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Unaudited Preliminary Results for the year ended 28 February 2013

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc today announces results for the year ended 28 February 2013.

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Financial highlights

The highlights for the year ended 28 February 2013 include:

  • Continuing* profit before tax and highlighted** items up 3% to £12.5 million (2012: £12.1 million)
  • Continuing* profit before tax up 16% to £9.8 million (2012: £8.5 million)
  • Continuing* turnover up 1% to £98.5 million (2012: £97.4 million)
  • Total dividend increased by 5.8% to 5.50 pence per share (2012: 5.20 pence per share)
  • Net cash increased to £14.6 million (2012: £12.6 million)

Operating highlights

  • Academic & Professional business fulfilling promise
    • Successful development of academic list integrated with trade
    • Voted Academic, Educational and Professional Publisher of the Year at the Bookseller Industry Awards
    • Bloomsbury Academic & Professional voted Publisher of the Year by the Independent Publishers Guild
    • Now generates 29% of continuing Group sales (2012: 24%)
    • Acquisitions of Fairchild Books and Applied Visual Arts Publishing
  • Digital sales continuing to flourish
    • Huge e-book growth with sales increasing by 61% to £9.1 million (2012: £5.7 million)
    • Innovative online knowledge hubs including The Churchill Archive and Drama Online
  • Bestsellers across the Group
    • Strong performance from portfolio of high quality cookery books, including Paul Hollywood's How to Bake and Bread, Russell Norman's Polpo, and significant sales from established authors including Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Heston Blumenthal, Raymond Blanc and many more
    • In the Children's and Educational division, highlights included Hogwart's Library by JK Rowling, Princess Academy: Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale, Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas and Steve Jobs by Karen Blumenthal
  • Major potential bestsellers for 2013 in Adult Division
    • And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
    • The Signature of All Thingsby Elizabeth Gilbert
    • The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon
    • MasterChef: the finalists
    • The Wit and Wisdom of Boris Johnson by Harry Mount

Commenting on the results, Nigel Newton, Chief Executive, said:

"This is an excellent performance.

Bloomsbury's core attributes of entrepreneurship, innovation, publicity flair and tight control of costs have led to the delivery of One Global Bloomsbury, and the future performance we have now set the stage for as we enjoy the synergies and sales advantages of having delivered a unified worldwide publishing group. In our strategy for growth we are targeting 50% of profit to be digital within five years, with Bloomsbury being the number one applied visual arts and independent humanities and social science publisher in Europe. Over that time we aim to be the number one publisher of choice in cookery, sport and natural history, with an Information division which has a global base delivering increasing revenues from digital knowledge hubs.

We start the year with a very strong programme led by today's publication of And the Mountains Echoed by bestselling author Khaled Hosseini"

* Continuing turnover and profit excludes Bloomsbury's former German subsidiary, Bloomsbury Verlag GmbH, which was sold on 28 February 2012, and which was treated as discontinued in the 2012 financial statements.

** Highlighted items comprises amortisation of intangible assets, professional fees on acquisitions, relocation of headquarters, restructuring costs, business set up costs and a gain on bargain purchase price.

 

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Chief Executive's Statement

Overview

The Group delivered an excellent performance for the year with growth in both turnover and profits. Continuing profit before tax and highlighted items** for the year of £12.5 million was up 3% on the year ended 29 February 2012 of £12.1 million. Continuing profit before tax was £9.8 million, up 16% on the year ended 29 February 2012 of £8.5 million. Continuing revenue was up 1% to £98.5 million (2011/12: £97.4 million). 

