campaigns, driving strong word of mouth recommendation, particularly through social media channels.

Bloomsbury Digital Resources increased sales to £27m and remains on course to achieve its target of c.£37m turnover in 2027/28 though Non-Consumer sales were slightly down by 4% to £93.4 million. Bloomsbury is well placed, despite the end of US government COVID relief funding, to capitalise on the continued structural shift to digital learning and is confident in the long-term growth opportunities of the Non-Consumer division given the significant growth projections for higher education. The World Bank estimates that globally there will be 380 million higher education students by 2030, up from 220 million students in 2021, which itself more than doubled the enrolment figures from 2000.

In recognition of this performance and in accordance with our progressive dividend policy, the Board recommends a final dividend of 10.99 pence per share, taking our full year dividend to 14.69 pence per share, an increase of 25% year on year.

Trading for 2024/25 is expected to be slightly ahead of current consensus expectation¹. Expectations for 2024/25 reflect the exceptional performance in 2023/24, and that we are not expecting to publish a new Sarah J. Maas title in the year ending 28 February 2025. Last week, we won five awards at the British Book Awards including Children’s Publisher of the Year. Today we launch Bloomsbury 2030, setting out our vision for the Company over the next six years.

Bloomsbury has a clear strategy. Our strong cash generation and balance sheet enables us to continue investing in innovative content and authors, as well as capitalising on emerging opportunities. As a result of these strengths, the genius of our authors and the skill of our people worldwide at our unique combination of literary and scholarly publishing, we remain confident in Bloomsbury’s ability to deliver continued success.”

Note

1. The Board considers consensus market expectation (before this publication) for the year ending 28 February 2025 to be revenue of £283.6m and profit before taxation and highlighted items of £35.4m.

Chief Executive's statement

Overview

Bloomsbury, the literary and scholarly publisher, achieved the highest revenue and profit in its 37 year history in the year ended 29 February 2024. Bloomsbury delivered revenue growth of 30% to £342.7m (2022/23: £264.1m).

Group profit before taxation and highlighted items increased 57% to £48.7m (2022/23: £31.1m). Profit before taxation increased by 63% to £41.5m (2022/23: £25.4m). The highlighted items of £7.3m (2022/23: £5.7m) consist of the amortisation of acquired intangible assets of £4.9m (2022/23: £5.2m), one-off legal and other professional fees relating to acquisitions and restructuring costs of £2.3m (2022/23: £0.5m). The effective rate of tax for the year was 22.2% (2022/23: 20.3%). The adjusted effective rate of tax, excluding highlighted items, was 21.0% (2022/23: 18.9%).

Diluted earnings per share, excluding highlighted items, grew 53% to 46.62p (2022/23: 30.56p).  Including highlighted items, profit before tax increased to £41.5m (2022/23: £25.4m) and diluted earnings per share grew 59% to 39.11p (2022/23: 24.54p). The Board recommends a 6% increase in our final dividend to 10.99p per share, taking our full year dividend to 14.69p per share, an increase of 25% year on year.

We have once again demonstrated the extraordinary upside potential of consumer publishing with Sarah J. Maas. Consumer revenue growth was 49%, outperforming the UK trade market which was up 4% and the US trade market which was down 0.3% in 2023 (UK Publishers Association and Association of American Publishers respectively, figures by value).

In Non-Consumer, Bloomsbury Digital Resources (“BDR”) increased its sales by 2% to £26.6m against a backdrop of more normalised post COVID higher education market. Our academic customer renewal rate remained at industry leading levels of 90%. Critically, notwithstanding this market normalisation, we remain confident in the long-term trends. BDR remains on course to achieve its target of 40% organic revenue growth in the five years to 2027/28 to deliver c.£37m turnover.

We have purposefully pursued a strategy of diversification across consumer and academic publishing and within those have diversified across formats and territories. This strategy has created a portfolio of portfolios - a model that provides resilient growth and cash generation. We continue to focus on capital allocation to accelerate the flywheel of Bloomsbury:

(1)    Fortifying our existing business by investing in our Company, authors and employees;

(2)    Enhancing the diversification of our business to drive future profitability, organically and through acquisitions; and,

(3)    Retaining a strong balance sheet while rewarding shareholders through our dividend.

Our diversification across formats has ensured expanding publishing through digital channels, and we continue to expand our academic as well as consumer markets. Our international revenues are 77% of total revenue. In Academic subject areas, we provide resources across the Humanities, Social Sciences, Visual Arts, and Performing Arts. Our Consumer lists are increasingly diverse, with a sizeable presence in specific areas of non-fiction as well as bestselling award-winning fiction lists for adults and children.

