Prince Harry’s best-selling memoir Spare drives sales at book publishing giant

The success of Prince Harry’s best-selling memoir Spare helped drive sales at book publishing giant Random House, it has been revealed.

The business, which is part of the Penguin Random House group, saw its turnover jump by 13.2 per cent to £262.3m in 2023, helped also by the Board of Lunch series which focuses on air fryer and slow cooker recipes.

However, Random House’s pre-tax profit fell from £38.9m to £29.2m in the year mainly because a profit made on the sale of fixed assets of £13.9m in 2022 was not repeated in 2023.

Random House issued a dividend of £75m during the year, down from the £120m it paid out in 2022.

According to the newly-filed accounts with Companies House, the book seller’s UK turnover jumped from £119.9m to £170.8m in the yearend from £10.8m to £13.7m in Asia.

In Africa, its sales went from £1.9m to £3.1m and in Oceania they grew from £18.9m to £32.3m. In South America they increased from £106,535 to £244,325.

However, in Europe, its turnover fell from £44.7m to £35.9m and were slashed from £35m to £6m in the USA.

In separately-filed accounts, Penguin Books reported a revenue of £230.9m for the same financial year, down from £240.7m.

However, its pre-tax profit increased from £38.8m to £51m over the same period.

‘Under performing’ high profile authors hit Penguin’s book sales

In the UK, Penguin’s turnover rose from £123.9m to £137m and they grow from £164,000 to £341,000 in South America.

However in Europe, its turnover fell from £42.6m to £34.9m and they were cut from £2.6m to £1.9m in Africa, from £17.1m to £12.2m in Asia, from £34.8m to £29m in North America and from £19.2m to £15.2m in Oceania.

Penguin Books said its lower turnover was partly driven by “certain brand author sales not performing as well” as they did in 2022 as well as the absence of a title similar to Michelle Obama’s The Light We Carry.