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Hachette UK revenues fall 3% in third quarter but Shelley hails 'extremely strong' sales
Hachette UK saw its revenues fall 3% in the third quarter of 2021 compared to the same period last year, although c.e.o. David Shelley said sales were still “extremely strong" and ahead of forecasts, with increased market share.
The results were revealed in a third-quarter report by parent company Lagardère, where group revenues were up 13% on a like for like basis for the first nine months of 2021.
In the UK, exact figures were not broken out but the slight decline in quarter three was attributed by Lagardère to an unfavourable comparison with the third quarter of 2020 when bestsellers such as Stephenie Meyer’s Midnight Sun (Little, Brown) “posted strong sales performances”. Last year, the UK side reported 15.6% growth in the third quarter.
Shelley said of the latest figures: “As shops started to re-open, the period was notable for remarkably high sales through independent and chain booksellers and a contraction of online sales. Our market share was also significantly up year on year, from 12.8% in Q3 2020 to 13.1% this year.” High export and digital sales for Midnight Sun had boosted the third quarter outside the scope of UK BookScan sales last year, he said.
He pointed to the publisher’s 120 appearances in the Sunday Times’ bestsellers list, an increase of 11% on the same period last year. Shelley commented: “Q4 is off to an exceptional start and this week was our first since 2018 where Hachette UK titles took the overall number one and two spots in the Nielsen chart, with J K Rowling’s The Christmas Pig (Hachette Children’s Group) and Billy Connolly’s autobiography, Windswept & Interesting (John Murray Press).”
Other autumn titles he highlighted were The Judge’s List by John Grisham (Hodder & Stoughton), Love and Fury by Paris Fury (Hodder & Stoughton), This Much Is True by Miriam Margolyes (John Murray Press), How To Survive Family Holidays by Jack Whitehall (Little, Brown), The Hairy Bikers’ Everyday Winners by Si King and Dave Myers (Orion) and The Uncomfortable Truth About Racism by John Barnes (Headline).
Shelley said: “In Education, sales in the back-to-school period were robust and aided by the acquisition of Illuminate, which will enhance our education offering in several key areas, including psychology and Welsh curriculum publishing.”
He added: “In other developments, we celebrated our first National Offices Day in September with our staff and key partners from the creative industries to mark the opening of our new offices in Edinburgh, Bristol, Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield. This is another milestone in our mission to ‘change the story’ in publishing by making it less London-centric and more accessible to regional talent who want to break into the industry. We also launched award-winning author Vaseem Khan’s best practice guide to writing cultural diversity in fiction as part of Hachette UK’s The Future Bookshelf initiative.”
Group revenue for Lagardère came in at €3.5bn (£3bn), up 8% on a reported basis and 13% like for like. Its publishing revenue was up 9% on a reported basis and up 10% like for like compared to the first nine months of 2020.
In France, publishing revenue fell 3%, blamed on a lack of curriculum reform, while the US saw a 9% contraction which was again attributed to an unfavourable comparison basis with the previous year when sales were boosted by Midnight Sun and “various releases related to the Black Lives Matter movement”.
The third quarter itself saw publishing revenue total €696m (£587m), down 3% compared to the third quarter of 2020, “primarily reflecting an unfavourable comparison basis”.
However, the company said the overall nine-month increase “reflected a favourable base effect, and the division’s good performance over the first nine months of 2021, with revenue up a sharp 7% on a like-for-like basis compared with the first nine months of 2019”.
The difference between reported and like-for-like revenue was attributed mainly to the acquisitions of Laurence King Publishing and board game publisher Hiboutatillus, and to a €24m (£20.2m) negative currency impact in connection with the US dollar.
Its report said: “Lagardère Publishing's profitability continues to be driven by strong sales momentum and a favourable product mix, and the division now expects to post an operating margin close to 12% for full-year 2021.”
