About:
Egmont is one of Scandinavia’s leading media companies, covering magazines, books, films, cineplexes, TV, comic books, textbooks, online communities, games, and game consoles.
Egmont’s publishing houses, with activities in more than 30 countries, include leading brands both in Scandinavia and internationally, such as Lindhardt og Ringhof, Carlsen, and Alinea.
The Egmont Foundation, Egmont's mother company, is a charitable organization concerned with vulnerable children and young people.
Egmont’s history goes back to 1878, when Egmont Harald Petersen was given the opportunity to acquire a hand press, with financial support from his mother. In 1911, Egmont Harald Petersen decided to build a large printing house and magazine company at Kongens Have in Copenhagen, in a building baptized as Gutenberghus. After World War II, Gutenberghus began to expand globally, first in German-speaking countries. By the 1980’s they were established in Great Britain.
At the end of the '80s, Egmont began to investigate the new opportunities offered by the Internet, and today the company is involved in a broad assortment of communities and e-commerce ventures in a string of countries.
Key company developments in 2011 & 1st half year 2012
Financial:
In 2011, Egmont reports its “best-ever performance” due to a pre-tax profit of 94 million EUR, up from 75 million EUR in 2010. The after-tax profit amounts to 74 million EUR against 50 million EUR in 2010. While profits have risen, turnover declined for 2,5% to 1.37 billion EUR in the following year. Both of the group's publishing divisions, Egmont Kids Media and Egmont Books, reported a fall in sales. While Egmont Kids Media improved its after-tax profit from 21 million EUR to 25 million EUR, Egmont Books closed 2011 without profit.
Ownership, mergers & acquisition, internal organization:
Radical changes for several subsidiaries of the publishing house Lindhardt & Ringhof caused a less-than-satisfying annual result. Denmark’s second-larger publisher went through a change in leadership, sold its book clubs, and closed the map company Legind. But with the driving force of the new head Lars Boesgaard, new business models will be established. Lindhardt & Ringhof has become the first Danish publishing house to launch most of their titles on Apple’s iBook store in Denmark, where previously there were only free classics from Project Gutenberg.
Egmont Books’s second branch comprises the publishing house Cappelen Damm, which is co-owned equally with Bonnier. In 2011, the educational materials and textbook publisher Høyskoleforlaget was acquired by Cappelen Damm in order to strengthen its market position in academic literature.
To develop Egmont Kinds Media in the Nordic region into an effective publishing house, the companies are integrated under a single management body. The same is true for the activities of its Central and Eastern European offices. Here, new partnerships provide access to the region's important brands.
International:
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Digital:
Electronic media generates 50% of Egmont’s total revenues. Egmont Kids Media invested in e-publications and learning platforms, transporting bestselling brands such as the Donald Duck magazine and Petzi into the digital world. This goes along with a new digital strategy.
At its core, Egmont’s online performance has been newly adapted to generate content for digital consumers. As of March 2012, the group administers eight online communities, which gather 42,000 fans who produced more than ten million contacts over one year. Carsten Schulte, who is responsible for online-marketing, explained that a project called “We bring stories to life” represents a change from e-commerce to content marketing.
A 45% increase in internet sales also contributes to this effort.
Bestselling authors & titles:
The Danish translation of S.J. Watson’s international bestselling thriller Before I Go To Sleep was released in spring 2012 through Lindhardt & Ringhof, part of the Egmont Books division.
Key points for analysis & conclusions:
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Earlier developments:
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Note: Figures are based on sales generated in calendar 2011 or—for corporations with a fiscal year—from fiscal 2011. Data are from publicly available sources and include sales of books, journals, and digital products. Because publishing data were unavailable, Pannini and Disney/Hyperion are excluded from the rankings. The listing and publisher profiles were compiled by international publishing consultant Rudiger Wischenbart under the aegis of Livres Hebdo.
