Acquisitions help boost Lagardère Publishing sales

Hachette parent company Lagardère Publishing’s revenue grew 5.8% in 2022 to €2.75 billion (A$4.2b), though earnings fell 14% to €302 million (A$467m), reports Publishers Weekly.

The revenue growth was attributed to acquisitions, including a full year of sales from Workman Publishing, acquired by Hachette Book Group (HBG) in September 2021. Excluding one-time charges, sales were down 1.9%. In Lagardère’s other publishing areas, sales were up 3.4% in the UK and 7.2% in Spain and Latin America, while revenue fell 5.8% in France.

HGB CEO Michael Pietsch said sales were up due to the Workman purchase and were down slightly on 2021 excluding the Workman results, while profits fell because of ‘sharply rising manufacturing and freight costs’.

Top selling titles for HGB included Verity by Colleen Hoover, Run, Rose, Run by Dolly Parton and James Patterson, and Andrzej Sapkowski’s the Witcher series. The audio and distribution businesses had strong sales, and sales of both backlist titles and hardcovers were also up.

Category: International news