The year 2017 was characterized by contrasts: on the one hand, a strong and wide-ranging publishing list and enormous digital growth, on the other hand big challenges and weak profits for our physical bookstores and some of our publishers.
Yet at the same time the year posed challenges, it was a pleasure to see that our largest publishing houses, particularly in Germany and Sweden, have been highly profitable. Profitability driven by a relevant and modern publishing list combined with skilled book launches.
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BookBeat, which markets its service in multiple ways including this bus advertisement for Camilla Läckberg’s Häxan, grew during 2017. The digital book service launched in two new markets, including the U.K. and Germany.
We are active in industries undergoing rapid change, and within book publishing we are involved in and drive this change. But our physical retail businesses, like many others, were hit hard by changing consumer behavior that is affecting all retail.
When I became business area head for Bonnier Books in late fall, we set a clear, more publishing-focused strategy. In the coming years, we will be a smaller but more profitable business area, with the aim to strengthen our position as a modern, powerful European book publishing group.
I am really pleased with German book publishing group Bonnier Media Deutschland’s successful year, with publishing activities that continued to go extremely well. There were 25 titles that sold more than 100,000 copies during the year. In December, 25 of the titles on Amazon’s top 100 in Germany were from one of our publishers. In addition, the acquisition of Münchner Verlagsgruppe (MVG), a fast-paced, agile and trend-driven publisher, exceeded expectations and further strengthened our business and our position in the important and large German book market.
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Fidget Spinner from riva, an imprint of MVG in Germany, was made in only 10 days: three days for author and editor, printer four days, both sales department and distributor three days. MVG has been first on the market, nine days before the fastest competitor and selling 38,000 copies.
Bonnierförlagen continued to retain its leading position in the Swedish market, where 81 of the 120 best-selling books of the year came from one of our publishers. The publishing group had an excellent year, not just due to the continued positive growth in digital audiobooks, but physical book sales increased as well. Digital formats accounted for 22 percent of total revenues. The books of 2017 Nobel Prize for Literature winner, Kazuo Ishiguro, are published by us in Sweden as well as in Finland and Norway. New initiatives were launched, for example digital-only publisher Bonnier Bookery, with a list chosen to attract the digital book consumer.
Our digital subscription service BookBeat grew strongly and now has 63,000 users.
In our other publishing businesses, Norwegian Cappelen Damm had a stable year. Bonnier Books Finland showed positive development in terms of sales but with continued weak gross margins. In Poland, we have a small but profitable business with a strategy to strengthen our position there. Bonnier Publishing in the U.K. has grown rapidly in recent years, but we experienced growth pains and profitability problems. There is a clear action plan to deal with this and to build a strong book publishing group for the future in the U.K.
As mentioned previously, there are major challenges in physical retailing where our bookstores Pocket Shop in Sweden, Finland, the U.K. and Germany, Akateeminen in Finland and Cappelen Damm’s bookstore Tanum in Norway wrestled with extremely difficult retail markets.
The Adlibris Group continued to perform well in book sales, and sales in other categories increased sharply. Unfortunately, the year was also characterized by logistics problems in December, which had a severe toll on results. In December, Bonnier AB’s Board of Directors decided to make Adlibris a separate business area.
Håkan Rudels, Business Area Head
| SEK M | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net Sales | 8,098 | 7,690 | 6,969 |
| EBITA | 105 | 427 | 422 |
Australia
Finland
France
Germany
Poland
Norway
Sweden
U.K.
U.S.
Adlibris Group*
Akateeminen Kirjakauppa (Academic Bookstore)
Bonnier Books Finland
Bonnier Books Nova
Bonnier Books Polska
Bonnier Media Deutschland
Bonnier Publishing
Bonnierförlagen
BookBeat
Cappelen Damm (50 percent)
Pocket Shop
*Adlibris Group was broken off into Bonnier’s newly formed E-Commerce Business Area at the beginning of 2018.
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