International News

In other corporate earnings reports, Courier finished a tough year down 10 percent in sales in the fourth quarter. Their publishing unit–comprising Dover, the recession-struck Creative Homeowner, and Research & Education Association–dropped another 28 percent in sales for the quarter, at $11.9 million, though much of gap is due to Creative Homeowner discontinuing its distribution operation earlier in the year. The group had operating income of $928,000 for the period, down from $1.3 million a year ago. For the full year, the publishing group’s sales were $46.8 million, down 24 percent from $61.9. The company says Dover and REA were […]

Harlequin continues to outshine parent company Torstar’s other assets as the book publisher turned in another positive quarter even as overall results at Torstar declined. Harlequin reported sales of $122.5 million (Ca), up 3.7 percent from a year ago, though most of the growth was due to a stronger Canadian dollar. The company says “growth in North America direct-to-consumer and overseas revenues more than offset declines in North America retail.” Operating profits rose 22 percent to $22.9 million, with almost half the gain coming from foreign exchange. Torstar says “at Harlequin, we anticipate stable results in the fourth quarter including […]

In one of those UK “trading updates” that doesn’t disclose actual data, Pearson tells investors the company is “trading ahead of expectations” so far this fiscal year and raised its earnings guidance a few pence, to “at or above 60 pence a share” for the full year. Primarily, the pound has stayed weak enough against the dollar and the company has “outperformed the US schools market.” At Penguin, currency neutral sales are down 4 percent, but with the weak pound actual sales are up 12 percent “as the expected tough retail market conditions were largely offset by a good publishing […]