Oxford University Press has reported a slight decline in revenue and net profit for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2018, compared to fiscal 2017.
Turnover was £840.1 million, a decline of 0.9% from fiscal 2017. OUP's annual profit was £88.2 million, down from £93.2 million a year ago. The company attributed some of the profit decline to significant investments made in the year. The dip in sales was due to "subdued results" from its education businesses; this offset solid growth in its academic operations.
According to OUP, the solid performance from its academic division was the result of growth in its journals business and a record number of translation deals. It also benefited from the 2017 acquisition of U.S.-based higher education publisher Sinauer, which added a range of biology, neuroscience, and psychology titles to its portfolio.
Problems in the educational publishing division stemmed from fewer curriculum reform opportunities in a number of major markets and the absence of some one-off business opportunities enjoyed in 2016/17.
Reflecting on the past year, Nigel Portwood, CEO of OUP, said in a statement: "I am very pleased that despite market difficulty we were able to achieve such a good underlying result. We were also able to continue to increase our investment in technology and market expansion, in line with the opportunities that we see."
