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Cambridge University Press saw sales at £336m in the year to end April 2020, a rise of 2.8% (2% at constant currency). However, operating profits fell 3.3% to £23.6m, compared to £24.4m in 2019.
CUP said it had seen "strong" growth during the first 11 months of the year, before disruption to supply and a "sharp" fall in sales in the final six weeks of the financial year, as Covid-19 led to a global lockdown of schools and universities.
Chief executive Peter Phillips said: “The year was one of extraordinary contrasts for the press. We enjoyed 46 weeks of strong revenue growth and excellent progress with our long-term strategy, only to face a very different final six weeks as we helped customers and colleagues cope with the global effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.”
For the first time, half of CUP's revenues for the year were from digital and blended products, with investment in digital a major focus of the year, including the launch of Cambridge Shakespeare Online and the acquisition—with Cambridge Assessment—of the digital assessment business the Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring (CEM) from Durham University.
The investment in digital enabled it to make a rapid response to the Covid-19 crisis, the publisher said, making digital versions of more than 700 Higher Education textbooks freely available to students through their university libraries, and almost all digital education materials for schools made free.
Phillips said: “At a time of crisis, it is important also not to lose our focus on the long-term. While it is too early to assess fully the implications of Covid-19, it seems inevitable that there will be even more demand for the kind of online, interactive products that we have been developing on our resilient and flexible digital platforms.”
He added: “I am exceptionally proud of how the press performed this year and by the way it responded to the challenge of Covid-19. The teamwork, creativity, hard work and generosity of spirit shown by colleagues across the world underlines the strength of our culture and the remarkable qualities of CUP people. I am extremely grateful to them all for their handling of the pandemic and for their passion and commitment throughout the year.”
The press is uniting with Cambridge Assessment around a single strategy, creating "a uniquely powerful education and research offering under the Cambridge name", and will therefore align financially, moving the press' year-end to 31st July from next year, vice-chancellor Stephen Toope confirmed.