Bloomsbury Publishing records highest ever first half sales and profits
Bloomsbury Publishing delivered strong results in the first half with year-on-year revenue growth of 29 per cent to £100.7m and profit growth of 225 per cent to £12.9m.
These are the highest ever first half sales and profits for the publishing house, and Nigel Newton, Chief Executive of the publishing house said: “these results demonstrate the strength and resilience of our strategy of publishing for both the consumer and academic markets, and our growth of digital revenues.”
In Newton’s statement, he discusses how they were able to successfully mitigate supply chain problems by printing early.
This meant they were able to deliver success across both Consumer and Non-Consumer divisions, with 29 per cent and 27 per cent growth respectively.
Bestsellers during the period included Tom Kerridge’s Outdoor Cooking, Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas, The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon and The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller.
Success was also fuelled by the acquisition of Red Globe Press and Head of Zeus, which expanded their strategy for both divisions.
On this, Newton commented: “Our strong financial position and cash generation give us significant opportunities for further acquisitions and investment in organic growth. In recognition of our strong performance and in line with our dividend policy, we are announcing a 5% increase in our interim dividend to 1.34 pence per share.”
Despite ongoing supply chain problems across the industry, Bloomsbury is confident in achieving market expectations for the year end in February 2022, which the Board expects to be revenue of £193.4m and profit before taxation £19.3m.
Fiona Orford-Williams, Director at Edison Group, told City A.M.: “Bloomsbury has posted a very good first half, although this is also due to the deliberate acceleration of some trade into the earlier part of the year with an eye to the real problems in the supply chain – likely to be exacerbated in the run-up to Christmas. This does bring in an additional risk on the Consumer business of a higher level of returns post-Christmas – the trick, as ever, is to be supplying the books that people want to buy and that is something that Bloomsbury has done very well over the years.”
“There is no uplift to full year guidance, which is to meet market expectations of revenues of £193m and Adjusted PBT of £19.3m. The target for Bloomsbury Digital Resources for five years from FY23 is for a further 50% organic growth and a 30% margin”, she continued.