Activities in 2010

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2010 OVERVIEW

After the huge publishing success in 2008 of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series, followed by the record year in 2009 when it exploded into a global phenomenon, in 2010 Hachette Livre registered the second-best operating profit in its history.

The sustained activity of its Literature, Illustrated and Educational segments in France, and of its subsidiaries in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia, have ensured that Hachette Livre stood up well to the contraction of most of its markets and the inevitable decline in global sales of the Twilight series (11 million copies in 2010 versus 45 million in 2009).

The year 2010 also saw the American Internet giants, Google and Apple, follow Amazon onto the market for downloadable digital books, placing Hachette Livre in a good position to negotiate a favorable business model.

KEY EVENTS IN 2010

A string of successes in France

In 2010, Hachette Livre in France did remarkably well in cushioning the decline in sales of the Twilight series, thanks to the strong performance of almost all its segments.

Literature experienced a great year with a harvest of literary prizes and numerous best-sellers, while Le Livre de Poche is once again the leading publisher of French paperbacks.

Illustrated books also held up well amidst the ebb in the Stephenie Meyer phenomenon. Hachette Jeunesse and Hachette Disney recorded the best results in their history in 2010. As for Chêne and Marabout, they both performed better than in 2009.

Larousse successfully continued its repositioning on the Practical and Youth segments without losing its leadership in Dictionaries.

The Education segment and the Hatier group grew on the French market, where the situation returned to normal in October after the late announcement of new highschool programmes in the beginning of the year.

The Industrial and Business segment launched its ondemand printing operations in June and welcomed the arrival of a new retail-distribution partner, Editions Milan, in December.

A soft landing in the United States

The year 2010 presented a considerable challenge to the Hachette Book Group due to the comparison with 2009, a record-breaking year (sales of 30 million copies in the Twilight series during the year), and even with 2008, the year when the Stephenie Meyer phenomenon took off. In this context, the publisher managed to contain the fall in its sales to reasonable levels, including by putting no less than 150 titles on the New York Times list of bestsellers, including 30 titles in first place.

There was also spectacular growth in 2010 in the Digital area, which rose from 3% to 10% of the sales of the Hachette Book Group over the course of the year.

A good showing in the United Kingdom

2010 was a very good year for Hachette UK, with 154 titles on the Sunday Times list of best-sellers, including 33 titles at number one.

Hachette UK also signed a contract with John Grisham for two novels for young people, and in 2011 it will publish Carte blanche, the new James Bond written by Jeffery Deaver. Little, Brown and Virago received awards from the Association of English booksellers.

Australia has largely offset the decline in sales of Twilight, and the growth of Hachette India has continued apace.

Hachette UK continued its forced march into the digital revolution, investing large sums in infrastructure, information systems and the training of its teams.

The impact of austerity in Spain, the fruits of growth in Latin America

The year was difficult in Spain because of a decline of around 6% in the market compared with 2009, with textbooks hit particularly hard. Several regions even cancelled orders as a result of fiscal austerity measures imposed by the central government.
Mexico and Argentina posted gains of around 8.6%, while Hachette Livre pulled out of Brazil by selling its shares to its partner, but without giving up on the idea of returning to this market when conditions are more favorable.

Russian success for Partworks

The year 2010 had ample room for Partworks, despite the sensitivity of this particular segment to fluctuations in purchasing power. While the Italian, Spanish and Japanese markets experienced a downturn, the Partworks segment enjoyed a successful year in Russia.