007 publisher Penguin has a strong start to 2008

28-Apr-2008 • Literary

Penguin has made a strong start to 2008 and is on track to achieve double digit profit margins, parent group Pearson announced today in a trading update. Its education division also expects another year of good profit growth - reports The Bookseller.

Marjorie Scardino, chief executive, said: "Most of our trading lies ahead of us, but the start we've made to the year makes us confident that this will be another good one for Pearson. Our strategy, and the changes we've made to accelerate it, produced record results last year and made Pearson a more resilient company. We expect another year of good earnings growth, even in these more uncertain economic conditions."

At Penguin the group pointed to Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth (picked for Oprah Winfrey's Book Club), Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction) and Sebastian Faulks' forthcoming James Bond novel Devil May Care, celebrating the centenary of Ian Fleming's birth. On the education side, Pearson added: "Outside the US our education businesses are continuing to perform well with strong publishing programmes, new digital services and the contribution of the Harcourt international education businesses.

Overall the group said: "Our strong momentum has continued and we are trading in line with the expectations."