Bloomsbury is proud to have been recognised for our work on diversity by the Small Cap Network by winning the Diversity, Inclusivity and Engagement Award. In recognition of our progress on sustainability, Bloomsbury received the IPG Sustainability Award and the LBF’s inaugural Sustainability Initiative Award.

Consumer Division

The Consumer division consists of Adult publishing (fiction, non-fiction and lifestyle) and Children’s publishing (picture books, young fiction and non-fiction, pre-school and illustrated non-fiction titles). The Consumer division generated revenue growth of 49% to £249.2m (2022/23: £166.7m). Profit before taxation and highlighted items increased by 108% to £37.8m (2022/23: £18.1m). Profit before taxation increased by 110% to £37.4m (2022/23: £17.8m).

Bloomsbury has again demonstrated the success and huge upside of consumer publishing. The success of Sarah J. Maas continues with her 16^th book with Bloomsbury, Crescent City: House of Flame and Shadow, which became a global No.1 bestseller on publication on 30 January 2024 and drove sales in her backlist titles. Sarah J. Maas’ sales grew by 161% year on year, cementing her position as a publishing phenomenon. Desire by readers to immerse themselves in the interwoven worlds Sarah J. Maas has created, has driven sales across the Throne of Glass and A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) series as well as the most recent Crescent City series.  This, alongside Bloomsbury’s innovative marketing, has enabled Sarah J. Maas’ work to reach a wider audience.

Harry Potter title sales remain strong, 26 years after first publication, showing the enduring appeal of this classic series. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was the No.1 bestselling Children’s book of the year for the first time since 2002 (UK Nielsen Bookscan). The Bloomsbury curated The Harry Potter Wizarding Almanac was a No.1 Sunday Times Bestseller, a No.1 New York Times Bestseller and was published in 37 languages with international publishers.

Commercial and literary recognition for our authors continued, notably with:

• Katherine Rundell’s Impossible Creatures being crowned Waterstones Book of the Year 2023 and was a Sunday Times Bestseller
• Louise Kennedy’s Trespasses won the McKitterick Prize, the British Book Awards Book of the Year – Debut Fiction and was a Times Bestseller.
• Ann Patchett’s Tom Lake was a Sunday Times Bestseller.
• International No.1 bestseller Samantha Shannon’s success with the 10^th anniversary reissue of The Bone Season, alongside continued success of The Priory of the Orange Tree and A Day of Fallen Night.
• Poppy Cooks’ The Actually Delicious Air Fryer Cookbook was a Sunday Times Bestseller.
• Tom Kerridge’s Pub Kitchen was a Sunday Times Bestseller.
• Isabella Tree’s The Book of Wilding was a Sunday Times Bestseller.
• Peter Frankopan’s The Earth Transformed was a No.2 Sunday Times Bestseller and The Times Best History Book of 2023.
• Tan Twan Eng’s The House of Doors was chosen as Book of the Year 2023 by the Financial Times, New Statesman, New Yorker and Washington Post and was a Sunday Times Bestseller.
• Ghosts: The Button House Archives companion book to the BBC TV series was an instant Sunday Times Bestseller.
• Kidada E. Williams’ I Saw Death Coming was longlisted for the US National Book Award in Non-fiction and shortlisted for the Museum of African American History's Stone Book Award.
• Johann Hari’s Stolen Focus was the winner of the Porchlight Business Book Award, chosen as one of the best books of the year by the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Post and was a New York Times Bestseller.
• Trang Thanh Tran’s She is a Haunting was a New York Times Bestseller.
• Martha Mumford and Cherie Zamazing’s bestselling Bunny Adventures series in which we published We’re Going on a Ghost Hunt and We’re Going to a Birthday Party in 2023.

Non-Consumer Division

The Non-Consumer division consists of Academic & Professional, including BDR, and Special Interest. Revenues in the division were £93.4m (2022/23: £97.4m). Profit before taxation and highlighted items for the Non-Consumer division was £9.9m (2022/23: £13.1m). Profit before taxation was £5.3m (2022/23: £8.2m).

Non-Consumer Division: Academic & Professional

Academic & Professional revenues were £70.5m (2022/23: £75.7m) and profit before taxation and highlighted items was £9.3m (2022/23: £12.4m). Profit before taxation was £4.9m (2022/23: £7.8m).

