Egmont UK sales fall 1.4% in ‘challenging’ economic climate

Egmont UK Ltd saw sales fall 1.4% to £50m in what it describes as a “tough economic environment” in 2017.

The company, the UK arm of Denmark’s The Egmont Group, said sales were “strong”  in the 12 months ending 31st December but that the competition in book and magazine sales was fierce.

Loss before taxation was £211,000, a decline of 108%. This was partly due to the decrease in revenue affecting bottom line but also because of the company investing in IT infrastructure, including a book publishing and production system.

Egmont said demand for children’s books was strong. The magazines market declined in terms of volume in 2018 but value sales were “on par”. Moving forward the company will push ahead with licensing in books and magazines and said it is committed to publishing the “hottest properties” to retain a strong market presence. It will also continue to invest in IT projects that will reduce costs.

Egmont UK Ltd is a subsidiary of Egmont Holding Limited and in 2017 ownership of the company transferred from Egmont Book Publishing to Egmont Holding. Next year the UK results will be released by Egmont Holding.

The ultimate holding company is Egmont Fonden, registered in Denmark. Last month the overall group said profit was up 11% to €78m (£68.1m) in 2017 but sales and operating profit both fell.

In the global publishing division, which including the UK, revenues fell revenues fell 3.8% to €505m (£441m) and operating profit was down 18% to €33m (£29m).