Bloomsbury has succeeded in developing itself into a wholly integrated trade and academic publisher in the major markets around the world.  We are now recognised as one of the finest publishers of both general and of academic books.  This is an early delivery of our strategic vision for One Global Bloomsbury, integrating our operations in trade and academic publishing in Britain, America, Australia and India.  In May, we were voted Academic, Educational and Professional Publisher of the Year at the Bookseller Industry Awards.  In March, the Independent Publishers Guild voted Bloomsbury's Academic & Professional division Independent Publisher of the Year.  Both are notable achievements less than five years after we launched our academic division.  We beat even the university presses, established hundreds of years ago, to these awards this year.  The power of the Bloomsbury brand resonates and crosses over from our trade bestsellers to attract academic authors as the whole brand becomes stronger than the sum of its parts due to successful brand initiatives like our public engagement programme The Bloomsbury Institute.  The judges singled out the power of our brand.

During the year, our trade authors have also been singled out for exceptional recognition, with extra sales being driven as a result of short-listings for major prizes including the Man Booker Prize and winning the Orange Prize. In 2012 we made the title acquisitions which will underpin what should be a very strong 2013/14 in the Adult division as we publish a wide range of bestsellers from Paul Hollywood's Bread (which reached number 1 in The Times Bestseller List) to Khaled Hosseini's stunning And The Mountains Echoed which is published today following his bestseller The Kite Runner, to Elizabeth Gilbert's masterpiece The Signature of All Things and Samantha Shannon's remarkable first novel The Bone Season, both published in October.  Our Adult division's strength  in cookery publishing, which saw us win Waterstone's Book of The Year in December with Polpo, will increase in 2013 with the first publication in the new partnership with MasterChef.

We are doing this from a tightly controlled cost base with an intense drive for savings.  During the year our print purchasing was put out to tender: buying as a Group for the first time since our numerous acquisitions, we have reduced our print expense having secured favourable volume-based deals from fewer suppliers. We have been cutting other costs in the business, with underlying administration costs being down by 1% year on year.  This includes a tight control of Head Office expenditure - where our rent is only £28 per square foot.  A further cost reduction plan has been implemented for 2013.

We are industry leaders in our digital strategy with a wide range of digital initiatives producing good returns.  Our knowledge hub programme has made huge progress. We successfully launched the Churchill Archive in October 2012 and Drama Online in February 2013 both to praise and good early sales. The Churchill Archive was described by the judges of the Independent Publishers Guild's digital publishing award as 'a dynamite digital product' to which Bloomsbury 'has added stacks of value to the material'.  The Churchill Centre has acquired access to the Churchill Archive from Bloomsbury for every secondary school in the USA, UK and Canada in a ground breaking initiative.

We made two academic acquisitions in the year, Fairchild Books and Applied Visual Arts Publishing.  In the year ended 28 February 2013 our non-trade divisions accounted for 61% of the Group's operating profit before highlighted items and 33% of the revenue. We now have 20 publishing specialisations in our stable and are market leaders in subjects from the Classics and Drama to Fashion Studies, Theology and Continental Philosophy. The Independent Publishers Guild judges said, when giving Bloomsbury its award: "Judges singled out the division for the breadth of its academic and professional publishing and its clear vision for what it wishes to achieve. Even allowing for the resources at its disposal, they recognized a Group with a true entrepreneurial and independent spirit…It has used its money wisely and made everything work exceptionally well." The Booksellers Award judges said "Success has been due to organic growth and innovative business models - and it has completely redefined Bloomsbury as a publisher".

These acquisitions join the 18 other acquisitions made in recent years by Bloomsbury. They have enabled the Group to change the shape of its business, to exploit the potential in portfolios which adapt readily to the emerging digital-based business model and balance the transformation of its traditional trade business with the annuity income more possible in its new business structure.  

Excluding acquisitions and the Harry Potter series (which had a strong previous year following the release of the final film in August 2011) title sales in the underlying business were up year on year. This performance was, importantly, achieved without dependence on any single runaway bestseller. This is a sign of strength in the Group as our portfolio broadens. Total title sales included digitally-distributed sales of £10.0 million, which saw excellent growth year on year of 71% from £5.9 million in 2011/12. Within this e-book sales continue to grow strongly, increasing by 61% to £9.1 million and now representing  9% of total Group turnover (2011/12: 6%) and 13% of the Adult trade turnover (2011/12: 9%). Increasing the number of available e-book titles is a key part of our strategy and we now have 9,000 titles, 1,000 more than a year ago.

