Audible's UK sales grew 38% in 2018

Audiobook retailer and publisher Audible has seen UK revenue grow 38% in 2018 after posting a 47% sales increase a year earlier. Profits also doubled, from £3.1m to £6.4m.

The results show the continued strength in the audiobook market, with Audible writing in the accounts that the improved performance was a result of "an increase in Audible listeners".

UK sales rose from £77m to £106.3m in the year ended-December 2018. Accounts filed at Companies House show total revenue increased 13.5% to £112.7m (2017: £99m), but the business hived off its Australian division in April, which contributed £22.3m in sales in 2017, but just £6.5m in the part-year. The sale added a further £6.4m to the bottom line. Gross profit increased by 7.2% to £66m in 2018 from £62m in 2017.

In 2018 audiobooks were the fastest growing publishing format with 13% growth and accounting for 5% of all book purchases as well as doubling their share of fiction sales with 40% of audio sales through subscription sales, according to Nielsen BookScan. Audiobook downloads surged (to £69m) last year, according to the Publishers Association Yearbook, with audiobook download sales trebling between 2014 and 2018.

Audible declined to comment.