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Bloomsbury chief executive Nigel Newton has pointed to strong growth in the publisher’s consumer business as evidence of its continuing commitment to its trade lists, with sales growing 28% in the first year under new managing director Emma Hopkin.
And in an interview with The Bookseller, Newton said he had no plans to follow Hachette UK’s c.e.o. Tim Hely Hutchinson into retirement following the latter’s announcement this week. Newton said: “I’m planning to keep doing this for a long time yet, it’s too much fun for me not to.”
Instead, Newton pointed to a 23rd consecutive year of dividend increases paid to shareholders since the group floated in 1994 and the ongoing strength of the book market. “It was a great year for Bloomsbury, and a bumper year for the business as a whole.”
Overall, as reported this week, sales at Bloomsbury grew by 15% to £142.6m in the year to end February 2017, with revenue in its consumer division up to £85.4m thanks to 48% growth in the children’s division—the latter led by 88% growth in Harry Potter titles and growth in sales of Sarah J Maas titles of 87%. Its non-consumer division generated revenues slightly down of £57.2m with operating profit also cut to £4.1m.
Bloomsbury has been building its non-consumer business for a number of years from a standing start, but Newton said it was incorrect to suggest that the group wasn’t equally as focused on its consumer division. “Trade publishing remains at the centre of Bloomsbury’s mission, even as we expand into other areas, and I hope that we have demonstrated that this year with a number of bestsellers and the high energy in the consumer division.” Newton highlighted Tom Kerridge’s Dopamine Diet, William Boyd’s Sweet Caress, and Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology as bestselling books.
Newton said there has been investment both in terms of recruitment and book acquisition in that division, saying that Bloomsbury “had to pick its ground” but could still win auctions against the bigger publishing groups. He highlighted Somebody That I Used to Know by Wendy Mitchell, an NHS worker who was diagnosed with Young-Onset Dementia aged 58, bought by new hire ublishing director Alexis Kirschbaum.
He also pointed to the strength of Bloomsbury’s international publishing divisions in the US, Australia, and India, with growth in local publishing now important to the group, as well as global titles. Newton said that Australia was the “oustanding story”, with sales up from £7m to £10.5m over the year, but there was also growth in the US and India.
Hopkin, who became managing director of Bloomsbury’s Consumer division a year ago having previously run the children’s lists, he described as “a builder”. “She is very good at building lists and seeing the totality of the publishing year in a very deliberate way, but also very good at building individual authors. She has a great sense of the totality of a book’s life.” Newton pointed to the work she had done on the Harry Potter books, including commissioning new jacket designs, and the illustrated books.
He also highlighted forthcoming publications, including Utopia for Realists by Rutger Bregman, Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders, A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas, The Strange Death of Europe by Douglas Murray, Nicole Krause's Forest Dark, and Breaking Mad by Anna Williamson