Digital drives revenue up 13% at Haynes

Group revenue at car manual publisher Haynes was up 13% for the year to 31st May 2018, driven by a 42% growth in its digital products.

Digital now accounts for 50% of the publisher’s business (£16.9m), up 42% year-on-year. The company released its full year trading update today (5th September) for the 12 months to 31th May 2018, revealing that group revenue was up 13% to £33.8m. At the same time, group profit before tax was up 12% to £2.9m.

The acquisition of the E3 Technical business in September 2017, which provides repair and maintenance information and vehicle registration mark look-up, added an incremental £1.9m to the publisher’s revenue.

Revenue for the UK and European part of the business was up 28%, driven by the growth of HaynesPro, the company's technical data services arm, in Europe and strong sales of UK practical lifestyle titles. Meanwhile, like-for-like sales in North America and Australia was down 3% year on year.

In 2016, the company decided to close its US and Swedish printing and distributing bases and axe 41 jobs  – 17% of its workforce – because of falling demand for print manuals in the US and Australia. The US distribution is now outsourced, while Swedish customers are served by the UK.

At the time, the company said it would use the "substantial savings" accrued from closing the US and Swedish bases to accelerate the development and marketing of its consumer and professional digital platforms and today the company said it had invested £8.4m in new content, platforms and services development for its professional and consumer product ranges, up 6% from £7.9m in 2017.

Eddie Bell, chairman of Haynes Publishing Group, said: “2017/18 has been a strong year for the Haynes Group as we continue to build, develop and expand our global automotive content, data and solutions business. Our unique breadth of content and data combined with our specialist automotive technological knowhow allows us to supply our partners with high quality, innovative and commercial solutions to improve work flow and business efficiency.

“Through a programme of continuing investment in people, content and platforms we can help to ensure the Haynes Group is well placed to take advantage of the growth opportunities which lie ahead.”