Bookseller: OUP accounts 1990 (original) (raw)

OUP thriving in all areas

Digest of OUP's annual report and accounts in The Bookseller Company News, 19th October 1990

Oxford University Press reported sales of £133 million in the year ending 31st March 1990, a 13 per cent increase on the previous year. Pretax profit, depressed last year by losses in the printing division, improved from £9.4 million to £16 million.

During the year the printing division was closed and the old printing works refurbished to house an expanded English language teaching division and the mailing section. Further building work has enabled all the Press' operations to be located on the Walton Street site.

The Press reports that sales and numbers of books published reached record levels in almost all the areas in which it operates. In the UK an extension to the bulk store at Corby was completed. By year end 25 million books had been distributed from Corby and 27 million copies of 18,000 titles were in stock. OUP is the largest university press in the US and further growth during the year resulted in the relocation of its warehouse from New Jersey to North Carolina.

Newspaper reports have suggested that the second edition of the Oxford English Dictionary has turned in a loss of over £10 million. This, says OUP, is overstated. While it acknowledges that the publication has returned a deficit of several million pounds, the electronically published version may still bring in income over the coming years and more sets will be sold. The Press also comments: "This flagship project is so important to the English-speaking world that it is appropriate for the Press to subsidise it so extensively."

The arts and reference division reported sales up by 10 per cent despite a difficult year, with strong competition in trade dictionaries. The recent publication of the eighth edition of the Concise Oxford Dictionary will inject further activity into this sector, and the fourth edition of the Shorter OED is in preparation.

The outlook for the journals business is said to be excellent, and the electronic publishing division reported large sales growth. In the educational division a significant increase in the sales of UK schoolbooks was reported, despite the uncertainties of the National Curriculum. OUP is one of the largest ELT publishers and reported "remarkable growth" in this division, particularly in its main markets in Western Europe and Japan. Growth was also experienced in the Middle East, Turkey and Latin America, and the division is targeting growth opportunities in the Third World, outside the areas where it normally operates but where "international agencies are increasing their sponsorship of eduction (sic)"

Click to proceed to the Bookseller OUP accounts digest, 1992.

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