Nicolas Cheetham, CEO and Publisher, today announced the Company's results for the year ending December 2020, and outlined a new business model designed to double the Company’s market share over the next four years.
The unaudited accounts for 2020 report Net Sales of £8.4m and Profit Before Tax of £400,000.
“This result is well ahead of the management forecast we made in March 2020 when the pandemic took hold, despite a significant subsequent provision for Bertram’s demise”, said Nicolas Cheetham. "We postponed a number of key titles from H2 to the spring of 2021 and saw a reduction in the volume of paperbacks sold. But this was balanced by an increase in eBook sales, which accounted for 38% of our 2020 turnover, and a significant increase in audiobook sales.”
“The autumn saw the successful launch of Ad Astra, our new Science Fiction and Fantasy imprint, and brought news that Liu Cixin’s trilogy THE THREE-BODY PROBLEM is to be a Netflix series helmed by David Benioff and DB Weiss, the showrunners of A GAME OF THRONES. The announcement made an immediate impact on sales of the Liu Cixin backlist which exceeded 700,000 copies by the year’s end.”
“The growth of our narrative non fiction list in history and politics also made a significant contribution. Our leading titles included Marina Amaral’s THE WORLD AFLAME, Paul Lay’s PROVIDENCE LOST, Peter Geohagan’s DEMOCRACY FOR SALE and THE CREW by David Price.”
“In Ireland we recorded two number one bestsellers with THE ART OF THE GLIMPSE edited by Sinead Gleeson and THE ARMS CRISIS OF 1970 by Michael Heney. Our presence in the USA was established by the success of the five volumes in Terry Goodkind’s fantasy series THE CHILDREN OF D’HARA.”
"The most important work we did in 2020 was to plot our course for 2021 and beyond. July 2021 will mark our 10th anniversary. We've served our apprenticeship, and the company is prepared for the next stage of the journey."
The Company's headline forecast for 2021 is sales of £10.8m with a PBT of £1m. Projections for 2022-2024 show double digit growth to net sales of £16m.
From January 2021 all new titles, along with a backlist portfolio of some 2000 titles, will be published by one of the Company's seven subsidiary imprints. Each of these will be managed and monitored as a self standing business specialising in a different sector of the market, and tasked with achieving double digit annual growth targets.
- APOLLO Non Fiction: History & World Affairs
- APOLLO Fiction: World Fiction
- AD ASTRA: Science Fiction & Fantasy
- ARIA: Saga & Romance
- ARIES: Action & Adventure
- SPHINX: Crime & Detection
- ZEPHYR: Children's Books
Anthony Cheetham, Chairman, said 'We're a small company. We compete for market share in an industry that isn't growing. Our strategy is to create unique content, make beautiful books, and focus our efforts on what we do best."
