Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (LSE:BMY) has said both its revenue and profit for the past year were well ahead of market forecasts, thanks to strong demand for print and digital titles through to the end of the period.
It said revenue of at least £260mln is expected to be posted for the year to 28 February 2023, versus the company-calculated market consensus of £242.6mln. Profits before tax and highlighted items were calculated at around £30mln, compared to the average City estimate of £26.9mln.
The publisher’s combination of consumer and academic publishing continues to pay off, said chief executive Nigel Newton, underscoring strong demand across print, ebook and audio, as well as continued digital growth.
“Two of our strongest performances in the year have come from very disparate ends of our publishing strategy – fantasy novels on the one hand and academic digital resources on the other – showing how well our balanced consumer and academic portfolio is working in practice.
“Throughout a year which has been characterised by rising inflation and cost of living pressure, it is notable that reading remains hugely popular throughout the world with books regarded by many readers as an affordable pastime," he noted in the trading update.
In consumer, new bestsellers included Samantha Shannon's new novel, 'A Day of Fallen Night', Peter Frankopan's 'The Earth Transformed', Johan Hari's 'Stolen Focus' and 'BAKE' by Paul Hollywood, while several backlist titles also contributed to strong sales.
Bloomsbury noted that, on top of the three future books already under contract with Sarah J. Maas, this week a further four-book contract was signed.
In non-consumer, the acquisition of ABC-CLIO from December 2021 and organic growth were highlighting as contributing to the “strong growth” in Bloomsbury Digital Resources.
An encouraging pipeline of further cross-selling and growth opportunities from ABC-CLIO were also mentioned, while a new platform for academic streaming content was launched, Bloomsbury Video Library, including more than 2,000 films across a range of subjects.