Richard Mollet, Chief Executive of The Publishers Association, said: "The Publishers Association's Statistics Yearbook 2012 shows that British publishing is a healthy industry which continues to grow.  The continued increase in digital sales across different disciplines illustrates the shift of readers to e-book reading.  Such growth has been achieved as British publishers have been able to invest in new exciting, innovative products and in great authors thanks to the strong framework provided by copyright law, which continues to be the cornerstone of stability for a creative industry like publishing".

Bloomsbury's core attributes of entrepreneurship, innovation, publicity flair and tight control of costs have led to the delivery of One Global Bloomsbury, and the future performance we have now set the stage for as we enjoy the synergies and sales advantages of having delivered a unified worldwide publishing group. In our strategy for growth we are targeting 50% of profit to be digital within five years, with Bloomsbury being the number one applied visual arts and independent humanities and social science publisher in Europe. Over that time we aim to be the number one publisher of choice in cookery, sport and natural history, with an Information division which has a global base delivering increasing revenues from digital knowledge hubs.

Financial results

Group financial results are summarised in the table below.

Continuing results Unaudited
Year ended
28.2.13
£m
Audited
Year ended
29.2.12
£m
Increase
year on year

%
Profit before tax and highlighted items 12.5 12.1 3%
Profit before tax 9.8 8.5 16%
Revenue 98.5 97.4 1%

 

Continuing revenue has increased by 1% to £98.5 million. The majority of our revenue derives from title sales, which were up by 3% year on year to £87.0 million. The mix within title sales is increasingly moving towards digital and away from print. Print sales fell by £1.9 million, 2%, to £77.0 million, but digital sales rose by £4.2 million, 71%, to £10.0 million, leading to a total title sales increase of £2.2 million. Rights and services revenue, which is primarily from copyright licensing, had another good performance with revenues of £11.5 million, £1.1 million down on the exceptional result in 2011/12 but significantly ahead of 2010/11.

Underlying revenue, which excludes the result of the two businesses we acquired during the year, Fairchild Books and Applied Visual Arts Publishing, was down by £4.9million, 5% to £92.5 million, principally due to lower sales of Harry Potter titles in the absence of a new film. This was more than mitigated by the £6.0 million contribution to turnover from our new acquisitions in the year.

The continuing operating profit margin before highlighted items increased to 12.6%. In 2012/13 production, marketing and distribution costs were all a smaller percentage of sales than in 2011/12.

The launch of our Indian publishing business in New Delhi in August was a success. Its performance was better than anticipated, with a loss of £0.2 million, as a result of sales exceeding expectations including our first number one bestseller in India and rigorous cost control.

The academic acquisitions, the set-up of our business in India and other strategic initiatives have resulted in £0.3 million of costs which, together with intangible amortisation, are highlighted separately in the financial statements.

The continuing effective rate of tax for the year was 20.6% compared to 16.2% for the year ended 29 February 2012. The prior year rate was reduced by the offset of substantial overseas losses in 2011/12 relating to Bloomsbury Verlag.

Continuing diluted earnings per share, excluding highlighted items, were 13.11 pence, down from 13.27 pence in 2011/12 largely as a result of the tax credit from overseas losses in that year. Total continuing diluted earnings per share for the year were 10.46 pence, up from 9.54 pence in 2011/12.

The Group's net cash balance increased to £14.6 million at 28 February 2013 from £12.6 million at 29 February 2012. This movement includes £1.7 million outflow for acquisition investment and the receipt of £2.2 million for the disposal of Bloomsbury Verlag.

 

Divisional Review

Academic & Professional - fulfilling promise
Bloomsbury took a strategic decision in 2008 to build an academic and professional business that was not reliant on the UK retail sector.  The commercial aim of the new division is to build a sustainable business that matches the combined turnover of our Trade divisions. 
The division has built up a significant holding in humanities and social sciences publishing, with a vibrant and growing tax and law business.  Its acquisitions include Methuen Drama, Berg Publishers, Tottel Publishing, Arden Shakespeare, Bristol Classical Press, Continuum International, Fairchild Books and Applied Visual Arts Publishing. 

