Hachette UK reports 17.5% sales hike in fourth quarter

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, both published by Little, Brown, helped Hachette UK to see "strong" 17.5% sales growth in the fourth quarter of 2016. 

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which in the third quarter drove Hachette UK sales up 30% after its release at the end of July 2016, was credited by Hachette's parent company Lagardère in bolstering business growth for the whole publishing division in 2016 by 11% while Lagardère Publishing's revenues in 2016 rose 2.5% like-for-like to €2,264m (2015: €2,206m).

However Hachette UK c.e.o. Tim Hely Hutchinson commented that the "outstanding" final quarter of 2016 was thanks to "sales across the board".

Revenues for Lagardère Publishing in the fourth quarter (end September to end December 2016) were down by 1.4% at €619m like-for-like (2015 Q4: €631m) "as expected" owing to an unfavourable comparison effect linked to the success of Astérix in the fourth quarter of 2015 that was only partly offset by the United Kingdom's "good performance". Sales in French division were down 6.4%, while US sales were down 12.4%. The Spanish/Latin America unit was stable (up 0.7%), having off-set the negative comparison effect of Astérix in fourth-quarter 2015 with a one-off export transaction in Latin America, and Partworks increased by 4.7%.

The sales spike in the UK was attributed by parent company Lagardère also to the successful release of its Pokémon titles - as well as to the Harry Potter play script and screen play - for bringing in sales from the "youth segment".

Hely Hutchinson said "sales across the board" had boosted Hachette UK, paying tribute to 2016's "very strong autumn trade publishing programme". He said the success of J K Rowling’s screenplay for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (published by Little, Brown in December) was complemented by the Enid Blyton spoof titles, particularly Christmas bestseller Five on Brexit Island (Quercus).

He also highlighted, from Hachette Children's, Nadiya’s Bake Me a Story, the Pokémon publishing programme and Oi Dog!, as well as other "major sellers in the quarter" Dan the Diamond Minecart by Dan TDM (Trapeze), Nigel: My Family & Other Dogs by Monty Don (Two Roads), Joe Sugg’s Username Regenerated (Hodder), Hurrah for Gin by Katie Kirby (Hodder), and the film tie-in of A Street Cat Named Bob by James Bowen (Hodder). 

Hachette's biggest selling novels over the period he identified as John Grisham’s The Whistler (Hodder), Martina Cole’s Betrayal (Headline), Ian Rankin’s Rather be the Devil (Orion), Jodi Picoult’s Great Small Things (Hodder), Michael Connelly’s The Wrong Side of Goodbye (Orion) and Simon Scarrow’s Invictus (Headline).

Hely Hutchinson praised Hodder Education too in becoming the second largest educational publisher in the UK. He said: "Hodder Education recorded not only high frontlist sales of its GCSE and A Level books for curriculum change subjects but also excellent backlist sales, leading to a further increase in our UK Schools market share to 22.6%, making Hodder Education the second largest educational publisher in the UK."

Growth in the third and fourth quarters of 2016 for Hachette UK follow a decline in the first half of 2016 by 4.7% like-for-like due to falling e-book revenues, the result of terms changes and full-rate VAT.

E-books accounted for 7.6% of total Lagardère Publishing revenue in the fourth quarter of 2016, versus 7.5% in fourth quarter of 2015. 

A breakdown of 2016 full-year results from Lagardère is due on 8th March.