Bloomsbury Publishing has posted a 225% profit growth to £12.9m, as well as a year-on-year revenue growth of 29% to £100.7m.
Bestsellers at the group included The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon and Outdoor Cooking by Tom Kerridge.
“For a time publishing firm Bloomsbury was like a magician with only a single trick. To be fair it was a good one, with the Harry Potter series perhaps the biggest single phenomenon in book publishing history,” said AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.
“However, once the series ended in the late noughties Bloomsbury’s share price and sales went into steady decline.
“After a few years of decent progress, building up a diversified business, the pandemic hit fast forward on Bloomsbury’s return to prominence as people picked up the book reading bug in large numbers.”
The book publisher has said that it expects to meet market expectations at February 2022 despite the supply chain issues. The group expects to make profits of pre-tax profits of £19.3m and revenues of £193.4m.
“These results demonstrate the strength and resilience of our strategy of publishing for both the consumer and academic markets, and our growth of digital revenues,” said chief executive, Nigel Newton.
“Our strong financial position and cash generation give us significant opportunities for further acquisitions and investment in organic growth. In recognition of our strong performance and in line with our dividend policy, we are announcing a 5% increase in our interim dividend to 1.34 pence per share.”
