Bloomsbury Publishing Plc today announces unaudited results for the
year ended 28 February 2014.
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Bloomsbury's strategy to develop a wholly integrated consumer and
academic publisher in the major global markets has generated strong
revenue growth across key book publishing divisions.
Financial highlights
The highlights for the year ended 28 February 2014 include:
- Revenue up 11% to £109.5 million (2012/13: £98.5 million)
- Profit before tax and highlighted items* up 4% to £13.0 million
(2012/13: £12.5 million)
- Profit before tax £9.5 million (2012/13: £9.8 million)
- Total dividend increased by 5.8% to 5.82 pence per share
(2012/13: 5.50 pence per share)
- Net cash balance of £10.0 million (2012/13: £14.6 million)
following acquisition investment including Hart Publishing in
September 2013
Operating highlights
- Adult Division - a spectacular year
- Revenue was £49.9 million (2012/13: £44.3 million), with
operating profit before highlighted items £5.4 million
(2012/13: £3.7 million)
- Robust growth in e-book sales with potential for further
expansion in high-growth economies
- Major best sellers including Khaled Hosseini's And
the Mountains Echoed and Samantha Shannon's
The Bone Season
- Consistently strong performance from portfolio of high
quality cookery books, including Tom Kerridge's
Proper Pub Food and significant sales from
established authors including Raymond Blanc, Heston
Blumenthal, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and MasterChef
- Academic & Professional business delivers robust
sales performance
- Revenue was up 11% to £32.1 million (2012/13: £29.0
million)
- Revenues from e-books and other digital products now
account for 10% of divisional revenue (2012/13: 8%)
- Launched award-winning new digital services including
Drama Online, Actors and Performers and in May 2014
Bloomsbury Collections
- A new platform, Bloomsbury Fashion Central, to be
launched in 2015
- Voted Academic, Professional and Educational Publisher
of the Year in May 2013 and 2014 at the annual industry
trade awards
- Strategic investment pays off in Children's &
Educational
- Revenue of £23.6 million (2012/13: £21.3
million)
- Majority of UK sales growth came from illustrated books
in line with our strategy
- Highlights included Fortunately, the Milk... by
Neil Gaiman being shortlisted for the Specsavers
Children's Book of the Year and the bestseller Shh!
Don't Wake the Royal Baby! by Martha Mumford
and Ada Gray
- Digital sales sees significant growth
- Significant growth in digital sales increasing 21% to
£12.2 million, contributing 12.1% of title sales
(2012/13: 11.5%)
- Strong performance in UK and other markets with
potential for further growth as digital reading devices
become more widespread in the high-growth economies of
Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America
- Potential bestsellers for 2014/15
- Paperbacks including Khaled Hosseini's And the
Mountains Echoed, Elizabeth Gilbert's The
Signature of All Things and The Bone Season
by Samantha Shannon
- New titles from Tom Kerridge, Paul Hollywood and Hugh
Fearnley-Whittingstall
- The Mime Order by Samantha
Shannon
- We are Pirates by Daniel Handler (published
under pen-name Lemony Snicket)
- Close Call by Stella Rimington
- Miss Carter's War by Sheila
Hancock
- Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by
Roz Chast
- Social Suppers by Jason
Atherton
Commenting on the results, Nigel Newton, Chief Executive,
said:
“This has been a very strong year for Bloomsbury.
Our Adult division had a spectacular year driven by an excellent list
of new books including Khaled Hosseini's And the Mountains
Echoed, Samantha Shannon's debut novel The Bone
Season, and the continued strength of our cookery list
which includes the phenomenal success of Tom Kerridge's Proper
Pub Food.
We have continued to grasp the opportunities offered by the digital
revolution to build a growing profitable, sustainable and balanced
twenty-first century publishing business. Underpinning this is our
success in developing into a wholly integrated trade and academic
publisher in the major markets around the world. During the year we
made good progress towards our longer-term strategic targets.
We enter 2014/15 with a strong publishing programme including new
titles from Tom Kerridge and Paul Hollywood as well as a year-long
Harry Potter marketing campaign to promote the newly illustrated
series. In May we launched Bloomsbury Collections, an academic
e-book platform that will have 3,500 titles by the end of the year.”
* Highlighted items mainly comprise amortisation of intangible
assets, acquisition related legal and other professional fees and
restructuring costs.
For further information,
please contact:
Daniel de Belder/Guy Scarborough, Bell
Pottinger |
+44 (0) 20 7861 3232 |
Nigel Newton, Chief Executive, Bloomsbury
Publishing Plc |
+44 (0) 20 7631 5630 |