Lagardere reported
first quarter sales, with the publishing unit rising overall on renewed
strength in France and the weakness of the Euro, which works in their favor on
US and UK book sales even as HBG USA and Hachette UK had weak quarters. That
left unit sales of 421 euros up 7.1 percent on a reported basis, but down 2.2
percent on an underlying basis -- taking out 29 million euros of currency gains
on the weak euro, and another 8 million euros from last year's acquisitions of
Quercus, Constable & Robinson and Black Dog & Leventhal.
Sales at HBG USA fell -12.3 percent -- in dollars, before any currency effects -- the third straight quarterly decline (sales were down 8.4 percent in Q4 and 18.5 percent in Q3). The company blamed in part "a downturn in sales of e-books," due to strong ebook sales a year ago and "the gradual disappearance of e-book discounts" late in the quarter as the division returned to agency. eBooks comprised 28 percent of sales in the quarter, versus 34 percent in the same quarter a year ago. Lagardere Publishing ceo Arnaud Nourry said in the investor conference call that after moving back to agency "we did decide to lower [ebook consumer] prices to some extent, not massively...by about 10 percent versus the list price of our ebooks." But he said "it is too early to draw some conclusions from these changes."
Sales at Hachette UK (which benefits the most from last year's acquisitions) still declined as well, down 4 percent. They blamed "a dip in sales of e-books, related to the lower number of best-sellers, and an unfavorable VAT effect" given the change that took away the "Luxembourg loophole" for UK ebook buyers. Nourry did admit on the call that this is a change publishers had wanted, however, saying "it's great news" and something "we've been fighting for months."
Aside from currency exchange, it was the big French division that helped sales the most, gaining 10.1 percent on "a very strong start of the year."
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