The combination of excellent title sales in the key UK and US markets, two further acquisitions and some longer-term licensing deals have meant that 2012/13 was a good year for the division, despite very strong 2011/12 comparatives.
 
The Academic & Professional division generated 29% of Group continuing revenue this year (2011/12: 24%) and 42% of the Group continuing operating profit before highlighted items (2011/12: 34%). Export revenues now account for 10% of divisional turnover, with a significant and growing proportion of revenues from e-books and digital, annuity-based services. The division's results are summarised below:

  Unaudited
Year ended
28.2.13
£m
Audited
Year ended
29.2.12
£m
Change
Year on year

£m
% change
Year on year
Continuing operating profit before highlighted items 5.2 4.1 1.1 26%
Underlying operating profit before highlighted items 3.2 4.1 (0.9) (22%)
Continuing revenue 29.0 23.1 5.9 26%
Underlying revenue* 23.1 23.1 - -
Underlying title revenue* 20.8 19.0 1.8 9%

* Underlying revenue excludes the revenue from businesses acquired during the 2012/13 financial year

Bloomsbury continued its strategy of acquiring high quality assets in areas complementary to its existing academic and professional lists, with the purchase of two applied visual arts lists: Fairchild Books in March 2012 for £3.8 million and Applied Visual Arts Publishing in June 2012 for £1.8 million. Combined with Bloomsbury's existing visual arts lists and academic list Berg, this makes us the leading global publisher in this field. These acquisitions contributed £6.0 million of turnover and £2.0 million of incremental operating profit before highlighted items in the year ended 28 February 2013.

Excluding these acquisitions, there was excellent underlying growth in title sales which increased by 9%, £1.8 million, to £20.8 million. Rights and services revenue reduced by £1.8 million to £2.3 million following a very strong year in 2011/12, causing the £0.9 million reduction in underlying operating profit before highlighted items.
New title output now exceeds 1,000 titles per year, with an increasing focus on digital publishing.  We expect digital revenues to increase as we rapidly expand our portfolio of subscription services.

In October 2012 Bloomsbury published the Churchill Archive online, in conjunction with the Sir Winston Churchill Archive Trust.  The work comprises almost one million pages, in digital format for university libraries, public libraries and schools to access on demand. The content of the archive has been made available to a global audience who will be able to study one of the largest and most important collections of primary source material of any individual leader in history. All secondary schools in the UK, USA and Canada will be granted access to the entire digital Churchill Archive thanks to funding from the Churchill Centre.

In February 2013 Bloomsbury launched Drama Online, an online resource for plays, critical analysis and performance.  Featuring the pre-eminent drama lists from Methuen Drama, Arden Shakespeare and Faber and Faber, Drama Online will offer a complete digital library of the most studied, performed and critically acclaimed plays from the last 2,500 years.

Bloomsbury Professionalnow has a number of online services including: UK Tax Online, Irish Company Law Online, Irish Property Law Online, Irish Tax Online and Financial Reporting Online. The Financial Reporting service is now used by a majority of the large accounting firms in the UK as the service of choice. Our pricing model is very attractive to users and the packages are well focused on customer needs. In October 2012, Bloomsbury Professional launched Tax Planner Interactive, which delivers online solutions rather than pure content to the end user.

The pipeline for academic and professional digital services is strong. Launches in 2013 will include a National Infrastructure Planning Service, a Business Advice and Compliance Service and Actors & Performers Online. Launches in 2014 will include Fashion Photography Online and Bloomsbury Collections Online.

Adult - Digital sales flourish
The Adult division generated 45% of Group continuing turnover this year (2011/12: 46%). Continuing turnover was £44.3 million (2011/12: £45.1million). Continuing operating profit before highlighted items was £3.7 million, (2011/12 £4.8million). Continuing operating profit margin before highlighted items for the division was 8% which compares very favourably with an industry average of 5.8%.

