Bonnier

Company Information & Key Figures

About

Starting in 1804 as a small bookstore and publishing firm, the Bonnier Group is now an international media company with its base in the Nordic region and with operations in 14 countries worldwide. The Bonnier Group is wholly owned by the Bonnier family, which has been running the company for seven generations, present in broadcasting, books, newspapers, business and trade press, magazines, film and digital media.

Bonnier Books’ Nordic Publishing houses include Bonnierförlagen (with publishers such as Albert Bonniers Förlag, Forum and Bonnier Carlsen), Cappelen Damm (co-owned with Egmont), and Bonnier Books Finland (with publishers Tammi and WSOY).

Bonnier Media Deutschland comprises of the group’s German publishing houses, such as Ullstein Buchverlage, Piper Verlag, Carlsen Verlag, MVG and Thienemann-Esslinger among others.

Bonnier Books UK, previously Bonnier Publishing UK, gathers the group’s publishing houses and imprints in the UK, among them Bonnier Zaffre, Igloo Books, Templar Publishing and Blink Publishing.

Bonnier Books is also present in Poland through publishers Marginesy and Jaguar.

Additionally, Bonnier Books comprises the book retail chain Pocket Shop, the Finnish book chain the Academic Bookstore (Akateeminen Kirjakauppa) as well as digital book subscription service BookBeat.

Analysis & Key Developments

Financial

• In 2018, Bonnier changed its reporting for books, and clarified publishing revenue for the purpose of this ranking. Turnover continued to increase, while revenue was flat against 2015, after a significant increase in 2016
• The rapid growth of 2016, however, had resulted in a ‚profitability problems‘ in the British arm, Bonnier Zaffre, which affected, according to company statements, which led to a major shift in the UK management team. (BS 26.02.2018)
• Bonnier AB closed fiscal 2016 with a declining performance. “Bonnier’s 2016 was not a year that will go down in history”, as Tomas Franzén (CEO Bonnier) noted. The company’s overall net sales decreased from 25,906mSEK to 25,492mSEK. The year-end results for 2016 were mainly affected by losses for subscription-video-on-demand service C More, Finnish TV network MTV and gaming company Evoke Gaming, where turnaround efforts continue. (AR 2016)

Internal organization

• During 2017 Bonnier Books former CEO, Jacob Dalborg, left the company. Håkan Rudels, the CEO of the Swedish publishing group Bonnierförlagen took on the position as CEO of Bonnier Books as well.
• In February 2018 Richards Johnson, CEO of Bonnier Publishing, was replaced by Jim Zetterlund. (BS 26.02.2018)
• In Juli of 2018, former chief executive Mark Smith also left the company.

Acquisitions and growth initiatives in publishing

With the CEO change at Bonnier Books in the fall 2017, the group has carried out a more publishing-focused strategy. Re-grouping the business around its core business and its core market (Northern Europe and the UK). In the coming years, Bonnier Books aim is to strengthen the position as a modern, powerful European book publishing group.

As a result, the Adlibris Group, part of Bonnier Books until January 1^st, 2018, became a separate Business Area reporting directly to Bonnier AB, and the logistics companies in Sweden and Finland were sold.

On the publishing side, the large publishing groups in Sweden (Bonnierförlagen) and in Germany (Bonnier Media Deutschland) both had strong performances in 2017, primarily driven by competitive lists and an accelerated digital growth.

In Germany, the acquisition of Münchner Verlagsgruppe (MVG), a fast-paced, agile and trend-driven publisher, further strengthened the group’s position on the German market.

Bonnierförlagen in Sweden continues to retain its leading position in the Swedish market. The publishing group had a very strong 2017, with growth in both digital formats (primarily audiobooks) as well as in physical book sales.

Norwegian publisher Cappelen Damm’s publishing operations had a stable year 2017 and Bonnier Books Finland showed positive development in terms of both sales and profitability.

In 2017, Bonnier Books acquired Jaguar in Poland.

Bonnier Publishing UK was rebranded as Bonnier Books UK during 2018, in order to align the company more closely with parent group Bonnier Books. The rebranding includes a new logo, brand identity and website.

Digital

During the year 2017, several new initiatives were launched, among them digital-first publisher Bonnier Bookery, with a list tailored to attract the digital book consumer.

The digital book subscription service BookBeat is growing strongly and now has more than 100.000 users.

In 2017, Bookery, Bonnier’s digital-first in-house publishing imprint released its first program, and KIT, a Swedish social publisher, launched an online publishing tool, Story Engine.

In November 2017, Bonnier closed its self-publishing service Type & Tell only eight months after launching.

In 2016 Bonnier passed 100mSEK in sales of digital books. Therefore the turnover of this production segment rose by 60%. The publishing house now offers a catalog including 6.677 digital items of which 96% were sold or loaned during 2016. Furthermore, 17% of the company’s total publishing revenue was created by digital products. During 2017, Bonnier plans to make available additional, approximately 1,000 digital titles. (PR 06.12.2016) Besides the company launched its content marketing initiative Selmastories, which offers costumers advice, investigations, news, podcasts and videos connected to Bonnier- förlagen’s authors and books. Moreover, digital publisher Bonnier Bookery launched in April 2017 which publishes about 20-25 fiction and non-fiction titles a year. (AR 2016, company information)