Year Endings

Salt has just completed its financial year, our first year without funding, and our second year of operating in a recession, the worst recession for several decades. Here is a brief summary of the press’s performance in 2009-2010.

Sales increased every quarter in the year when compared to the same periods in the previous financial year. Q1 increased by 157%, Q2 increased by 6%, Q3 increased by 20% and Q4 by 8%. Total product sales increased by 44%, just over £47,000 up on the previous year, taking the press’s turnover to just over £155,000 ($237,000).

Despite this increase in turnover, the press failed to meet its challenging break even budget, ending down £15,700 (-9.2%). We will have to control costs and develop new strategies for coping with the very challenging trading conditions.

The collapse of Borders and the further contraction of trade sales in the first quarter of 2010 have taken their toll on the press and, like many other publishers, we face considerable financial pressures. However, Salt plans to combat the recession with several business developments in the new financial year:

We will launch our new children’s list: the Children’s Poetry Library.
We will develop our new minibook series: Salt Modern Voices as part of our Salt Cellars developments.
We will open a new Scottish office and significantly extend our Scottish list.
We will expand our US publishing, doubling it in size.
We will develop a new UK trade imprint which will be repped and distributed by Turnaround Publisher Services.
We will roll out our new digital publishing programme with books available on Kindle and iPad, as well as through new channels, notably Dawson’s.
We will look for opportunities to consolidate Salt with the acquisition of some businesses.
Launch a new annual anthology series.

We are cautiously optimistic that these new developments and the doubling of our publishing programme will provide a stronger platform for growth and development and provide security for Salt and its writers.