Commenting on the results, Nigel Newton, Bloomsbury Founder and Chief Executive, says: “Bloomsbury achieved its highest ever results with sales up 24% to £230.1 million and profits up 40% to £26.7 million. Sales were up 41% and profits up 70% from two years ago. Both the Consumer and Non-Consumer divisions gave outstanding and resilient performances, highlighting Bloomsbury’s unique strength in combining general and academic publishing.

The question on all of our minds was: would the pandemic surge in reading continue? We now know the answer: reading has become a reacquired habit and continues to thrive. The pandemic made us all re-evaluate how we spend our time and this has resulted in an increase in sales of books that enable us to explore our hobbies and personal interests such as cooking, fitness, history and reading novels for enlightenment and escape. Our Academic sales have benefitted from the structural shift to online learning. Our success continues to this date with good sales for Bloomsbury’s first quarter. The surge in reading, which seemed to be one of the only rays of light in the darkest days of the pandemic is perhaps now being revealed as permanent, with the simple act of reading shedding light and giving joy to millions of people.

The Consumer division revenue grew by 25%, continuing the momentum of last year, and achieved a 25% increase in profit before tax and highlighted items¹ to £17.8 million. The Non-Consumer division saw 23% revenue growth and a 68% increase in profit before tax and highlighted items¹ to £9.1 million. Consumer revenue was 53% higher and Non-Consumer revenue 24% higher than two years ago. Bloomsbury Digital Resources (“BDR”) outperformed the target set six years ago of £15 million of sales and £5 million of profit, with sales of £18.6 million, up 50% on last year, and profit of £6.8 million, up £3.9 million on last year. Following this success, we have set ambitious new growth targets for BDR.

Supporting our strong organic growth, we made three acquisitions during the year of ABC-CLIO LLC, the Red Globe Press list and Head of Zeus Limited.

In recognition of our strong performance and in line with our progressive dividend policy, the Board proposes a 24% increase in our final dividend to 9.40 pence per share.

Trading for 2022/23 has started in line with the Board’s expectations. Bloomsbury plans to invest robustly in continued organic growth and further acquisitions based on our strong financial position and proven strategy.”

Financial Highlights

Operational Highlights

Consumer Division

• Consumer revenue growth of 25% to £148.2 million (2020/21: £118.3 million)
• Consumer profit before taxation and highlighted items¹ increased by 25% to £17.8 million (2020/21: £14.2 million)
• Organic revenue growth was 18% and organic profit growth was 24%
• Adult Trade revenue up 26% to £55.2 million (2020/21: £43.7 million) and profit before taxation and highlighted items¹ of £2.0 million (2020/21: £3.9 million)
• Children’s Trade revenue growth of 25% to £93.0 million (2020/21: £74.6 million) and profit before taxation and highlighted items¹ up 52% to £15.8 million (2020/21: £10.4 million)
• Sales growth of Sarah J. Maas’ titles of 86%; Harry Potter sales still growing by 5% as the 25^th anniversary approaches
• Acquisition of Head of Zeus Ltd (“HoZ”) in June 2021, providing a strong addition to the Consumer division. HoZ contributed £9.0 million revenue and £0.1 million profit before taxation and highlighted items¹ to Adult Trade in the nine months since acquisition

Non-Consumer Division 

• Non-Consumer revenue growth of 23% to £81.9 million (2020/21: £66.8 million)
• Non-Consumer profit before taxation and highlighted items¹ increased by 68% to £9.1 million (2020/21: £5.4 million)
• Organic revenue growth was 10% and organic profit growth was 40%
• Academic & Professional revenue growth of 34% to £59.3 million (2020/21: £44.3 million) and profit before taxation and highlighted items¹ up 111% to £9.1 million (2020/21: £4.3 million)
• Bloomsbury Digital Resources (“BDR”) revenue growth of 50% to £18.6 million (2020/21: £12.4 million) and profit of £6.8 million (2020/21: £2.9 million)
• BDR performance beat the target, set six years ago, of £15 million of revenue and £5 million of profit by the end of 2021/22
• Acquisition of ABC-CLIO, LLC (“ABC-CLIO”) in December 2021 for £16.7 million, further strengthening BDR and significantly accelerating Bloomsbury’s academic publishing in North America, growing international revenues
• Acquisition of the assets of Red Globe Press (“RGP”) completed in June 2021 for £3.2 million, accelerating our digital growth and our significant presence in humanities and social sciences academic publishing
• RGP contributed £6.2 million revenue and £1.0 million profit before taxation and highlighted items¹ and ABC-CLIO, contributed £2.2 million revenue and £0.6 million profit before taxation and highlighted items¹ to Academic & Professional

Notes

¹ Highlighted items comprise amortisation of acquired intangible assets and legal and other professional costs relating to ongoing and completed acquisitions and restructuring costs. (2020/21 also included a grant under the US Government Paycheck Protection Program.)

² Organic revenue for 2021/22 is defined as total revenue of £230.1m less revenue attributable to the acquisitions of HoZ, RGP and ABC-CLIO in the year. Organic profit for 2021/22 is defined as total profit before taxation and highlighted items of £26.7 million less profit attributable to the acquisitions of HoZ, RGP and ABC-CLIO in the year.

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Certain statements, statistics and projections in this announcement are or may be forward looking. By their nature, forward‑looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties or assumptions that may or may not occur and actual results or events may differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Accordingly, no assurance can be given that any particular expectation will be met and reliance should not be placed on any forward-looking statement. Accordingly, forward-looking statements contained in this announcement regarding past trends or activities should not be taken as representation that such trends or activities will continue in the future. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which are based on the knowledge and information available only at the date of this announcement’s preparation.

The Company does not undertake any obligation to update or keep current the information contained in this announcement, including any forward‑looking statements, or to correct any inaccuracies which may become apparent and any opinions expressed in it are subject to change without notice. References in this announcement to other reports or materials, such as a website address, have been provided to direct the reader to other sources of information on Bloomsbury Publishing Plc which may be of interest. Neither the content of Bloomsbury’s website nor any website accessible by hyperlinks from Bloomsbury’s website nor any additional materials contained or accessible thereon, are incorporated in, or form part of, this announcement.