The Bookseller.com

10th January 2009

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Fiction drives Usborne

12.12.07 Caroline Horn

Usborne Publishing's sales grew 9% to £30.3m in the year to end-January 2007, with pretax profit up 23% to £4.3m.

Managing director Peter Usborne attributed the growth to the company's diversification into fiction and baby books. He said: "Since we de-specialised from non-fiction, our growth has been beyond my wildest dreams. It has shown us how large other areas of children's publishing are outside non-fiction."

Usborne believes that results for 2007 will be even better, thanks to growing fiction and baby books sales, as well as the success of its £15 Wind-up Tractor Book, with 60,000 titles now rolled out to the trade for Christmas.

Financial Caroline Horn children's Usborne