LONDON (Alliance News) - Illustrated books publisher The Quarto Group Inc on Friday said its pretax profit more than doubled in 2014 despite lower revenue as the group boosted its margins through cost-cutting and an exceptional charge taken last year was not repeated.
Quarto said its pretax profit for 2014 was USD12.2 million, compared to USD5.8 million last year when the company was hit by a USD3.4 million exceptional restructuring charge. The profit was also pushed higher by lower administrative expenses and lower cost of sales, which slightly outpaced a fall in revenue.
Revenue was down to USD172.6 million from USD176.3 million, hit by issues in the US caused by a large wholesaler going out of business and by its performance in New Zealand resulting from delays to the merger of two of its businesses. It was also hit by a fall in revenue from its Hong Kong business, down to USD13.3 million from USD21.2 million due to fewer order being placed by two major customers.
Despite the revenue fall overall, the company did report a 17% increase in children's publishing revenue, while foreign rights revenue increased 10%.
Quarto said it has proposed a final dividend of 4.95 pence, giving it a total dividend of 8.3 pence for the year, up 5% year-on-year.
"We have made good progress in 2014 continuing the changes made in 2013 and we have delivered further debt reduction and earnings growth. This was achieved against some challenging circumstances in certain markets and channels, particularly in the first half of the year. However, Quarto remains a robust and cash generative enterprise," said Chairman Tim Chadwick.
Quarto shares were up 4.9% to 173.00 pence on Friday.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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