Print sales decreased by 7% to £34.3 million, but digital sales in the division rose 32% year on year to £5.6 million, representing 13% of continuing sales (2011/12: 9%).

The highest penetration of e-book sales remains in the USA at 27% of net title sales, but UK e-book sales are accelerating and now at 11% of net title sales. Other territories are also growing rapidly. Rights & Services revenue rose by 16% to £4.4 million (2011/12: £3.8 million).

In line with our strategy we focused our efforts on acquiring and publishing titles with global English-language rights. In particular we have invested in the area of high-quality cookery books with the potential for global sales. Our two most successful new authors in the year were Paul Hollywood with two titles, How to Bake and Bread, and Russell Norman with his Waterstone's Book of the Year, Polpo. We also saw significant and growing sales from our established author chefs such as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Heston Blumenthal, Atol Kochhar, Fergus Henderson, Raymond Blanc, Nikki Segnit, David Chang, Vivek Singh, Philip Howard and many more.

Literary prizes are becoming an ever more important way for book buyers to identify what they want to read. Madeline Miller won the Orange Prize for Fiction with The Song of Achilles, a brilliant re-telling of Homer's Iliad. The International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award is one of the richest literary prizes in the world and was won for the second year running by a Bloomsbury author, this time Jon McGregor with Even the Dogs. Paula Wilfert won the James Beard Award with The Food of Morocco, Alistair Hignell with Higgy was Rugby Book of the Year, and we were delighted that Cuckoos of the World was voted Bird Book of the Year by Birdwatch magazine.

We have also focused on publishing in print and digital for special interest markets. Jonathan Kingdon's  six-volume Mammals of Africa is unique, comprehensive and authoritative. This was published alongside our established natural history list which continues its central role in ornithology, not least with the publication of Ralph Steadman's Extinct Boids.

Progressively we view the English-speaking market (and many non-native English territories) as a single market, particularly with internet and digital distribution channels. In this respect our two recent start-up businesses in Australia and India are vital to our functions of promoting our authors and developing sales and markets. India's first year has been good with bestsellers ranging from Manil Suri's The City of Devi, through William Dalrymple's The Return of a King to the first edition of the Wisden India Almanack edited by Suresh Menon.

Digital sales will continue to increase across the board with significant opportunities: geographical (India, Latin America, China), technological (colour, audio, interactivity etc) and reach (new e-tailers, social media, subscription, lending etc). The rate of growth in traditional e-book sales in USA is slowing but elsewhere there appears to be very significant opportunities for growth.

Children's & Educational - An innovative team builds for the future
Bloomsbury Children's & Educational division publishes quality books for children up to 16 years old to inspire a love of reading.

Turnover was £21.3 million (2011/12: £25.6 million). This reduction is largely due to a 22%, £5.1 million reduction year on year in print sales, which in turn is almost wholly due to lower sales of Harry Potter titles, with the release of the final film in that series in 2011 making the comparative for 2011/12 very strong.  E-book sales grew to 10% of net title sales, up from 5% in 2011/12, with the strongest performance in the US market, but steeper growth in the UK.  Closely managed costs and advance focus led to an improved gross profit margin of 53% compared to 49% in 2011/12.

The Educational division benefited from a community led marketing team focusing on direct selling and inherited titles from the Continuum acquisition, growing sales to £4.8m, up from £4.2m last year.

The children's trade division continues to acquire world rights to strengthen global publishing. With new publishing directors in both the UK and the US, the publishing strategy is to acquire market facing titles and to publish fewer books better, driving up profitability per title.

Digital innovation is a priority with interactive colour e-books and app marketing in development, along with an e-first imprint for the young adult market - Bloomsbury Spark. The Educational sub-division is developing its first online digital product - Music Express Online, which will launch in 2014.

