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La Martinière is to restructure, shed 19 jobs and cut production of its illustrated and children’s novelties range by up to 30%. The group is France’s third largest publisher and the parent of Abrams, the US house that first published Jeff Kinney’s Wimpy Kid series.
The redundancies were confirmed by c.e.o. Hervé de la Martinière to French trade magazine Livres Hebdo following a company meeting to discuss the restructure.
Patrick Gambache, general secretary of La Martinière Groupe, told Livres Hebdo that the publisher would “first work with staff representatives on voluntary redundancies” in its “plan de sauvegarde de l’emploi” (PSE), the French legal framework to limit the consequences of redundancies on employees. This is La Martinière’s second PSE in three years.
In La Martinière’s last published accounts for 2011, it had revenues of €258m (£220m), a fall of 9% from €284m in 2010. Livres Hebdo said that revenues fell a further 7% year on year in 2012.
As part of the restructure, La Martinière will shut the illustrated and children’s imprint Editions Fetjaine, with the loss of four jobs.
Gambache said overall the redundancies and restructure was “the result of the deterioration of the picture book market, and the difficulties encountered as being a leading player in that market”.
The publisher was founded in 1992 by former Hachette employee Hervé de la Martinière. It expanded quickly with acquisitions, most notably the 1997, FF350m purchase of Abrams—which was about twice the size of La Martinière—and in 2004 buying up Éditions du Seuil.