Harry Potter weaves his magic for Bloomsbury

Profits at Harry Potter publisher Bloomsbury rose 8 per cent to £13 million last year, driven by a surge in sales of JK Rowling's bestselling children's series.

JK Rowling's boy wizard conjured a rise in sales for Bloomsbury. Picture: Phil Wilkinson

Revenues for the year to the end of February grew 11 per cent to £123.7m as a special illustrated edition of Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone gave the firm a major boost. The group’s children’s division saw sales increase by 57 per cent to £41.8m as a result.

Chief executive Nigel Newton said: “Bloomsbury has had a very good year with strong revenue and book sales growth, including a significant increase in digital sales.”

Digital revenues grew by 24 per cent year-on-year to £5.3m, which the company said is more than treble the industry growth rate.

However, turnover at its adult publishing division dipped from £36m to £32.7m as the firm announced the “Bloomsbury 2020 strategy”, which aims to increase revenues from digital academic material. The total dividend rises 5 per cent to 6.4p.