Highlights of the survey

Educational publishing
General (non-educational) publishing
Home and export markets
Employment in publishing
Number of titles

Estimate of total Irish market retail value

Comparison of 1998 Survey with corresponding figures from earlier surveys

Appendix 1:

Names of publishers responding to survey
Names of publishers where retail bookselling and industry estimates were used

Appendix 2:
Restatement of 'The Future of The Irish Book Publishing Industry'

Introduction

The 1998 Horwath Bastow Charleton survey covers 46 publishers, currently publishing books (both educational and general) in the Republic of Ireland. A number of small publishers have been excluded from the survey so as to avoid distortion of the figures. The figures included in the survey relate to the year 1997.

34 publishers (see Appendix 1) have provided data directly. In the case of the other 12 publishers covered by the survey (see Appendix 1) the relevant data has been estimated based on information received from representative retail booksellers, and other industry sources.

The survey was conducted at the request of CLE - Irish Book Publishers' Association.

In 1992 we surveyed the Republic of Ireland's book publishers to establish the size and structure of the industry and to identify trends since the Fishwick Report of 1987. This survey was further updated in 1994.

A major report entitled "The Future of the Irish Book Publishing Industry" was prepared by Coopers and Lybrand in July 1995. As these figures are the most recently published statistics, we have quoted them for comparison with our figures. It should be noted that, for the purpose of comparison, we have restated certain figures in that survey (see Appendix 2).

Horwath Bastow Charleton

Highlights of the survey

EDUCATION MARKETS
(At publishers' invoiced values)

Irish book publishers had an educational turnover of IR£25.5m in 1997, as follows:-

	1997		1994
	IR£million	%	IR£million	%
Primary	7.5	29.4	7.0	30.6
Secondary	16.7	65.5	14.6	63.8
Third Level	1.3	5.1	1.3	5.6
Total educational market	25.5	100.0	22.9	100.0

GENERAL (NON-EDUCATIONAL) MARKETS
(At publishers' invoiced values)

Irish book publishers had a general (non-educational) turnover of IR£13.8m in 1997, as follows:-

	1997		1994
	IR£million	%	IR£million	%
Non-fiction	11.0	79.7	8.2	79.6
Fiction	1.8	13.0	1.2	11.7
Children's	1.0	7.3	0.9	8.7
Total non-educational market	13.8	100.0	10.3	100.0

HOME AND EXPORT MARKETS
(At publishers' invoiced values)

The survey results indicate the following breakdown of sales by destination:-

	1997		1994
	IR£million	%	IR£million	%
Home sales	34.8	88.5	30.4	91.6
Export - within the EU	3.3	8.4	1.9	5.7
Export - outside the EU	1.2	3.1	0.9	2.7
Total sales	39.3	100.0	33.2	100.0

EMPLOYMENT IN PUBLISHING

The following are the figures for full time employees in the Irish book publishing industry.

1997	396
1994	424

PUBLISHED TITLES

	1997	1994
Published New Titles	841	790
Titles in Print	7,375	6,540

ESTIMATE OF RETAIL VALUE

	IRISH	PUBLISHED	BOOKS	IMPORTED	BOOKS	TOTAL
	At invoice value IR£m (excluding exports)	Margin used %	at retail value IR£m	Share of total market %	at retail value IR£m	Total retail market IR£m
Educational
1985	11.3	18.1	13.8	16	2.6	16.4
1991	19.1	18.1	23.3	12	3.2	26.5
1994	22.5	19.0	27.8	10	3.1	30.9
1997	24.3	19.0	30.0	10	3.3	33.3
General
1985	3.0	37.5	4.8	88	35.4	40.2
1991	6.1	37.5	9.8	82	44.6	54.4
1994	7.9	42.0	13.6	81	58.0	71.6
1997	10.5	43.0	18.4	79	69.3	87.7
Total
1985	14.3	23.1	18.6	67	38.0	56.6
1991	25.2	23.9	33.1	59	47.8	80.9
1994	30.4	26.6	41.4	60	61.1	102.5
1997	34.8	28.1	48.4	60	72.6	121.0

COMPARISON OF 1998 SURVEYS WITH
CORRESPONDING FIGURES FROM EARLIER SURVEYS

TOTAL SALES
(At publishers' invoiced values)