Highlights from the 2012/13 year include Hogwart's Library by JK Rowling and Princess Academy: Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale, which entered the New York Times bestseller list. Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas has sold in 12 languages and Steve Jobs by Karen Blumenthal sold almost 100,000 copies in the year.  We also launched both the Bloomsbury Activity Books imprint and a new picture book list at Frankfurt Book Fair.  Nicholas Lake won the prestigious Printz Award from the American Library Association for In Darkness and is also shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal along with The Weight of Water, a debut novel by Sarah Crossan.

Bloomsbury Information - Knowledge hubs
The core activities of Bloomsbury Information are the development of IP-rich knowledge hubs in cooperation with external partners, the provision of management and publishing services and publishing business, management, finance and reference titles.

The division generated 4% of Group continuing revenue this year (2011/12: 4%) and 19% of Group continuing operating profit before highlighted items (2011/12: 7%). Continuing revenue was £3.8 million, up 5% on £3.6 million for 2011/12. Continuing operating profit before highlighted items was £2.3 million, up £1.5 million compared to £0.9 million in 2011/12. Rights and services revenue of £3.4 million made up 90% of total continuing revenue.

Successes in the year include the continuing growth of www.QFinance.com, the digital knowledge hub for finance professionals created by Bloomsbury which now attracts over 300,000 unique visitors per month. Development of the IZA World of Labor, our knowledge hub targeted at policy makers in the field of labour economics which covers topics such as migration and minimum wage, is progressing well with launch scheduled for later this year.

The division continues to grow and is well placed to exploit digital, management services and other innovative business opportunities for the Group.

  
Dividend
The Directors are recommending a final dividend of 4.56 pence per share, which subject to shareholder approval at our Annual General Meeting on 23 July 2013, will be paid on 24 September 2013 to shareholders on the register at the close of business on 30 August 2013. Together with the interim dividend, this makes a total dividend for the year ended 28 February 2013 of 5.50p per share, a 5.8% increase on the 5.20p dividend for the year ended 29 February 2012. We have a progressive dividend policy which over the past six years has increased our dividend at a compound annual growth rate of 7%.

Bloomsbury's strategy delivers
Bloomsbury is a global fully integrated publisher of books and other media for general readers, children, students, researchers and professionals throughout the world. Bloomsbury uniquely offers authors access to these multiple markets in multiple formats throughout the world: in print, through e-books, through digital downloads and apps; in schools, in libraries, in universities, and in terrestrial and Internet bookshops, with entrepreneurial teams in New York, London, New Delhi and Sydney serving all territories.

The bringing together of general and scholarly publishing has already resulted in significant cost savings, better marketing reach, a balanced portfolio both editorially and financially, and excellent results. Bloomsbury's strategy over the next five years is to balance trade and non-trade publishing in the business to further enhance these benefits.

The Academic & Professional division aim is to be the number one applied visual arts publisher in the world, and within five years to be the number one independent humanities and social science publisher in Europe, with half of turnover coming from digital and subscription-based products.

The Adult division aims to be the number one publisher of choice in cookery, sport and natural history and in the top ten for quality fiction worldwide within five years.

Our overall strategy for Bloomsbury Children's & Educational books is to be recognised for great author care, independent spirit and innovation. Over the next five years we will develop Bloomsbury Activity books to be a leading profit generating list for the division, with half of the trade frontlist being illustrated books and 25% of all publishing being in a digital format. 

The Bloomsbury Information division strategy is to increase revenues from digital knowledge hubs and broaden the base for services and partnerships. Over the next few years we intend to expand from the division's UK base and develop a global reach for Bloomsbury Information.

Outlook

Bloomsbury has an exceptional publishing programme for 2013/14. This includes And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini, The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert, The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon and the first book from our new MasterChef venture with Shine TV.

There are exciting opportunities for growth in many areas, including; digital sales (e-books, knowledge hubs and academic and professional online services), publishing services sales and global title sales - particularly in India, Latin America and China. We also have many internal operational improvements ongoing across the Group which will improve business efficiency, including a Group wide shift to content-led (XML-based) workflows to expedite the print and digital production process.

