You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
Bloomsbury expects its revenue and profit to be "significantly ahead" of its upgraded market expectations, for the year ending 28th February 2021.
In its latest trading update, it was announced that the board considers current consensus market expectation for the year ending 28th February 2021 to be revenue of £171m, which would represent sales up 5% from £162.8m the previous year, but profit before taxation and highlighted items at £14.8m, down 5.7% from £15.7m in 2020. But the company said it would outperform that consensus (see, also correction below).
In the consumer division for both adult and children's publishing, Bloomsbury picked out successful sales of Sarah J Maas’ new novel, A Court of Silver Flames, which was published on 16th February, with other frontlist bestsellers including Outlawed (published 5th January), We Are Bellingcat (published 4th February) and Piranesi. Strong backlist sales, in particular of Harry Potter, Sarah J Maas, Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller and the Dishoom cookbook also continued throughout the period, the publisher said.
Success in the non-consumer division was been driven in part by the publisher's strategy to develop Bloomsbury Digital Resources (BDR) for digital academic content, which has seen increased demand due to remote access learning. Individual title purchasing through the Bloomsbury Collections platform, and the increased demand for video streaming has driven growth for Drama Online. BDR anticipates it is well positioned to further benefit from the growing trend for digital learning, Bloomsbury said.
Commenting on the performance, chief executive Nigel Newton said: “The popularity of reading during lockdown is a ray of sunshine in an otherwise very dark last year. February, the final month of our financial year, saw an exceptional sales performance for Bloomsbury as the surge in reading continued. We do not yet know how consumer behaviour will change as academic institutions, shops and leisure activities reopen and whether this popularity will continue as restrictions are lifted.
"We are confident, though, in the underlying strength of our business, the quality of our titles and content and our long-term strategy. Our medium and long-term expectations remain unchanged. I would like to express my thanks to the staff, authors, illustrators, printers, distributors and suppliers for their profound resilience over the last year.”
Bloomsbury’s financial position is strong with net cash of £54m, the company said, noting that it was continuing to assess opportunities to invest the cash balance including "organic investment initiatives and acquisitions of companies and lists to accelerate our strategic growth ambitions".
The publisher confirmed that not only has it repaid the £63,000 of UK government furlough funding received, but it has also repaid the temporary salary reductions for staff, taken for three months in the first half of the financial year.
The publisher's preliminary results will be announced in June.
Bloomsbury also announced that Leslie-Ann Reed will become the senior independent director at the conclusion of the a.g.m. taking place in July 2021, when John Warren will step down from the board.
The headline and second paragraph of this story have been corrected as the original version was mis-leading. We apologise for this.