Quarto announced results for 2022, with sales of $141 million, down 7 percent from $151.5 million in 2021, attributing the loss to a downturn in consumer spending and a contraction in the book market. Even so, operating profit was up 32 percent to $21.1 million, which the company credits to “nimble publishing maximizing opportunities which arose, strong cost-control and reduced finance costs.” The company’s net debt is $0.6 million, down from $5.5 million, and long-term borrowings are $9.3 million, down from $28.5 million. They repaid a total of $15 million in loans from C.K. Lau and 1010 Printing during the […]
PRH Grows Topline on Strong Dollar, As Profits and Organic Sales Fall
Bertelsmann announced results for the full year 2022, and while the parent company’s sales grew 8.3 percent to a record of €20.2 billion, sales at Penguin Random House rose 4.8 percent (or €193 million) to €4.223 billion—below the target for the year and “largely due to exchange rate effects,” especially the strong US dollar. Organically, sales fell 3.3 percent, while foreign exchange produced a gain of 7.3 percent during the year. Those “reduced sales levels” were “mainly due to normalization of book markets.” Operating EBITDA for PRH fell 11.8 percent to €666 million, down from €755 million in 2021, “due […]
Storytel Acquires Finnish Audiobook Streaming Business
Swedish audiobook company Storytel has acquired the audiobook streaming arm of Finnish bookstore chain Suomalainen Kirjakauppa, which is owned by the Otava Group. Subscribers to the audiobook business, Suomalainen Plus, will be merged into Storytel’s user base. Storytel ceo Johannes Larcher said, “This agreement strengthens Storytel’s position in the vibrant Finnish market and as the Nordic market leader. We are also very pleased to deepen our relationship with the leading Finnish publishing and media owner Otava Ltd, who we had the pleasure of welcoming as a new shareholder in connection with our directed share issue in November.”
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Forthcoming: THE FIRM Sequel
On October 17, Doubleday will publish THE EXCHANGE: After The Firm, a sequel to John Grisham’s bestselling 1991 thriller The Firm. The book takes place 15 years after the first novel, and the publisher’s description reads, “When a mentor in Rome asks him for a favor that will take him far from home, Mitch finds himself at the center of a sinister plot that has worldwide implications—and once again endangers his colleagues, friends, and family.” Grisham’s publisher Suzanne Herz, evp, publisher Vintage/Anchor Books, said in a release, “To have John Grisham’s 49th book return to the world of Mitch and […]