Bloomsbury Academic focuses on Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS), including Drama and Visual Arts with a strong digital offering. Our strategy means that we have been well placed to capitalise on the market growth, which was particularly strong through the pandemic, as Academic Institutions pivoted at pace to digital learning. As we communicated in the 2023/24 interim results, US Academic Institutions had received one-off benefits of additional government funding during the pandemic, a funding environment that has since normalised. BDR revenue has grown from £6.3m in 2018/19 to £26.6m in 2023/24. While the funding environment for Academic Institutions has evolved, we remain confident in the structural shift to digital learning.

BDR revenues were £26.6m with growth of 2% (2022/23: 41%). Our BDR growth strategy continues to build high margin, high quality, repeatable digital revenue from our market leading Academic & Professional IP. We reiterate our BDR target to reach c.£37m of sales with 40% organic revenue growth over the five years to 2027/28.

Bloomsbury author Jon Fosse won The Nobel Prize in Literature in 2023. We are proud to publish six collections of his plays in the UK and US, making him the eighth Nobel Prize winner on Bloomsbury’s Methuen Drama list, joining Peter Handke, Dario Fo, Toni Morrison, Wole Soyinka, Luigi Pirandello, John Galsworthy and George Bernard Shaw.

Non-Consumer Division: Special Interest

Special Interest revenue increased by 6% to £22.9m (2022/23: £21.7m) and profit before taxation and highlighted items was £0.6m (2022/23: £0.6m). Regular publications such as Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack and Reeds Nautical Almanac remain loved by enthusiasts.

Prizes include:

• The 2023 Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing, awarded to The Flow: Rivers, Water and Wildness by Amy-Jane Beer.
• Waterstones Best Books of 2023 in European Politics, awarded to The War Came To Us: Life and Death in Ukraine by Christopher Miller.
• Waterstones Best Book of 2023 in Sport, awarded to 1923: The Mystery of Lot 212 and a Tour de France Obsession by Ned Boulting.

Cash and Financing

Bloomsbury’s cash generation was strong with cash at the year-end of £65.8m (2023: £51.5m) and cash conversion increased to 110% (2022/23: 107%).

The Group has an unsecured revolving credit facility with Lloyds Bank Plc. The facility comprises a committed revolving credit facility of £20 million, and an uncommitted incremental term loan facility of up to £20 million. At 29 February 2024, the Group had no draw down (2023: £nil) of this facility.

Acquisitions

Bloomsbury has a successful track record in strategic acquisitions, with 33 completed since inception. We are actively targeting and assessing further acquisition opportunities in line with our long-term growth strategy, particularly in Academic.

Dividend

Bloomsbury has a progressive dividend policy aiming to keep dividend earnings cover in excess of two times, supported by strong cash cover. The Board is recommending a final dividend of 10.99 pence per share, totalling £9.0m. Together with the interim dividend, this makes a total dividend for 2023/24 of 14.69 pence per share, a 25.0% increase on the 11.75 pence value of the dividend for 2022/23 and a 36.8% increase versus 2021/22.

Subject to Shareholder approval at our AGM on 16 July 2024, the final dividend will be paid on 23 August 2024 to Shareholders on the register on the record date of 26 July 2024.

Including the proposed 2023/24 final dividend, over the past ten years, the dividend per share has increased at a compound annual growth rate of 9.7%.

Future Publishing

Our publishing list for 2024/25 is strong and includes:

• Stuart Turton’s The Last Murder at the End of the World, published on 28 March 2024.
• Johann Hari’s new title Magic Pill: The Extraordinary Benefits and Disturbing Risks of the New Weight Loss Drugs, published on 2 May 2024.
• Samantha Shannon’s new title The Mask Falling, the latest in the Bone Season series, published on 9 May 2024.
• Gillian Anderson’s new title Want to be published on 5 September 2024.
• The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World by William Dalrymple, the co-host of the chart topping Empire podcast, will be published on 12 September 2024.
• Harry Potter: A new illustrated gift book Christmas at Hogwarts will be published on 15 October 2024, with text drawn directly from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
• Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s How to Eat 30 Plants A Week, published on 9 May 2024.
• Tom Kerridge Cooks Britain, accompanying the TV series, will be published on 6 June 2024.
• The new Bunny Adventures book by Martha Mumford and Cherie Zamazing Hooray! It’s our First Day will be published on 4 July 2024.

