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Raincoast Books, the Canadian publisher of J K Rowling's Harry Potter series, is closing its publishing programme, because of the appreciation of the Canadian dollar and its impact on retailing, according to the Vancouver Sun.
Twenty jobs will be lost in both Vancouver and Toronto as the 29-year-old company refocuses on its core distribution and wholesaling business which employs 85 people.
Raincoast will continue to supply Harry Potter books to the Canadian market through its joint venture with Bloomsbury and will honour all outstanding financial commitments to its authors, said Jamie Broadhurst, vice president of marketing. He pledged that this spring's 15 titles, the final season for Raincoast's publishing programme, will be supported with full sales and marketing campaigns.
Even with Harry Potter, and other titles that have won or been short-listed for every major literary prize in Canada, he said the company's 13-year-old publishing division has remained unprofitable.
"This is all about the dollar," said Broadhurst. "There has been endless discussion in the Canadian media about what has been coined 'book rage' since the dollar went to par in September and Canadian consumers, rightly so, were demanding lower book prices."
Raincoast responded dramatically by reducing suggested retail prices by 20%.
"The laws of economics demand that we now bring our costs into line with the new cost structure," Broadhurst said. "We live in a new retail world. We have not seen a decrease in units sold, but we certainly have seen a small decrease in top-line revenue."
Broadhurst believes all publishers and distributors are reviewing operations as consumers balk at paying cover prices higher in Canada than the US, but stressed that Raincoast remains "a very healthy company".