Sales at Waterstones Booksellers Ireland rose 4 per cent to €13.8 million in the year to April 27th, 2024, after a rise in footfall in its stores.
The company, which operates Hodges Figgis in Dublin as well as outlets in Cork city and Drogheda, Co Louth, said it had seen “encouraging growth” in its Irish stores, which enjoyed the benefits of higher tourist numbers and more workers returning to the office after the pandemic.
It said both reading and physical bookshops had increased their popularity, “supported notably by social media and positive press coverage”. The company “continues to invest” in both its workforce and its shops “to improve the standards of bookselling”, it said.
Waterstones Booksellers Ireland, which is part of the wider Waterstones group, recorded a marginal reduction in its operating profit, however, as costs rose during the period.
The company’s operating profit slipped to €2.87 million, down from €2.94 million in the previous 12 months. Its net profit increased to €3.3 million, up from €2.95 million.
Waterstones employed an average of 76 people throughout the period, up from 67 the year before.
It listed the competitive nature of the bookselling market, “with particular emphasis on the ecommerce strength of Amazon” among the principal risks to its business.
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These also included the “general sensitivity” of consumer confidence and spending in an economic downturn, the “ongoing risk” that Brexit and political changes cause disruption and cost within the supply chain, and the seasonality of the book business, which relies on its performance in the run up to Christmas for “a high percentage of annual profitability”.
Bestselling books in the Irish market in the period covered by the accounts would have included Prophet Song, Paul Lynch’s Booker Prize-winning novel about a family’s struggle to survive in a totalitarian Ireland, crime novel Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent, Booker-shortlisted saga The Bee Sting by Paul Murray, and Colleen Hoover’s romance novel It Ends with Us.
The wider Waterstones group is led by British businessman James Daunt, the founder of Daunt Books. Its parent company is Book Retail Bidco Limited, which is owned by US-based hedge fund managers Elliott.
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