Edinburgh UP reports 12% sales rise

Edinburgh University Press has reported a 12% rise in sales for the year to end July 2017, to £3.22m.

Meanwhile net profit rose 15% year-on-year to £100,000, including £30,000 of journal investment made during the year.

The sales rise follows a 5% lift reported last year.

The growth was said to be driven by a "strong"  performance from EUP's books business, with 191 new titles published during the year, and print book sales rising 13% to £1.86m. Meanwhile e-book sales jumped 20% and accounted for 19% of total book revenues.

Chief executive Timothy Wright said: "This is a strong set of results, particularly on the top line where we saw sales advance in most regions of the world but in particular the UK and Europe. In North America, despite continued challenges for the monograph market and ongoing purchasing issues, revenues increased by 20% year on year. 

"Our e-book sales through our network of global partners has been particularly encouraging and we are confident that this trend will continue this year."

He added: "Numerous challenges remain in the monograph market where, particularly in the USA, the effect of changing purchasing models by libraries is continuing to reduce the number of copies that we sell in and by extension, print runs."

Open Access is to be a key objective for EUP this year in both books and journals. Meanwhile the publisher will bring out over 200 new books and 42 journals in the next year.

EUP is a wholly owned subsidiary of the university of Edinburgh.