The publishing industry is going through changing times full of opportunity. With online and digital technology the book market is increasingly global, facilitating trade across Bloomsbury's international business. Global English language speakers and literacy generally are ever increasing. Our content has become more widely available through the increasing number of e-reading devices and the ease of acquiring e-books means that each consumer buys more titles than before.  Fewer books are being sold through high street shops as e-book sales are continuing to grow. However, there will be a place for the physical book for many more years albeit mainly sold online. 

Bloomsbury has been successfully steering a path through this shifting business model. The opportunities for selling our content and the different formats for our content are proliferating. Whereas content was historically only sold as an individual physical title, now we can sell content 24/7 as an e-book, bundle online rights for sale or create innovative knowledge hubs where access rights can be sold direct to the consumer. It is this innovation, together with our valuable intellectual property and respected Bloomsbury brand that form the core of Bloomsbury's strategy for growth. 

 

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UNAUDITED CONSOLIDATED INCOME STATEMENT
for the year ended 28 February 2013

    Year ended Year ended
    28 February 29 February
    2013 2012
Continuing operations Notes £'000 £'000
Revenue 2 98,479 97,399
Cost of sales   (41,242) (42,201)
Gross profit   57,237 55,198
Marketing and distribution costs   (12,733) (14,157)
Administrative expenses   (34,748) (32,629)
Operating profit before highlighted items   12,414 12,057
Highlighted items 8 (2,658) (3,645)
Operating profit   9,756 8,412
Finance income   117 160
Finance costs   (26) (108)
Profit before taxation and highlighted items   12,505 12,109
Highlighted items 8 (2,658) (3,645)
Profit before taxation   9,847 8,464
Taxation 3 (2,029) (1,367)
Profit for the year from continuing operations   7,818 7,097
       
Discontinued operation      
Loss for the year from discontinued operation 7 (352) (3,724)
Profit for the year attributable to owners of the Company   7,466 3,373
       
Earnings per share attributable to owners of the Company - continuing operations      
Basic earnings per share 5 10.81p 9.80p
Diluted earnings per share 5 10.46p 9.54p

 

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UNAUDITED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF
COMPREHENSIVE INCOME
for the year ended 28 February 2013

  Year ended Year ended
  28 February 29 February
  2013 2012
  £'000 £'000
Profit for the year 7,466 3,373
Other comprehensive income:    
Currency translation differences on foreign operations 1,428 365
Reclassification of translation reserve on disposal of foreign operation - (985)
Deferred tax on share-based payments (20) 11
Other comprehensive income for the year net of tax 1,408 (609)
Total comprehensive income for the year attributable to the owners of the Company 8,874 2,764
 
Arises from:    
Continuing operations 9,226 7,473
Discontinued operation (352) (4,709)
Total comprehensive income for the year attributable to the owners of the Company 8,874 2,764

 

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UNAUDITED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION
as at 28 February 2013

    28 February 29 February
    2013 2012
  Notes £'000 £'000
Assets      
Goodwill   35,134 34,610
Other intangible assets   20,111 18,153
Property, plant and equipment   3,006 3,020
Deferred tax assets   1,943 2,336
Total non-current assets   60,194 58,119
       
Inventories   25,584 20,184
Trade and other receivables 9 53,630 55,431
Cash and cash equivalents   14,625 12,639
Total current assets   93,839 88,254
Total assets   154,033 146,373
       
Liabilities      
Retirement benefit obligations   128 157
Deferred tax liabilities   3,306 3,737
Other payables   2,548 341
Provisions   377 507
Total non-current liabilities   6,359 4,742
       
Trade and other payables   31,579 32,101
Current tax liabilities   1,230 193
Provisions   57 157
Total current liabilities   32,866 32,451
Total liabilities   39,225 37,193
Net assets   114,808 109,180
       
