FTD is a publishing company that specializes in educational material. They are based in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and were founded in 1902 to support schools run by the Maristas Brothers. The name derives from the initials of Frère Théophane Durand, a former director of the Maristas Brothers.

The company is one of many businesses run by the Marist Province of South-Central Brazil (PMBCS), which covers the states of Goiás, São Paulo, Mato Grosso do Sul, Paraná and Santa Catarina, also including the Distrito Federal. Several buildings make up the structure of FTD: the main office, publishing house, printing plant, nine branches, fourteen distributors, and nineteen service houses.

FTD publishes a wide range of textbooks and learning materials, from preschool to technical training at middle school level (under FTDtec) to training courses for illiterate adults. FTD also publishes atlases, dictionaries, and works of literature, and operates the learning system FTD Sistema de Ensino.

Analysis & Key Developments

Financial

FTD Editora reported a strong nominal growth in revenues in 2016 compared with the previous year. Net revenues reached 598 million BRL, a 14.5% growth over 2015. The EBITDA declined by 2.44% to 43.24 million BRL in 2016 from 44.32 million BRL in the previous year.

Federal government purchases in 2016, under the Textbook National Program (PNLD) for 2017, generated 226 million BRL in revenues from the sale of 27.5 million copies.

Digital

FTD has a 50-person team involved in the department of innovation and new media. The publisher has produced over 4,000 digital works so far, and the company is focused on presenting itself as a digital publisher. In 2016, there were no relevant digital developments for FTD. In April 2017, however, the company became the first major K12 publisher to participate in the Google for Education platform. According to CEO Antonio Rios, the company now is focusing to invest more in the partnership with Google, making its digital content available on Google’s platform, and less in a proprietary platform. He believes FTD “must not develop codes but act in education.”

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