Lagardere reported second quarter and half-year 2020 results on Thursday afternoon. Second quarter publishing sales were €514 million, down €70 million from a year ago (a 12 percent decline), with trends pointing up sharply in June. Month by month, the company said sales fell 39 percent in April (at €109 million); were 22 percent lower in May (€162 million); and then gained 21 percent in June (€243 million), “lifted by a large number of best-sellers in France and abroad.” For the first half of the year, that put Lagardere Publishing at €971 million, down €73 million, or 7 percent, from […]
Earnings Reports
Sales Down 17 Percent at Quarto
At Quarto, for the first six months of 2020, sales fell $9.5 million to $46.9 million, down 17 percent from the same period a year ago. The adjusted operating loss doubled, to $(1.8) million, though the company’s pre-tax loss was about even, given lower interest costs following their recapitalization in January. Chief executive C.K. Lau said in the release, “The drop in revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic has led us to initiate a number of cost management initiatives to tightly manage our cash flow.” They “expect the COVID-19 situation to continue to evolve and this prolonged uncertainty will create […]
Pearson Records Significant Operating Loss
Pearson released results for the six-months ending June 30 on Friday morning, with COVID-related impact weighing heavily on their sales. The company reported sales of £1.49 billion, down from £1.83 billion last year, a decline of 19 percent largely due to test center and school closures affecting its global assessment and international segments. North American courseware, including US higher ed, declined 14 percent, though they attributed it to the longer-term collapse in sales and conversion to lower-priced digital products (“due to the continuation of trends seen in 2019”), citing only “a modest impact from the closure of campus-based bookstores.” Adjusted […]
Scholastic’s Sales Fell 40% in Q4, Even as Trade Books Surged
Scholastic reported fourth quarter and full-year results for the period ending May 31 on Thursday afternoon. As expected, school closures due to coronavirus weighed heavily on their performance for the quarter, with overall sales of $284 million, down 40 percent compared to $471 million last year. Trade sales, however, surged to $80.4 million from $55.4 million last year — led by the big release of Suzanne Collins’ The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, plus continuing sales for Dav Pilkey’s Dog Man books, and Raina Telgemeier’s Guts, but also boosted in general by the early lockdown surge in educational books for […]
Title Mix Helps Bloomsbury to Sales Gain
Bloomsbury reported earnings for the four month period ending June 30, with trade sales of £31.5 million, up from £24.6 million — an unexpected increase of 28 percent over the prior year period, despite the disruption caused by COVID. Print revenues were 9 percent above last year’s sales, and digital revenues grew by 63 percent year-on-year, with ebook revenue up 53 percent. Performance was strongest in the US, where sales grew by 38 percent, led by Crescent City: House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas, Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge, […]
Barnes & Noble Education Reports Continuing Decline, Sharpened by COVID
Barnes & Noble Education announced fourth quarter earnings, with sales of $256.9 million, down from $334.4 last period, a decline of 23.2 percent. Retail, by far BNED’s largest segment, was heavily hit as COVID shut down campuses nationwide, while sales in the much smaller wholesale and digital student solutions increased. Net loss was $(40.3) million, compared to a net loss of $(46.2) million in the prior year period. Both the quarter and year were a week longer than the comp year. For the fiscal year, sales were $1.85 billion, down from $2.04 billion, or 9 percent. Net loss was $(38.3) […]