Bloomsbury's bright spell persists as Potter continues revenue magic

Publisher Bloomsbury on Tuesday reported its highest annual revenue since 2007, when the last book of J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series was published, sending the company’s shares to a 10-year high.

Bloomsbury’s revenue rose 13.3% to £161.5m in the year ended 28 February as special edition releases of the boy wizard’s adventures and new titles such as Tom Kerridge’s ‘Lose Weight For Good’ and Sarah J. Maas’ ‘A Court of Wings and Ruin’ drove sales.

Meanwhile, the company’s full-year pretax profit rose 10% to £13.2m with cash and cash equivalents on hand at £25.4m, which was up by 64% from the previous year.

Kerridge’s title sold the most copies in a week in January since records began, while the Potter special editions helped the publisher’s childrens division boost revenue by 24% to £69.2m.

Nigel Newton, chief executive of Bloomsbury, said: "I am delighted with the performance of our business over the last twelve months. It has been a great year that has put Bloomsbury in a very strong and exciting position. We have seen significant progress in both segments of our business."

Outside the offerings for fans of Hogwarts and healthy eating, Bloomsbury’s non-consumer division, which publishes academic and professional titles, saw revenues grow by 4% to £59.3m.

“Bigger Bloomsbury marks the next exciting step in our growth, focussing on our key growth drivers with targeted strategies across the business to help grow our revenues and improve our margins over the next five years,” said Newton.

The company said it has a strong booklist for the year which includes the latest from Sarah J. Maas ‘A Court of Frost and Starlight’ which went straight to number 1 in the UK on 9th May and the illustrated version of ‘The Tales of Beedle the Bard’ by J.K. Rowling, the twentieth anniversary edition of ‘Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets’.

As of 1056 BST, Bloomsbury Publishing’s shares were up 8.70% at 225.00p.