Bloomsbury 2030

Bloomsbury 2030 is the next stage of our ambitious growth strategy. To achieve further success, we will focus on our growth, our portfolio and our people. To drive our growth, we will use our strong financial position to fund further acquisitions focused on Academic and US opportunities with digital potential. Within our portfolio, we aim to become the most successful independent Academic publisher in Humanities and Social Sciences, focusing on digital publishing and resources, as well as building more brand authors and continuing to discover, nurture, champion and retain high-quality authors and illustrators. Our people goal is to be the best place to work in publishing through an industry-leading focus on professional development programs, training, systems and work practices.

Our strategy remains to invest in high value intellectual property and digital channels, publish works of excellence and originality, and grow our diversified portfolio of content and services across our Consumer and Academic Divisions alongside international market expansion to build quality revenues and increase earnings. 

Board Changes and Evaluation

As announced today, Sir Richard Lambert has given notice of his intention to retire as Chairman and step down as Director of the Company with effect from the conclusion of the Annual General Meeting on 16 July 2024.  John Bason, current Independent Non-Executive Director, will succeed Richard as Chairman, subject to re-election as director. Nigel Newton commented, “Sir Richard Lambert has been an exceptional Chairman over the last seven years. We are immensely grateful for his insight, sage and generous counsel and support, which have helped Bloomsbury achieve so much during his tenure. Richard will be succeeded by John Bason, subject to shareholder approval. John joined the Board two years ago and brings a depth of financial and business knowledge to help Bloomsbury reach its ambitious goals.”

The Board conducts an annual formal evaluation of its performance. For 2023/24, this was an externally-facilitated evaluation, conducted by Value Alpha Ltd, an independent advisory firm. The review‘s key findings were that ‘Board and committee performance are strong; boardroom behaviours are exemplary; the Board’s governance approach successfully delivers effective oversight; and, in overall terms, the Board’s performance and effectiveness is high.’

Current trading & Outlook

Trading for 2024/25 is expected to be slightly ahead of the current consensus expectation¹.

Bloomsbury has six new books contracted with Sarah J. Maas, as announced in March 2023. We are not expecting to publish a new title in the year ending 28 February 2025. Announcements regarding any new publication date will be made by Bloomsbury in tandem with Sarah J. Maas announcing the date to her readers.

The Board is confident in the medium and long-term strategy for Consumer and investing in Academic & Professional Publishing, with the benefits of digital content. We continue to execute our strategy of diversification across formats, territories and markets and our portfolio of portfolios strategy. Our authors, customers, consistent performance, and the scale and resilience of our business continue to underpin the confidence we have in the future.

Note

1. The Board considers consensus market expectation (before this publication) for the year ending 28 February 2025 to be revenue of £283.6m and profit before taxation and highlighted items of £35.4m.

Strategy Targets and Performance in 2023/24

Bloomsbury’s long-term growth strategy remains to invest in high value intellectual property and digital channels, publish works of excellence and originality, and grow our diversified portfolio of content and services across our Consumer and Non-Consumer Divisions to build quality revenues and increase earnings. Bloomsbury is committed to playing its part in shaping a more sustainable, equitable and inclusive world, and this commitment informs our strategic priorities. We are focused the following long-term strategic objectives to deliver against our strategy:

• Non-Consumer
  • Goal: Grow Bloomsbury’s portfolio in Non-Consumer publishing.  Non-Consumer publishing is characterised by higher, more predictable margins, is less reliant on retailers and presents greater digital and global opportunities. 

    Achieved 2023/24: Delivered £93.4m in Non-Consumer revenue.

  • Goal:BDR target to achieve 40% organic revenue growth over the five years from 2022/23 to 2027/28, to reach c. £37m turnover.

    Achieved 2023/24: Delivered £26.6m revenue and 322% growth over five years.

   

• Consumer
  • Goal: Discover, nurture, champion and retain high-quality authors and illustrators, while championing new ways to leverage existing title rights.

    Achieved 2023/24: Delivered 49% growth in Consumer Division revenue. Bestsellers included Katherine Rundell’s Impossible Creatures, Louise Kennedy’s Trespasses, Ann Patchett’s Tom Lake, Samantha Shannon’s 10^th anniversary reissue of The Bone Season, The Priory of the Orange Tree and A Day of Fallen Night and Martha Mumford and Cherie Zamazing’s Bunny Adventures series.

  • Goal: Grow our key authors through effective publishing across all formats alongside strategic sales and marketing.

