Continuum 'quite pleased' despite increased losses
<p>Continuum has said it is "quite pleased" with its annual results to end-June 2009, despite making a bigger loss than the previous year. The company recorded a group loss of £2.8m, an increase on the £2.14m loss for the 12 months to end-June 2008. Turnover also fell, from £11.42m to £10.47m. </p><p>But chairman Patrick Austen said in a statement the "fundamentals" of the business had improved, leaving it in better shape than before. Sales were "particularly strong" in the UK publishing market with an 11% improvement year-on-year, he said. The US was a different picture, with both retailers reducing inventories and university libraries under "unfamiliar" budgetary pressure. However, the strength of the US dollar left sales "level with the prior year". </p><p>Chief executive Oliver Gadsby explained that the main reason for the drop in turnover was Contiuum's sale of Orca Book Services in October 2008. He added: "Generally we're feeling quite pleased that we have shown organic growth in a tricky year... We've been working consistently over the last couple of years on e-publishing, print on demand...[and] that is playing its part.</p><p>"It's going well for us - there's a nice balance of strength with the US, UK and rest of the world sales - core academic sales are motoring along nicely and our e-publishing is becoming a valuable part of our business."<br /><br />In the last year, the company has relaunched its website, has made 1,500 e-books available and has increased its use of print on demand methods, with sales through this production route up 77% on the previous year. </p>