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Independent publisher Profile saw a sharp drop in profit for the 12 months to end March 2014, but has deemed it a "respectable" financial year in "tough" trading conditions.
Turnover dipped 3% to £8.22m (£8.49m the previous year) but operating profit was £326,000, down 53% (£697,000 last year). Profit as a percentage of turnover stood at 6%, a dip from the figure of 10% in the previous year.
Profile noted that it had been "another respectable financial year despite tough market conditions… pressure on margins continues all round." Successful titles for the publisher included Margaret MacMillan's The War that Ended Peace and the New Scientist's Nothing, along with Waterstones Autumn Book Club choice The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg, and Incredible Numbers by Professor Ian Stewart, an app developed by Touchpress.
M.d. Andrew Franklin said: "Once again we paid a bonus to all our staff of a month’s salary – we have a single scheme that works the same for everyone in the company and I am very proud indeed that we have paid a bonus every single year since nearly the beginning. I am also very proud that we signed up to the Living Wage Charter and pay everyone, including our interns and our cleaners, the London Living Wage. So far not a single other London trade publisher has joined us signing the charter. I wish they would."
Looking at the current year, Profile said that the current financial year "looks very positive", with Serpent's Tail seeing an "exceptional year" thanks to Karen Joy Fowler's Man Booker Prize-shortlisted We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves.