Some Encouraging Signs at Haights Cross

Solid gains in its educational publishing group led to a 3.8% sales increase, to $39.6 million, at Haights Cross Communications for the first quarter ended March 31. EBITDA rose 2.8%, to $9.9 million, with increased sales and marketing costs, including new in-house sales reps, somewhat offsetting the earnings provided by revenue gains.

Sales growth in the educational publishing group rose 7.2%, to $20.1 million, led by a 13.9% increase, to $7.9 million, at Triumph Learning. A new reading series helped increase sales 4.5%, to $8.3 million, at Sundance/Newbridge. Sales at Oakstone were flat at $3.9 million (Haights announced last month that it was looking for a buyer for Oakstone). Haights executive v-p and chief financial officer Paul Crecca said Haights's "respectable" sales growth in the quarter is an indicator that "overall education spending, after a long period of softness, has begun to improve."

In Haights's library group, sales rose 0.5%, to $19.4 million. Chelsea House continued to be a weak spot, with sales dropping 20.4%, to $2.8 million. Reduced library spending on traditional materials was cited as the reason for the decline. Last month, Bob Laronga, president of Sundance/Newbridge, took over as president of Chelsea (News, April 26), and Chelsea's accounting and payroll functions have now been merged into Sundance's. Haights's Recorded Books division had a good quarter with sales up 5.1%, to $16.6 million. A new music series and foreign language program sold well, pushing up sales to schools. The audio retail market also showed signs of improvement, the company said.