Potter casts new spell on Bloomsbury

Harry Potter special editions helped Bloomsbury Publishing Plc’s revenue to its highest level since 2007, when the last of the original books came out.

Sales of the boy wizard’s adventures rose 31% in the year to the end of February, while titles such as Tom Kerridge’s Lose Weight For Good and A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas also shone, Bloomsbury said yesterday.

The London-based publisher said its performance this year wouild be “well ahead” of previous expectations, helped by a strong autumn book list and the acquisition of I.B. Tauris, which focuses on history, social sciences and culture.

The robust performance reflects an improving British book market, where special editions featuring vintage covers and new artwork have helped draw readers back to print formats.

Bloomsbury’s revenue rose 13.3% to £161.5 million ($217.3 million) in the year, surpassing the £150 million it reported in 2007, while full-year pre-tax profit rose 10% to £13.2 million.

Bloomsbury has been looking to reduce its reliance on the Harry Potter books, which have sold more than 450 million copies worldwide to date, and is making a push into digital.

This year, as part of this digital drive, it expects to launch five new online resources, which cover a range of disciplines in humanities, social sciences, visual and performing arts, on top of five it launched last year.

Over the next year, the company plans to launch new online resources such as Bloomsbury Architecture Library, Fashion Video Workshop and Applied Visual Arts Library.

Harry Potter’s success has also helped it invest in higher-margin academic and professional publishing, focusing on business-to-business digital publishing.

However, revenue at Bloomsbury’s academic division, which specialises in the arts, humanities and social sciences, fell 5.8%, hit by a decline in Britain’s education sector.

Digital revenues grew by 12.5% to £18 million in the year, while print revenues grew 15% to £134.8 million, Bloomsbury said.

Bloomsbury announced a final dividend of 6.36 pence per share, bringing the total dividend for the year to 7.51 pence, 12% higher than the total payout last year.