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Quarto's warns over 'fragile' high street

19.10.07 | Alison Flood

International illustrated publisher Quarto saw its sales in the three months to end-September hit £31.1m, up £3.3m from the same period last year. Operating profit was up 9% to £3.6m, while profit before tax was up 5% to £2.8m.

Chairman and c.e.o. Laurence Orbach said the uplift was partly due to Quarto's acquisition of US publisher MBI in August. He also pointed to last week's Frankfurt Book Fair, saying that the event "is very important for our international co-edition book publishing segment, less so for the publishing segment. Initial reports suggest that we will see continued robust trading internationally, marred only by the continued fragile state of the book retailing scene in the UK."

But as Quarto's revenues are "widely spread internationally", with only around 16% of group revenues in the UK, its "exposure to the British market is limited". Orbach said he is confident that the publisher's results for the year will meet market expectations.

Meanwhile, motor manual publisher Haynes said market conditions in the US since the end of the first quarter remained soft, adding that in the UK sales were slightly ahead of last year. 

• Alison Flood
• Laurence Orbach
• Quarto