Bloomsbury Publishing is set to beat expectations this year, thanks to the continuing popoulatiy of fantasy fiction propelling its sales skywards.
Shares in the London-based company soared on Thursday after announcing that titles from authors like Sarah J Maas and JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books have substantially lifted sales for the first half of their financial year. Bloomsbury has seen strong trading carry through to September and October.
The publisher reported a 32% increase in total revenues to £179.8m for the six months leading up to 31 August, in comparison to last year’s figures during the same timeframe. According to the company, this uplift was primarily fueled by its consumer division, which saw revenues jump by 47%.
Pre-tax profit also surged to £22.1m for the half-year, climbing from £14m in the previous year. Nigel Newton, CEO of Bloomsbury, said: “Bloomsbury’s strong results reflect implementation of the recently announced Bloomsbury 2030 vision, focused on our growth, portfolio and people.”
“Following our strong performance in the first half of this year and good trading in September and October, we now expect trading for full year 2024/25 to be ahead of the current consensus expectation.”
Fiona Orford-Williams of Edison Group said: “A strong set of figures from Bloomsbury and an upgrade to full year expectations is on the back of the continuing popular enthusiasm for fantasy novels, with sales of Sarah J Maas titles doubling on what was already an impressive number.”
“While there are no more titles from her scheduled for the second half, there are more in the longer-term pipeline.”
“The broader consumer list has been selling well across several categories and there is a promising slate for the important Christmas market.”
Shares of Bloomsbury were up by 8.2% at 738p.
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