Scholastic announced earnings for the first quarter of 2023, ended August 31, with sales of $263 million, up 1 percent from last year. The company said results were “on plan” for the quarter, which usually reports an operating loss, with a typical dip in the summer when kids are out of school and investments in Education Solutions. That operating loss this quarter was $(58.1) million, compared to $(32.0) million last year. The greater loss was due to increased freight costs and lower sales in Education Solutions. Last year results also benefited from “the timing of shipments related to the pandemic.” […]
Earnings Reports
Wiley Reports Flat Sales, Operating Loss
In the first quarter of fiscal 2023, Wiley reported sales of $488 million, flat with the same period last year and up from the past several years (Q1 2021: $431 million; Q1 2020: $423.5 million; Q1 2019: $411 million). Operating loss was $(17) million, compared to a $41 million gain last year. The company also reported a net loss of $(18) million, down from net income of $14 million in 2021. Adjusted EBITDA was $64 million, down (34) percent, “due to investments in Research, higher employee costs, increased T&E spend related to the resumption of in-person activities, and market-related challenges […]
Penguin Random House Sales Fall Organically, Gain On Foreign Exchange, As Earnings Declined
Bertelsmann reported results for the first six months of the year, with Penguin Random House declining on an organic basis by 1.8 percent — though topline sales still rose by 6.3 percent, due to the weakness of the euro. Sales for the period were €1.916 billion, compared to €1.804 billion a year ago. Earnings were down by both measures, with EBITDA of €257 million, compared to €324 million a year ago. The company noted, “Adjusted for exchange-rate effects, revenue and earnings declined, given the inflationary pressure and supply-chain challenges.” You can see the dual effect on PRH US sales — […]
Barnes & Noble Education Loses More Than Ever In First Quarter
Barnes & Noble Education started their fiscal 2023 by doing what unfortunately they do best: Losing more money than expected. In the seasonally soft quarter, sales of $264 million were up from $241 million a year ago, but still well behind pre-pandemic levels of $338 million in fiscal 2019. The net loss of ($52.7 million) was worse than last year’s net loss of ($43.6 million), and their worst loss for this quarter in at least the last six years. Retail sales of 236.5 million rose $26 million, mostly on merchandise and café and convenience food product sales, rather than textbooks. […]
Quarto to Sell Smart Lab, Close Distribution Service
In reporting results for the first six months of 2022, Quarto followed the classic corporate move of burying the most interesting developments at the very bottom of their announcement. They will sell the toy imprint Smart Lab (acquired as part of Becker & Mayer), “in order to focus on our core publishing business.” The will also close their distribution service, “which will start to impact our sales from July 2022.” They have “received a non-binding offer” for Smart Lab and “a sale is expected to be completed by September 2022.” The business is carried at an asset value of $2.36 […]
Indigo Reports Highest First Quarter in Three Years
Yesterday Indigo announced their first quarter 2023 earnings for the period ended July 2 with sales of CA $204.6 million, up 19 percent from $172.1 million last year, a higher level than any first quarter in the past three years. The growth was driven by “the success of Indigo’s omnichannel business; a strong recovery in the retail channel, where traffic levels continued to normalize, and an ecommerce business that sustained incremental growth of 80% to fiscal 2020 levels.” Net loss was $25.4 million, compared to $21.9 million last year, due to inflation and increased freight costs and “increased strategic investment […]