Bloomsbury happy with progress
Harry Potter publisher Bloomsbury today said it continued to make good progress after benefiting from a “reasonably buoyant” UK book market.
The London-based firm said trading since the beginning of the year had been in line with expectations, helped by the appearance of Joanna Trollope’s Brother and Sister on best-seller lists.
The paperback version of murder mystery A Gathering Light, by Jennifer Donnelly, has also been selling strongly.
Bloomsbury, which announced a 38% rise in profits in March, said schoolboy wizard Harry Potter continued to be hugely popular with readers, boosted by the “unprecedented success” of the third film – Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban released on May 31.
The paperback version of the fifth novel, Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix, is due out on July 10.
The publishing house also announced today it had sold its loss-making Blue Guide travel list to a specialist travel guide firm.
Bloomsbury said it was an opportune moment to dispose of the Blue Guide travel books in a “highly competitive” market.
The consideration received for the sale covered the cost of stock, work in progress and a small number of redundancies, it said. The list had sales of £345,000 (€516,200) and was loss-making in 2003.
Bloomsbury also told shareholders at its annual meeting today that it had a strong publishing programme for the second half of the financial year.
This includes the September release of Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, which has been generating much interest in the UK, the United States and Germany and Sheila Hancock’s book The Two of Us about her late husband, actor John Thaw of the Inspector Morse television series.
A third book in the highly successful Schott’s Miscellany series is also planned for the autumn, Schott’s Sporting Gaming and Idling Miscellany.
Chairman Nigel Newton said: “The group continues both to generate strong cashflow and invest in its future publishing programme.”
Shares were up 2% today to 248p (€3.70).
