Quarto announced results for the first half of the fiscal year ended June 30, with sales of $52 million, down 16 percent from $61.9 million in the same period in 2022. The sales decline was in part due to the company closing their distribution service and selling their Smart Lab toy imprint. Adjusted operating profit was $3.1 million, compared to $6.1 million last year. The company also noted that the book market overall has been more challenging in 2023 than 2022, though they expect it to pick up in the rest of the year as inflation is past its peak. […]
Earnings Reports
Harper’s Sales and Earnings Fall to Close “A Tough Year”
Harper Collins reported a weak end to a difficult fiscal year, with fourth quarter sales of $446 million down $67 million from a year ago, 13 percent lower. EBITDA suffered even more, at just $16 million, compared to $47 million a year ago. $20 million of that gap was due to the calendar — with an additional 14th week included in last year’s quarter. The company also lost some revenue to foreign exchange. Broadly, News Corp. cited “lower book sales due to lower consumer demand industry-wide, [and] weak frontlist performance, which contributed to higher returns.” Earnings fell on a mix […]
Simon & Schuster Maintains Sales, Grows Income In Second Quarter
Paramount Global also reported second quarter earnings on Monday afternoon, including solid results for Simon & Schuster, which continues to lead in performance among the reporting large trade publishers. Sales were just below flat at $292 million — compared to $293 million in 2022, which was a high comp to meet, since that quarter sales were up 34 percent from $219 million in 2021. Operating income continued to grow further still, at $91 million, up 14 percent from $80 million a year ago. Sales for the first half of the year are up 8 percent over 2022, and operating income […]
BNED Focuses on Cost-Reduction, Profitable Segments
After a delay in filing while they renegotiated loans with investors, Barnes & Noble Education announced formal results for the fourth quarter and full year 2023 ended April 29. Those numbers were in line with the preliminary data announced in mid-July, including full year sales of $1.54 billion, up 3.2 percent from the previous year, and a grim higher net loss of $(101.9) million, even worse than the $(68.86) million the previous year. Per those preliminary numbers, fourth quarter sales were $241.8 million, down from $252.2 million last year, and net loss was $(46.25) million, an increase from $(10.96) million. […]
Higher Ed Sales Continue To Decline at Pearson
Pearson announced interim results for the first half of 2023 ended June 30, with sales of £1.879 billion, up 5 percent from 2022. Operating profit was £219 million, compared to £148 million last year. As far as publishing goes, which is less and less a focus of the company, the Higher Education segment grew 2 percent to £379 million — based on foreign exchange. But it declined 2 percent on an underlying basis as expected due to “a decline in enrollments and loss of adoptions to non-mainstream publishers.” Pearson restructured the sales team last year, which “helped to increase adoption […]
Lagardere Publishing Continues Slight Gains, Despite Weakness at HBG
Lagardere reported headline results for their second quarter and detailed results for the first half of the year on Tuesday. “Demonstrating its resilience amid a less buoyant publishing market,” publishing division sales for the quarter were €677 million, up €15 million from a year ago (gaining 2 percent), though recent acquisitions including Welbeck and Paperblanks provided €9 million of that increase. For the first half of the year, sales reached €1.247 billion, up €31 million, gaining 2.5 percent, or 1.6 percent on a like-for-like basis, with €21 million from acquisitions. But recurring EBIT fell by €16 million to €65 million, […]