Harry Potter publisher to give all staff bonuses amid bumper profits

Harry Potter publisher Bloomsbury will hand out a bonus worth 6% of salary to all its employees as it unveiled record annual sales and profits.

The group will make the payout – the maximum available under its bonus scheme – to all its 1,000 staff worldwide, 700 of whom are in the UK.

It comes after the group said pre-tax profits jumped 28% to £22.2 million in the year to February 28 – up 68% on a two-year comparison before Covid struck.

Revenues rose 24% to £230.1 million and were up 41% on a two-year comparison.

Chief executive Nigel Newton said: “We have had the best financial year in the 35-year history of Bloomsbury.

“The last two years have required everyone to dig deeper, work harder and keep collaborating with each other as we have gone through various stages of online lockdown and return to the office.

“We now find ourselves in new territory with a cost-of-living crises, so our ability to pay this bonus in full is especially important.”

Speaking to the PA news agency, he said the company is in the process of hiring 100 new staff and that “printing earlier and printing in different places around the world” has helped to ensure that “stock availability is well over 90% for everything”, despite supply chain issues globally.

He added: “The supply chain crisis is real, ongoing and being dealt with daily by our production and sales operations departments, but it is not damaging our sales.

“It’s just a new thing we’ve got to live with, but it’s not financially damaging to us.”

The firm, which was first to publish JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series in 1997, looks set to continue its success, with trading for 2022/23 tipped to be in “line with the board’s expectations”.

Shares in Bloomsbury rose 3% on Wednesday.