Our strategy

Non-Consumer
Publishing; BDR

Grow Bloomsbury’s portfolio in Non‑Consumer publishing.

Non-Consumer publishing is characterised by higher, more predictable margins, is less reliant on retailers and presents greater digital and global opportunities. Non-Consumer revenues are derived from our Academic & Professional, Educational and Special Interest publishing.

Achieved 2022/2023:

• 19% growth in Non-Consumer revenue.

New BDR target is to achieve further 40% organic revenue growth over the five years to 2027/2028, to reach approximately £37 million turnover

Achieved 2022/2023:

• 41% revenue growth, of which 18% was organic.

Consumer
publishing

Discover, nurture, champion and retain high-quality authors and illustrators, while looking at new ways to leverage existing title rights.

Achieved 2022/2023:

• Delivered 12% growth in Consumer Division revenue. Bestsellers included A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon, Stolen Focus by Johann Hari, Bake by Paul Hollywood, Tom Kerridge’s Real Life Recipes and Trespasses by Louise Kennedy.

Grow our key authors through effective publishing across all formats alongside strategic sales and marketing.

Achieved 2022/2023:

• 51% growth in revenue from sales of Sarah J. Maas titles and seven new titles contracted.

As the originating publisher of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, ensure that new children discover and read it for pleasure every year.

Achieved 2022/2023:

• Harry Potter title sales remain strong, 26 years after first publication. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was the 3rd bestselling children’s book of the year on UK Nielsen Bookscan.

International expansion
 

Expand international revenues

Continue our international growth and take advantage of the biggest academic market in the USA.

Achieved 2022/2023:

• Increased overseas revenues to 73% of Group revenue; US revenues increased to 48% of Group revenue.

Employee experience and engagement;
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion ("DE&I")

Be an attractive employer for all individuals seeking a career in publishing, regardless of background or identity, adding cultural value to our business operations and performance.

Focus on targeted initiatives to create an environment that promotes diversity, nurtures talent, stimulates creativity and collaboration, supports wellbeing and is inclusive and respectful of difference.

Implement Bloomsbury’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Action Plan (“DEIAP”).

Our success is driven by the expertise, passion and commitment of our employees. We understand the importance of attracting, supporting and engaging colleagues wherever they work. We recognise the value of diversity of thought, perspectives and experience in shaping our culture and strategy, driving our long-term success and informing the ways in which we fulfil our social purpose.

Achieved 2022/2023:

• All employees received a one-off cost-of-living payment of £1,250 in February 2023, in addition to a permanent salary increase of £1,000 per annum from 1 October 2022, to help with the cost of living (tailored for our Indian office to reflect local economic conditions and salaries).
• Shortlisted for the IPG Diversity and Inclusivity Award and the LBF Inclusivity in Publishing Award for the second year running.
• Shortlisted for the Small Cap Diversity & Inclusion award.
• Our DEIAP set targets for Black and minority ethnic groups to represent 20% of new UK recruits, and 35% of new US recruits, by 2024. In 2022/2023, Black and minority ethnic groups represented 31% of overall applications and 20% of offers made in the UK and 40% of overall applications and 59% of offers made in the US. 15% of UK employees are from minority ethnic groups (2021/2022: 13%). 26% of US employees are from minority ethnic groups (2021/2022: 20%).
• Projects launched to collect diversity data from authors and employees, for the purpose of enabling Bloomsbury to monitor the effectiveness of its DE&I initiatives and better understand the demographics of these groups.
• 13 Staff Networks and Employee Resource Groups established across our offices.
• Official partner of The Runnymede Trust’s Lit in Colour initiative, supporting the increase in students’ access to books by writers of colour and those from minority ethnic backgrounds, drawing on our world-leading drama list from Methuen Drama.
• Ran a series of ‘In Conversation’ author interviews for over 700 schools, with live interviews with our authors Tanika Gupta, Benjamin Zephaniah and Khaled Hosseini.
• Founding signatory of the Publishers Association’s Inclusivity Action Plan, to promote equality, diversity and inclusion within the industry’s workforce.

Sustainability
 

Maximise our use of sustainable resources while seeking to reduce carbon emissions in line with our science-based targets.

We recognise our responsibility to conserve the Earth’s resources and we are committed to monitoring and improving the environmental impact of our operations.

Achieved 2022/2023:

• Awarded the IPG Sustainability Award and winner of the inaugural London Book Fair Sustainability Initiative Award.
• Reduction of 80% in Scope 1 and 2 emissions from base year of 2019/2020.
• Removed plastic shrink wrap from all Harry Potter paperback boxsets. Piloted the removal of dust jackets and plastic finishes and introduced changes to backlist printing to reduce carbon emissions.
• Completed the CDP Climate Change questionnaire, receiving the second highest score of B, demonstrating our coordinated response to climate change.
• Completed our quantitative analysis of select climate-related risks and progressed our TCFD reporting in line with the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (“TCFD”).