The Bookseller.com

2nd December 2008

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US pushes Hachette in first half

25.07.08 Philip Jones

Lagardere's publishing business Hachette saw first half sales rise by 1.3% to €908m, according to results put out by the French group. On a like-for-like basis sales rose faster, up 4.5%, versus 2.4% growth in the first quarter of 2008.

According to the company, its publishing units, which include Hodder & Stoughton, Headline,  Octopus, and Little, Brown in the UK, had a "very good quarter, driven by sales in the US, Spain and the UK." The group does not break out its numbers further at this stage, but it pointed to the "rapid pace" of growth at its US business, driven in particular by the latest Stephenie Meyer saga and by a raft of new bestsellers including novels by James Patterson. The UK also had a "highly satisfying quarter thanks to bestsellers and children's books".

The company added that the outlook for its publishing business in the second-half of 2008 was "good, especially for education in Spain and for fiction in the US".

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