Profits read well at Bloomsbury

Bloomsbury proved there is life after Harry Potter yesterday as revenues and profits both jumped, with cookery books by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Heston Blumenthal selling strongly.

Its chief executive Nigel Newton hailed a "transformative" year as he claimed Bloomsbury is "a uniquely balanced business", after expanding into more stable areas such as academic information.

Turnover rose 11.5 per cent to £103.2m in the year to February, with e-book sales up two and a half times at £5.7m. Mr Newton said it is not just new titles that are selling well as e-books: "It's a bit like when CDs first came out as we're seeing a lot of repurchasing by people for their collections."

He highlighted Suzanne Joinson's A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar as a potential top-seller.

Bloomsbury has net cash of £12.6m and Mr Newton indicated he may make more acquisitions after the expansion of cricket brand Wisden and the digitisation of Sir Winston Churchill's archives.

Its pre-tax profits rose to £8.5m against £5.1m.

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