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Bloomsbury grew revenues by 15% to £142.6m (2016: £123.7m) in the 12 months to the end of Feburary 2017, in what chief executive Nigel Newton has branded "a very strong year" for the company - particularly as its children’s publishing delivered double-digit revenue growth for the fourth year in a row.
Profit for the company declined by £1m, slightly down from £13m in 2016 to £12m in 2017, a reflection, says Bloomsbury, of its £0.6m investment in its 2020 digital resources growth strategy, as well as the end of the seven-year term of the Qatar Foundation contract in December 2015. Bloomsbury's final dividend was 5.6p per share making a total dividend of 6.7p per share for the year (2016: 6.4p per share).
Book sales, print in particular, were said to be "resilient in spite of political and economic uncertainty", up 18% year-on year to £133.3m, while digital sales increased by 7% to £16m. Rights and services revenues were £9.3m (2016: £10.6m), making up 7% of total Group revenues compared to 9% the previous year. The majority of its revenues are now overseas, with 61% of Bloomsbury’s sales now originating from customers outside the UK (2016: 54%).
Key growth emerged from its children's publishing, up 48% to £55.9m (2016: £37.7m), thanks in part to sales of the Harry Potter series, which grew 88%, including Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Illustrated Edition, and sales of Sarah J Maas, up 87% globally. Operating profit increased by 44% to £7.6m (2016: £5.3m).
Revenues in its adult division increased by a more modest 3% year-on-year to £29.5m (2016: £28.7m), highlighted titles including William Boyd’s Sweet Caress, Celia Imrie’s Nice Work if You Can Get It, Hannah Rothschild’s Improbability of Love and Natasha Pulley’s The Watchmaker of Filigree Stree. Operating profit of £0.3m was posted (2016: £0.7m) it said was affected by a reduction in higher margin e-book revenues and increased advance provisions.
Its non-consumer division revenues, comprising Academic & Professional, Special Interest and Content Services, remained flat, generating sales of £57.2m (2016: £57.3m). Operating profit was significantly down at £4.1m (2016: £7.1m), affected by the end of the term of the Qatar contract and investment in the Bloomsbury 2020 digital resources growth strategy.
Bloomsbury said it is "on track" and has made "substantial progress" in the delivery of its 2020 strategy, launched last year, which seeks to reposition Bloomsbury from a primarily consumer publisher to a digital B2B publisher. It launched four new digital resources - Fairchild Books Library, The Fashion Photography Archive, Arcadian Library and Bloomsbury Popular Music - and has promised a "strong pipeline" of further resources for the year ahead, The Bloomsbury Design Library, The Bloomsbury Food Library and Bloomsbury Cultural History. Newton said it was "particularly encouraging" to see digital resources revenues growth up by 50% to £3.9m (2016: £2.6m).
Newton commented: “This has been a very strong year for Bloomsbury with excellent revenue growth in all our territories. Our children’s publishing, in particular, had an exceptional year, delivering double digit revenue growth for the fourth year in a row.
"We are very pleased also at the impact of our trade publishing, having had two simultaneous number one bestsellers in February – Tom Kerridge’s Dopamine Diet topping The Sunday Times non-fiction bestseller list and Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology the fiction list. This was followed by George Saunders’ extraordinary and brilliant novel, Lincoln in the Bardo, going to Number One on the Evening Standard bestseller list in March. The way we publish all three books reflects the significant success of our trade publishing.
"We have also made substantial progress in delivery of our Bloomsbury 2020 digital resource strategy. We completed a new platform to host our digital resources and launched four new major resources during the year. It was particularly encouraging to see digital resource revenues exceeding expectations, increasing 50% year-on-year.
"We are well-placed for the coming year. We are launching three further major digital resources, as planned, and have an exciting publishing list from new and existing authors.”
Bloomsbury’s total revenues for the first half of 2016, the six months ending 31st August 2016, were up 19% to £62.7m.