July’s AAP StatShot report shows a continuation of June’s trend of rising sales, at $647 million, up $103 million compared to last year. Adult sales gained $79 million, to $460 million, while children’s sales were $24 million higher, at $187 million. Returns remained modestly lower than a year ago, down (10.7) percent. The month’s big gains were from hardcover sales: Adult hardcovers were up by $58 million, as children’s hardcovers gained $17.5 million. At the same time, ebooks retained their pandemic-driven strength, with sales of $98 million, up from $78 million a year ago. Digital audio grew to $55.4 million, […]
Corporate: Early Retirement At HMH, and Judge Throws Out Parneros’s Defamation Claim Against BN
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announced that 166 employees — five percent of the company’s workforce — opted to participate in a voluntary early retirement incentive program, which had first been announced August 6 in the company’s quarterly report. The program was offered to all US-based employees who are at least 55 years old and have at least five years of service, comprising about 18 percent of the workforce. For the majority of employees who elected to leave, the decision was effective September 4, though a few are leaving later in the year. According to the SEC filing, the total one-time cash […]
Barnes & Noble Education Posts Another Steep Decline
Barnes & Noble Education reported earnings for the first fiscal quarter of 2021 ending August 1, with sales of $204 million, compared to $320 million in last year’s quarter, a decline of 36 percent. The net loss steepened to $(46.7) million, compared to $(32.2) million last year. With the majority of campus bookstores closed all quarter, retail sales decreased by $116 million compared to the prior year, with comparable store sales of approximately $107 million, down 42.8 percent. “Physical textbook sales declines were partially mitigated by the shift to digital textbook products,” said the release. Meanwhile, furloughs and other cost […]
Wiley’s Earnings Rebound, with Slight Increase in Sales
Wiley reported first quarter sales for the period ended July 31, with sales of $431 million, compared to $423.5 million last year’s period, an increase of 2 percent. EBITDA was $81.8 million, compared to $57.5 million, up 42 percent and outperforming analysts expectations. Education Publishing sales were $64.1 million, down 2 percent from last year’s period. Consistent with the long-term trend, there were “continued market pressures on print books.” The release noted, “Digital content and courseware growth accelerated while print textbooks continued to decline sharply.” Professional Learning declined 21 percent, as COVID-19 closures impacted in-person corporate training. In Education Publishing, […]
Postal Disruptions Pose An “Existential Threat” to Indie Bookstores
Independent booksellers have long relied on “media mail” from the USPS as the most affordable way to ship books to customers and that has been a literal lifeline for many during the pandemic. Which makes the recent slowdown in processing an existential threat to booksellers as well as our democracy. An article in Fortune helps underscore the point with examples from three such booksellers — in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Cambridge. Black-owned Reparations Club in LA went from rare shipping requests pre-Covid to delivering 99 percent of orders by mail. Recently, founder Jazzi McGilbert “says her store experienced many […]
Dufry to Take Hudson Group Private Again; Arnault Approves Investment In Lagardere’s Holding Company
Travel retail and bookstore chain Hudson announced a definitive agreement on Wednesday morning with controlling shareholder Dufry to buy out public shareholders and take the company private again, just two years after its 2018 IPO. Dufry AG Group, which already owns 57.4 percent of the company, will buy the remaining equity for $7.70 a share. That’s a 50 percent premium to Hudson’s August 18 closing price — but less than half the 2018 IPO share price of $19 on 39.4 million shares, which raised $749 million in proceeds. The travel retail business has suffered considerably during the pandemic, and so […]