Printed university course books weigh on the publisher Pearson
PRINTED UNIVERSITY course books continue to weigh on publisher Pearson as students are turning ever more to digital alternatives.
The company’s US higher education courseware business lost 12 per cent of its sales in 2019, it said, meaning overall sales fell to under £3.9bn, from £4.1bn a year earlier. On an underlying basis, sales remained flat.
Pearson has long toiled with its suffering university books unit as students turn away from printed books. Sales of physical books declined 30 per cent, with the growth of digital products only making up for it slightly with “modest” growth. Half of all learners now prefer eBooks, the company said.
However, chief executive John Fallon was positive about what the future might bring, promising an “exciting pipeline” of new products and services.
“The future of learning will be increasingly digital and we have built, by revenue, by far the world’s leading digital learning company,” he said.
The business is still heavily reliant on North America, which accounted for 65 per cent of its sales and 62 per cent of adjusted operating profit in 2019.
Pearson’s operating profit was £275m, a halving from the year before when it felt the benefit of selling parts of its business. On an adjusted basis operating profit rose 6 per cent.
Pearson said 36 per cent of revenue now comes from digital, an increase of 2 per cent since last year. A further 30 per cent, which is another 2 per cent increase, is from digitally enabled products, while non-digital fell by 4 per cent to 34 per cent.
The business, which sold its 25 per cent stake in Penguin Random House for 675 million US dollars (£523m), said it has completed £79m of a £350m share buyback announced at the time.
It also promised that full-year dividend will be raised by 1p to 19.5p. This year bosses expect to see an adjusted operating profit of between £410m and £490m, not including the Penguin Random House stake.