Bloomsbury wary despite Potter help

Publisher Bloomsbury today said it remained cautious about current trading, despite a “resurgence of excitement” in the Harry Potter books.

The group described the UK consumer economy as the toughest it has been for decades and said the uncertainty over the future ownership of Waterstone’s had led the retail chain to ration orders in recent months.

It has been helped by growing e-book sales but with the bankruptcy of Borders in the US adding to pressure on the industry it warned that trade revenues were still soft.

The company added: “Difficult prevailing conditions mean we remain cautious about current trading.”

Bloomsbury pointed out that the website launch by JK Rowling of Pottermore.com contributed to a pick up in demand for the Harry Potter books just before the release of 'Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2'.

It said: “This has resulted in good stock orders coming from all retailers giving a boost to our children’s backlist sales.”

The company will also receive a share of the revenues from the sale of e-books from Pottermore.com, which is expected to commence later this year.

The update on trading came as Bloomsbury announced the acquisition of Continuum, an academic publisher specialising in theology and philosophy, for £20.1m.

Continuum, which is based in London and New York, has an academic list which dates back over 170 years and includes the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks.

The business achieved turnover of £10.7m in the year to June and is expected to produce an annual cost saving of £1m once combined with Bloomsbury.

Around 60% of Continuum’s sales are outside the UK, while Bloomsbury said it intended to convert more of the company’s 7,000 strong backlist to e-book formats.