Quarto, one of the largest international co-edition book publishers, has acquired British book publisher Frances Lincoln Limited (FLL) for L4.5 million in cash.
FLL is well known for its award-winning children’s list and its authoritative horticultural titles. FLL has a backlist of over 1500 titles and published 150 books last year.
This acquisition more than doubles the size of Quarto’s UK-based book publishing revenues. FLL reported audited profit before tax of L619,000, net assets of L3.8 million and gross assets of L5.9 million for the year ended 31 March 2011.
FLL has a distribution business handling sales and fulfillment for a number of third party publishers and management anticipate merging this with Quarto’s existing sales and distribution activities handling titles from US imprints in the UK and continental Europe.
Commenting on the acquisition, Chairman and CEO, Laurence Orbach, said the company is delighted to announce the acquisition of Frances Lincoln Limited.
FLL is a highly respected publishing business particularly well known as the publisher of Alfred Wainwright, Julia Bradbury, Christopher Lloyd and many other well regarded authors, said Orbach.
It complements Quarto’s existing UK publishing business, several imprints trading under the Aurum name, and more than doubles the scale of its presence in the UK. The acquisition is in keeping with the company’s strategy to further expand its already broad offering of niche content, said Orbach.
Quarto is an international co-edition book publisher with two principal strands of activity: the Publishing segment publishes books, in the US and the UK, under imprints owned by the Group; the Co-Edition Publishing segment creates titles that are licensed to third party publishers around the world for publication under their own imprints in many languages and many geographies.
Today, Quarto is one of the world’s largest Groups producing illustrated non-fiction books. The company was set up in London in 1976 before listing on the London Stock Exchange in 1986.
Quarto has since grown substantially, both organically and through acquisitions. It comprises more than 20 units based in the UK, the USA, Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong, producing books under a number of imprints.
With more than 500 employees worldwide, Quarto creates over 600 adult and children’s books a year, which are sold into 35 countries and in 25 languages. Subjects range from Art ‘How to’, Graphic Design, Home Improvement, Motoring, Crafts – in fact, any subject that can be better explained with photographs or illustrations.
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