Financial highlights
*Revenues grew to £111.1 million (2014: £109.5 million)
*Profit before taxation and highlighted items** of £12.1 million (2014*: £12.0 million)
*Profit before taxation £9.6 million (2014*: £9.5 million)
*Final dividend of 5.08p per share (2014: 4.84p) making a total dividend of 6.10p per share for the year (2014: 5.82p per share)
It has been a good year for Bloomsbury and we are pleased with the Group’s performance. The spirit of intense focus on performance combined with entrepreneurial drive saw us deliver an impressive result against a backdrop of change in our industry.
The year was characterised by the consistent development of the strategic aims of the business – in short, digital investment, a greater proportion of business generated from academic and professional publishing, a greater proportion of sales from non-traditional book retailers and a focus on marketing to discrete communities of interest.
Revenues grew 1.5% year on year to £111.1 million. Profit before tax and highlighted items** of £12.1 million was up 1% year on year* from £12.0 million. Profit before tax was £9.6 million (2014*: £9.5 million).
There were excellent performances in the Children’s & Educational division, including strong growth from Harry Potter titles, and in the Academic & Professional division, with strong digital and UK rights revenues mitigating lower print sales. In the Adult division revenues were reduced against a tough comparator which included Khaled Hosseini’s And the Mountains Echoed, butthis was a solid performance in a year with fewer major bestsellers. Bloomsbury Information revenues and profits were flat year on year.
The majority of our revenue comprises title sales, which dipped by 4% year on year to £97.0 million, with digital sales, within this total, reduced by 4% to £11.7 million. Digital sales make up 12.1% of title sales (2014: 12.1%). Higher margin rights and services revenues grew by £5.6 million to £14.1 million and formed 13% of total group revenues compared to last year’s weaker performance of 8%, and previous years of 12% in 2013 and 13% in 2012.
The operating profit margin before highlighted items for the Group was maintained year on year at 11%. Operating profits before tax and highlighted items in the UK business were up by 5% to £11.3 million. In the US profits fell by 7% to £0.7 million reflecting a reduction in academic print title sales. Australia saw another significant growth in profits by £0.2 million to £0.3 million. In its second full year of operation, our Indian publishing business generated revenues of £1.6 million and start-up losses of £0.2 million before the allocation of Group costs, with a particularly encouraging performance from local publishing.
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