Hachette's UK publishing arm sees revenues grow 6%

Overall revenue for Hachette UK parent company Lagardère rose 14% in 2023, according to its full-year financial results, with its UK publishing arm growing 6.1% spurred on by “a number of very successful Adult Trade titles” including the first two volumes of Rebecca Yarros’ The Empyrean trilogy and two titles by Freida McFadden (The Housemaid and The Housemaid’s Secret).  

Revenue growth was also driven by “impressive backlist sales” on the back of the success of Ana Huang’s Twisted saga and Matthew Perry’s autobiography, published at the end of 2022. However, sales in the Young Adult segment were down with “no equivalent to last year’s Heartstopper phenomenon”, the publisher said. 

Nielsen BookScan showed Hachette’s UK TCM growth for 2023 at 2.2%.

Lagardère group revenue for the year totalled €8.1bn (£6.9bn), up 14% on a like-for-like basis on 2022. Lagardère’s overall publishing division, which encompasses Hachette and Partworks, saw revenue up 2.2% on a reported basis and 1.9% on a like-for-like basis “in a generally subdued environment” to €2.81bn (£2.4bn). The difference between reported and like-for-like revenue is attributable to a €50m positive scope effect linked chiefly to the acquisition of Welbeck Publishing Group and the consolidation of Ivory Coast subsidiary NEICEDA.  

The report states: “Amid a highly inflationary environment, Lagardère Publishing maintained a very high level of like-for-like revenue.” 

Group recurring EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) hit €520m (£445m), up from €438m (£375m) on the year before. The publishing division reported EBIT of €301m (£257.6m) down slightly from €302m (£258.5m) last year. The report said EBIT was “stable” versus 2022, stressing “profitability remained high at 10.7%, well ahead of pre-Covid levels (9.2% in 2019), despite ongoing inflationary pressures on costs”.  

In 2023, digital audiobooks accounted for 4.5% of Lagardère Publishing’s total revenue (versus 4.3% in 2022), and e-books accounted for 7.8% of the division’s total revenue, stable compared to 2022. 

The UK’s success was mirrored in France, which also posted 6.1% revenue growth, outperforming the market. However revenue in the United States fell by 6.8% in a declining market. “The decline was due in particular to Grand Central Publishing, which had benefited from exceptional sales of Colleen Hoover’s Verity in 2022, and to Little, Brown Adult, which had been buoyed by the success of Run, Rose, Run, a novel co-written by Dolly Parton and James Patterson,” the report said.  

Commenting on the results for Hachette UK, c.e.o. David Shelley said: “Last year was a fantastic year across our business and we achieved HUK’s highest ever TCM market share in the year, of 13.6%; we also grew our e-book sales and strengthened our position as the number one e-book publisher in the UK market.  

“These record results were supported by good performance across the whole of Hachette UK, especially in the case of Little, Brown and Bookouture. It was also a very good year for Hodder & Stoughton and Headline, supported by the excellent results from our newest acquisition, Welbeck. I am immensely proud of Hodder Education’s excellent performance in a challenging education market. Our industry-leading distribution business continues to excel; it was another brilliant year with multiple new publisher clients and exceptional operational performance.” 

Shelley continued: “Our commitment to publishing books, gifts and games for the widest possible audience was evident in the depth and variety of our publishing and, alongside book bestsellers, we saw exceptional sales for the Laurence King gift and games list with ‘The World of’ puzzles continuing to dominate, as well as another record year for Paperblanks, the second largest premium stationery publisher in the world after Moleskine.” 

He also highlighted the organisation’s commitment to “cultural growth and driving change with our Changing the Story initiative”. He said: “The ongoing growth of our National Offices perfectly demonstrates our commitment to regional diversity in our workforce. In 2023, our staff population outside London grew to 120 across our hubs in Bristol, Newcastle, Manchester, Edinburgh and Sheffield, where we are actively driving recruitment in our new office that accommodates up to 100 people.” 

He also highlighted the launch of the publisher’s Accessibility Policy and Neurodiversity Policy and winning a FutureBook award for the Changing the Story Freelancer Trainee Programme.