    Achieved 2023/24: 161% growth in revenue from sales of Sarah J. Maas titles. Sarah J. Maas’ new title Crescent City: House of Flame and Shadow became a global No.1 bestseller on publication on 30 January 2024 and drove sales in her backlist titles. Bloomsbury has six new titles contracted.

  • Goal: As the originating publisher of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, ensure that new children discover and read it for pleasure every year.

    Achieved 2023/24: Harry Potter title sales remain strong, 26 years after first publication. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was the UK’s No.1 bestselling children’s book of the year for the first time since 2002. The Bloomsbury conceived The Harry Potter Wizarding Almanac was a No.1 Sunday Times bestseller and a No.1 New York Times bestseller.

• International Expansion
  • Goal: Expand international revenues. Continue our international growth and take advantage of the biggest academic market in the US.

    Achieved 2023/24: International revenues increased to 77% of Group revenue (2022/23: 73%). US revenues increased to 56% of Group revenue (2022/23: 48%).

• Employee Experience and Engagement; Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

  Our success is driven by the expertise, passion and commitment of our employees, highlighting the importance of attracting, supporting and engaging them. We value diversity of thought, perspectives and experience in shaping our culture and strategy, driving our long-term success and informing the ways in which we fulfil our social purpose.

  • Goal: Be an attractive employer for individuals seeking a career in publishing, regardless of background or identity, adding cultural value to our business operations and performance.
  
  
  • Goal: Focus on initiatives to create an environment that promotes diversity, nurtures talent, stimulates creativity and collaboration, supports well-being and is inclusive and respectful of difference.
  
  
  • Goal: Implement Bloomsbury’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Action Plan.

    Achieved 2023/24: Won the Small Cap Network Diversity, Inclusivity and Engagement Award

    Achieved 2023/24: Bloomsbury rolled out its Career Framework initiative to all employees in the US and UK, a transparent and fair pay and grading structure underpinning our reward scheme and career progression programme.

    Achieved 2023/24: All employees received a one-off £1,250 payment to share in our exceptional performance, in addition to the groupwide bonus scheme.

    Achieved 2023/24: Delivered a new comprehensive medical insurance plan for UK employees.

    Achieved 2023/24: Launched the Bloomsbury Writer’s Mentorship Programme, to support unpublished, underrepresented fiction writers. The programme is open to people of colour, those from lower socio-economic backgrounds, those living with a disability and those from the LGBTQ+ community. Proving the importance of integrating with this community, Bloomsbury received 800 entries in the first year and announced its first winner, Alice McCusker, in March 2024.

    Achieved 2023/24: Launched the Bloomsbury Academic Writing Fellowship, open to UK-based authors and researchers with African or African Caribbean heritage, to uncover new authors and give new voices a platform. This was awarded to Fellow Tionne Alliyah Parris who will receive an editorial mentorship, £1,000 financial support, practical resources and event and networking opportunities.

    Achieved 2023/24: Launched the Academic & Professional Widening Access Fund pilot, to provide financial support for authors who may not otherwise be able to publish with us.

    Achieved 2023/24: Official partner of The Runnymede Trust’s Lit in Colour initiative, supporting the increase in students’ access to books by writers of colour and those from minority ethnic backgrounds, drawing on our world-leading drama list from Methuen Drama. As official partner of the Lit in Colour initiative, in November 2023 Bloomsbury launched ‘The (Incomplete) Lit in Colour Play List’ with 57 plays from an eventual 172. Lit in Colour won Outstanding Drama Initiative 2024 at the Music and Drama Education Awards.

• Sustainability
  • Goal: Maximise our use of sustainable resources while seeking to reduce carbon emissions in line with our science-based targets. We recognise our responsibility to conserve the Earth’s resources and we are committed to monitoring and improving the environmental impact of our operations.

    Achieved 2023/24: Bloomsbury is delighted to have received the IPG Sustainability Award and the London Book Fair inaugural Sustainability Initiative Award.

    Achieved 2023/24: 77% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions in four years.

    Achieved 2023/24: Completed the CDP Climate Change questionnaire, receiving the second highest score of B, demonstrating our coordinated response to climate change.

Audited Consolidated Income Statement

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 29 FEBRUARY 2024

Audited Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 29 FEBRUARY 2024

Items in the statement above are disclosed net of tax.

Audited Consolidated Statement of Financial Position

AS AT 29 FEBRUARY 2024

Audited Consolidated Statement of Changes in Equity

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 29 FEBRUARY 2024

Audited Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 29 FEBRUARY 2024

Notes

Notes to the Financial Statements are available in the printable PDF version