How Prince Harry's Spare has given Penguin a huge boost

The best-selling memoir 'Spare' by Prince Harry has been a key driver of sales for book publishing giant Random House, it has emerged. The company, a part of the Penguin Random House group, saw its turnover surge by 13.2 per cent to £262.3m in 2023, also boosted by the popular Board of Lunch series featuring air fryer and slow cooker recipes.

However, pre-tax profit at Random House dipped from £38.9m to £29.2m in the year, largely due to the absence of a £13.9m profit from the sale of fixed assets that occurred in 2022. The publisher paid out a dividend of £75m during the year, a decrease from the £120m distributed in 2022.

As per the latest accounts filed with Companies House, the bookseller's UK turnover leapt from £119.9m to £170.8m, while in Asia it increased from £10.8m to £13.7m. Sales in Africa rose from £1.9m to £3.1m, and in Oceania they grew from £18.9m to £32.3m.

In South America, they climbed from £106,535 to £244,325. However, turnover in Europe dropped from £44.7m to £35.9m and plummeted from £35m to £6m in the USA.

In separate accounts, Penguin Books reported a revenue of £230.9m for the same financial year, down from £240.7m. Nevertheless, its pre-tax profit rose from £38.8m to £51m over the same period, as reported by City AM.

High-profile authors underperforming impacted Penguin's book sales. In the UK, Penguin's turnover increased from £123.9m to £137m, and in South America, it jumped from £164,000 to £341,000.

Penguin Books has reported a downturn in turnover across multiple regions, with Europe seeing a drop from £42.6m to £34.9m, Africa from £2.6m to £1.9m, Asia from £17.1m to £12.2m, North America from £34.8m to £29m, and Oceania from £19.2m to £15.2m.

The publishing giant attributed its reduced turnover to "certain brand author sales not performing as well" compared to the previous year and the lack of a blockbuster akin to Michelle Obama's 'The Light We Carry'.