History Press returns to profitability following management buyout

The History Press has returned to profitability following a management buyout of the publisher.

Managing director Gareth Swain, publishing director Laura Perehinec and sales director Jamie Kinnear lead the new ownership deal in March 2017 and the Stroud-based press' first set of annual results since then have shown that operating profit for the year to the end of December 2017 was £207,000, up from a loss of £48,000 in 2016. This was acheived after the buyout enabled the publisher to reorganise its debt structure and replace venture capital investment, Swain said. As a result, the company's earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) was £7.7m, up from a loss of £1.6m in 2016.

However, revenue for the year was down 14% to £3.451m, which Swain attributed to the publisher selling off its Pitkin list to Pavilion Books in March last year.

The reorganisation of The History Press' debt structure was a "great achievement" which provided a "sound financial base" from which it could focus on its publishing ambitions, Swain said. "All three of us in the management buyout are pleased with our progress so far. We have been able to stabilise the business financially and capitalise on the publishing projects we inherited."

He added that the team was optimistic about the future. "Understanding and engagement with History appears to be increasingly important against a backdrop of political uncertainty.  The History Press intends to play its part in the debate and we are looking forward to injecting some of our own personalities into the forward publishing programme", he said.

The buyout saw Swain, Perehinec and Kinnear purchase the business for an undisclosed sum from Octopus Investments, which had owned it for 10 years.

In 2017, The History Press enjoyed a "huge hit" with Shrabani Basu’s history of Victoria and Abdul which was released as a Hollywood film. The publisher has had further success in 2018 with Siobhan Ferguson’s Pretty City London, Arthur Parkinson’s Pottery Gardener and Derek Taylor’s Fayke Newes. It is also sponsor of Gloucester History Festival and the Women’s History Network community history prize.