Mundy resigns from Atlantic

Atlantic Books publisher and c.e.o. Toby Mundy has resigned.

Mundy, who founded the company in June 2000, will leave on 30th June. Plans for his replacement will be announced "in due course."

Mundy said: "I have been with Atlantic Books for 14 exhilarating years, starting the company, with the investment and encouragement of Morgan Entrekin of Grove/Atlantic Inc, in my spare bedroom at home. Although those years haven’t always been easy, I am enormously proud of the firm’s achievements in that time. I have had the privilege of playing a part in the discovery and publication of hundreds of excellent books and of working with a legion of outstanding colleagues. I am grateful to those colleagues and, of course, to our wonderful authors, for their friendship, trust and support.
 
"Allen & Unwin, Atlantic Books’ new proprietor, has also been very supportive, as has Peter Roche, ABL’s chairman, and I am grateful to them. But everything must come to an end and I feel sure that the time is right to pursue new adventures in this exciting, unpredictable industry. Our authors could not be in better hands and I look forward to toasting their future triumphs."
 
ABL chair Peter Roche said: "Over 14 years, Atlantic has published a fine range of distinguished, prize-winning books. Toby Mundy has led the company throughout with great energy and total commitment. I thank him for his outstanding contribution and wish him every success in the future."

Allen & Unwin became the publisher's majority shareholder in January, when the company received "substantial" funding from shareholders. In a restructure at the same time, Roche joined Atlantic as non-executive chair, as did a new finance director, while editor-in-chief Ravi Mirchandani left, and three further roles were made redundant.

Results filed at Companies House, covering the year to end December 2012, showed losses of £5.1m on turnover of £6m, caused by "lower turnover, higher costs of sales…and financing costs." The directors' report stated: "The company's disappointing sales performance combined with one-off items and adjustments to provisioning estimates has produced a result for the year which the directors consider to be very much one off in nature." At the year end the company had net current assets of £1.4m and net liabilities of £1.2m.

The publisher had previously recorded a loss of £1.8m on turnover of £6.9m in a "dreadful" 2010, cutting losses to £193,195 on increased turnover of £8.2m in 2011.