No Profits Expected for Bloomsbury USA This Year

By Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 9/18/2007 6:43:00 AM

Sales in Bloomsbury’s U.S. operations fell 14.9% to £5.8 million ($12 million), in the first six months of 2007, and the division is not expected to be profitable for the full year, parent company Bloomsbury reported this morning. The company attributed the decline to difficult market conditions, conservative buying from the bookstore chains and higher than expected returns. After a review of its U.S. cost base, Bloomsbury said it is reducing its staff levels through attrition, but added that it may revisit staffing if sales do not improve. Bloomsbury was hopeful, however, that business will pick up in the second half, citing Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations and Jacques Cousteau’s The Human, the Orchid and the Octopus as possible strong sellers. The company further added that it expects sales to improve in 2008 in the U.S. when titles from the new Bloomsbury Press imprint start to be released.

Results were much brighter in Bloomsbury’s other operations, and total revenue for the U.K.-based company rose 36%, to £51.4 million, although profits slipped to £2.5 million from £3.0 million. Although Bloomsbury did not release Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in the U.K. until July, the megaseller still influenced results in the period. The company recorded English-language export sales of the book in the period, which helped boost revenue, while higher marketing costs and other expenses associated with Hallows hurt earnings. Bloomsbury noted that first-day sales of Hallows in the U.K. topped 2.6 million, while 398,271 copies were sold in Germany on the first day of sale, 930,711 copies were sold in Canada and 573,845 in Australia.