• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Login
  • Register

Publishers Lunch

The Publishing Industry's Daily Essential Read

  • Publishers Marketplace
  • Site Guide
  • Help

Sales Fall 4 Percent at WH Smith; Publishing Remains Soft for Courier

April 22, 2010
By Michael Cader

The UK’s WH Smith reported results for the six months ending February 28, with high street sales of 503 million pounds down 4 percent, both in absolute terms and on a comp-store basis. Books as a category were also down 4 percent compared to a year ago. The company says “the books market was soft during the key Christmas period, but performance varied by sub-category with the poor publishing schedule in non-fiction acting as a key driver behind the market decline.” Nonetheless, they insist that “we continue to implement our strategy to build on our authority as a popular book specialist.” Among the changes, they continue to give more space to children’s books, and their travel division has added new categories in their bookstores, including focused business titles. Operating profit of 47 million pounds for the high street segment was flat.
WH Smith

Courier’s publishing units had sales of $11.7 million for their fiscal second quarter, down 3 percent overall, with Dover declining 4 percent in the period and Creative Homeowner down 14 percent. But the segment was just barely profitable, compared to a loss a year ago. Ceo James Conway says “Dover was hurt by reduced ordering among major retailers following the weak holiday season, but REA rose above it with a combination of new and re-branded products targeted to key testing markets. Equally important, there were encouraging signs at Creative Homeowner, with direct home plan sales and sales to non-home centers both rising. In fact, both Dover and Creative Homeowner had good growth in direct-to- consumer sales.”

Overall Courier had $58.9 million in sales, down “marginally” from $59.4 million a year ago.
Courier release

Filed Under: Booksellers, Earnings Reports, Free, International News, Publishers

sidebar

Primary Free Sidebar

Login


Forgot password
Quick Pass users click here to log in
Get Full Access
The publishing industry's essential daily read

Each Publishers Lunch Deluxe subscription includes full access to our searchable multi-year archive of industry news, a nightly email reporting 10 to 50 deal transactions, and our database of industry contacts, scripts, and posting privileges.

Learn More

RSS Automat

  • Jordan Peterson Suspended on Twitter for "Hateful Conduct" In Comment About Elliot Page July 1, 2022 NY Post
  • Rushdie Will Move From Random House to Knopf for Next Novel, in 2023 (Update: The Bookseller Reported This Incorrectly) June 30, 2022 Bookseller
  • Macmillan Cyber Attack Gets National Coverage; Retailers Don't Mind, But It Still Hurts Authors and the Company June 30, 2022 WSJ
  • Wattpad Is Buying Exclusivity to Some of their Most Popular Authors and Stories with Stipends of Up to $25,000 June 30, 2022 Press Release
  • Supreme Court Declines to Review or Revise Landmark NYT v. Sullivan Libel Standard, Despite Clarence Thomas's Objection June 27, 2022 CNN
  • So Far, Books by Trump Aides Are Mostly...Losers June 23, 2022 Politico
  • Macmillan Nigeria Publisher Charged With Book Fraud June 21, 2022 The Herald
  • All The Exiting Agents Seem to Think ICM's Sale to CAA Will Get Approved Shortly by DOJ June 17, 2022 Deadline
  • Spotify Closes Findaway Acquisition: "Their technology will help propel Spotify into the rapidly growing audiobooks industry" June 17, 2022 Press Release
  • Australian Author John Hughes "Unintentionally" Plagiarized The Great Gatsby And Other Famous Works In His New Novel June 15, 2022 The Guardian
© 2022 Publishers Lunch. All Rights Reserved.