(All figures in IR£millions)	1997 (HBC)	1994 (C&L)	1993 (HBC)	1991 (HBC)	1985 (Fishwick)
General	13.8	10.3	8.9	8.1	4.5
Nominal increase	34%	16%	10%	80%
Inflation	6%	2%	5%	21%
Real increase	28%	14%	5%	59%
Educational
Primary	7.5	7.0	6.8	7.6	5.4
Secondary and third level	18.0	15.9	12.9	12.0	6.4
	25.5	22.9	19.7	19.6	11.8
Nominal increase	11%	16%	-	66%
Inflation	6%	2%	5%	21%
Real increase	5%	14%	-5%	45%
Total market	39.3	33.2	28.6	27.7	16.3
Nominal increase	18%	16%	3.4	70%
Inflation	6%	2%	5%	21%
Real increase	12%	14%	-2%	49%
Home and export markets
Home	34.8	30.4	25.8	25.2
EU	3.3	1.9	1.9	1.5
Outside EU	1.2	0.9	0.9	1.0
Total market	39.3	33.2	28.6	27.7

The total market for Irish published books has increased substantially since 1994. This contrasts sharply with the modest growth between 1991 and 1993.

APPENDIX 1

NAMES OF PUBLISHERS RESPONDING TO SURVEY

A & A Farmar	Mentor Publications
Anvil Books	Mount Eagle Publications
Attic Press	New Island Books
Authentik	Oak Tree Press
Brandon Books	Poolbeg Press
Butterworth Ireland Limited	Relay
C.J. Fallon (Incorporating School & College Publishing)	Roberts Rinehart
Clo Iar-Chonnachta Teo	Round Hall Sweet & Maxwell
Columba Press	Royal Irish Academy
Cork University Press	The Celtic Press
Eason & Son	The Mercier Press
Educational Company of Ireland	The National Library
Four Courts Press	The O'Brien Press
Gill & Macmillan	Tir Eolas
Guru Music Limited	Town House/Country House
Institute of Public Administration	Veritas Publications
Lilliput Press	Wolfhound Press

NOT RESPONDING TO SURVEY

An Gum	Folens & Company
Boyne Valley Honey Company	Pineforest Art and Craft Centre
Blackwater	The Collins Press
Dominican Publications	The Irish Academic Press
Edmund Burke Publishers	The Irish Times
Exemplar Publications	The National Gallery

Note: In the case of the "Non Responding" Publishers
retail book selling and industry estimate have been used.

APPENDIX 2

In July 1995 Coopers & Lybrand produced a comprehensive report "The Future of the Irish Book Publishing Industry". The report includes figures relating to 1994. We have used these figures as the basis of comparison to indicate trends in the industry. For the purposes of consistency we have restated certain of the Coopers & Lybrand figures as follows:

1. Turnover of educational books

For the purposes of the Coopers & Lybrand survey, an estimate of turnover was used for a non-responding publisher, on the basis of information provided by publishing industry sources. Our survey has also used estimates for non responding publishers. These revised estimates were also based on industry sources but supplemented by information received from educational retailers. We have therefore revised estimates of Turnover of Educational books for 1994 as follows:

Per Coopers & Lybrand	IR£ 20.9 million
As restated	IR£ 22.9 million

2. Exports

The Coopers & Lybrand Report did not distinguish between exports within and outside the EU. We have extrapolated these figures.

3. Estimate of retail value

The Coopers & Lybrand estimate of Irish retail market value of UK/other foreign published books was based on export data from the UK Excise Authorities covering exports of books and printed materials to Ireland and other countries. Our estimate is based on information received from book wholesalers and retailers in the Republic. The Coopers & Lybrand survey indicated a substantially higher value of UK published books than had previously been estimated:

	1994
Per Coopers & Lybrand	IR£ 84 m
As restated	IR£ 58 m

It has been established that the UK Excise figures include other printed materials (particularly computer manuals/instruction materials), a significant proportion of which may be re-exported from Ireland.

In addition, the statistical precision of UK Excise figures may be affected by the relatively small value of exports to Ireland compared to the aggregate UK publishing/export market.

© 1999 Clé - The Irish Book Publishers' Association

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