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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.
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".
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.
"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."
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.