Equity        
Share capital   924 924
Share premium   39,388 39,388
Translation reserve   5,044 3,616
Other reserves   2,314 1,318
Retained earnings   67,138 63,934
Total equity attributable to owners of the Company   114,808 109,180

 

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UNAUDITED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CHANGES
IN EQUITY ATTRIBUTABLE TO OWNERS OF THE PARENT

  Share capital Share premium Translation reserve Capital redemption reserve Share-based payment reserve Own shares held by EBT Retained earnings Total equity
  £'000 £'000  £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000
At 1 March 2011 924 39,388 4,236 22 3,197 - 64,077 111,844
Profit for the year - - - - - - 3,373 3,373
Other comprehensive income                
Exchange differences on translating foreign operations - - 365 - - - - 365
Deferred tax on share-based payment transactions - - - - - - 11 11
Recycling of cumulative currency translation reserve on disposal - - (985) - - - - (985)
Total comprehensive income for the year - - (620) - - - 3,384 2,764
Transactions with owners                
Reclassification* - - - - - (134) 134 -
Share buy back - - - - - (2,008) - (2,008)
Dividends to equity holders of the Company - - - - - - (3,661) (3,661)
Share-based payment transactions - - - - 255 - - 255
Share options cancelled - - - - (14) - - (14)
Total transactions with owners of the Company - - - - 241 (2,142) (3,527) (5,428)
At 29 February 2012 924 39,388 3,616 22 3,438 (2,142) 63,934 109,180
Profit for the year - - - - - - 7,466 7,466
Other comprehensive income                
Exchange differences on translating foreign operations - - 1,428 - - - - 1,428
Deferred tax on share-based payment transactions - - - - - - (20) (20)
Total comprehensive income for the year - - 1,428 - - - 7,446 8,874
Transactions with owners                
Dividends to equity holders of the Company - - - - - - (3,793) (3,793)
Share options exercised - - - - - 449 (449) -
Share-based payment transactions - - - - 547 - - 547
Total transactions with owners of the Company - - - - 547 449 (4,242) (3,246)
At 28 February 2013 924 39,388 5,044 22 3,985 (1,693) 67,138 114,808
                   

 

 

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UNAUDITED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS
for the year ended 28 February 2013

  Year ended Year ended
  28 February 29 February
  2013 2012
  £'000 £'000
Cash flows from operating activities    
Continuing operations    
Profit before tax 9,847 8,464
Finance income (117) (160)
Finance costs 26 108
Operating profit 9,756 8,412
Adjustments for:    
Depreciation of property, plant and equipment 546 411
Amortisation of intangible assets 2,321 1,599
Gain on bargain purchase (210) -
Loss on sale of property, plant and equipment - 11
Share-based payment charges 615 255
  13,028 10,688
Increase in inventories (1,536) (342)
Decrease/(increase) in trade and other receivables 883 (5,690)
(Decrease)/increase in trade and other payables (3,935) 1,860
Cash generated from continuing operations 8,440 6,516
Discontinued operation - (404)
Cash generated from operating activities 8,440 6,112
Income taxes paid (552) (1,116)
Net cash generated from operating activities 7,888 4,996
Cash flows from investing activities    
Purchase of property, plant and equipment (526) (2,553)
Proceeds from sale of property, plant and equipment - 6
Purchase of businesses, net of cash acquired (1,686) (19,654)
Purchases of intangible assets (2,366) (1,595)
Sale of discontinued operations 2,158 (10)
Interest received 41 213
Net cash used in investing activities (2,379) (23,593)
Cash flows from financing activities    
Purchase of shares by the Employee Benefit Trust - (2,008)
Equity dividends paid (3,793) (3,661)
Interest paid (1) (49)
Net cash used in financing activities (3,794) (5,718)
Net increase/(decrease) in cash and cash equivalents 1,715 (24,315)
Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of year 12,639 36,876
Exchange gain on cash and cash equivalents 271 78
Cash and cash equivalents at end of year 14,625 12,639

 

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NOTES

Notes to the Financial Statements are available in the printable PDF version

 

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