Bloomsbury Publishing lifts FY profit, revenue outlook

Bloomsbury Publishing lifted its full-year profit and revenue outlook on Wednesday as it cited strong demand.

In an update for the year to 28 February 2023, the company said revenue was expected to be "comfortably ahead" and profit "materially ahead" of expectations.

Revenue is now expected to be over £260m and profit before taxation and highlighted items is expected to be £30m following "strong" trading at the end of the year. Consensus market expectations were for revenue of £242.6m and profit of £26.9m.

Chief executive Nigel Newton said: "We have seen strong demand for our titles - in print, ebook and audio - and 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."

Bloomsbury said strong trading in the consumer division was driven by both frontlist and core backlist titles. Samantha Shannon's new novel, 'A Day of Fallen Night' was published in February 2023 and became an instant bestseller worldwide. Other bestsellers included Johan Hari's 'Stolen Focus' and 'Bake' by Paul Hollywood.

In the non-consumer segment, meanwhile, the company said it achieved strong growth in Bloomsbury Digital Resources through leveraging its acquisition of ABC-CLIO and continued organic growth.