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HarperCollins UK saw huge growth in profits for the year ended June 30th 2014, despite a fall in turnover for the company.
The company's annual results have also revealed that former c.e.o. Victoria Barnsley received £1.39m when she left the company.
Turnover at the publisher fell on the previous year, declining from £190m in 2013 to £179m in 2014, a drop of 6%.
However, profits saw a rise with pre-tax profit more than doubling, up 157% from £2.8m to £7.2m. Overall profit for the financial year was £4.2m, growing from £1.07m in the previous year, a rise of 293%.
In the results, the decline in turnover is attributed to the "result of a strategic decision [to] reduce the investment in some of the more unprofitable non-fiction publishing as well as the reflection of the high sales in the prior year of both Hilary Mantel's Booker Prize winning Bring Up the The Bodies and J R R Tolkien's The Hobbit which did not repeat in 2014."
Meanwhile, the children's division is singled out for its "stellar performance", while the growth in operating profit was attributed to "both an improved publishing performance and a significant turnaround in the operating performance of our distribution facility following the difficulties it faced last year as a result of a systems change." It added: "The company will be moving from its office in Hammersmith to London Bridge in the new year and the growth in operating profit in the current year would have been £3,500,000 higher but for costs arising as a result of the decision to move offices."
Barnsley, who stepped down as c.e.o. of HarperCollins UK and International in June 2013, after 13 years with the company, was paid £1.39m "as compensation for loss of office".