Publishing group RAO International Publishing, which owns the rights to publish the books of American writer Dan Brown, the author of the best-seller "The Da Vinci Code", in Romania, posted 1.3 million euros (5.4 million RON) in gross profit for 2005, nine times higher than in 2004.
The turnover of the company reached 6.1 million euros (22.1 million RON), over four times higher than in the previous year. "The Da Vinci Code" has sold over 120,000 copies since the launch in 2004, and is the best-selling title on the market.
"We believe last year's financial situation was due, on the one hand, to the growth of the market, and on the other, the increase in our output. The upward trend has been quite clear over last few years. RAO has held an approximate 10% market share for a long while, but we believe we've reached the 20% threshold in the last few years. We rely on the data provided by our customers, the bookstore owners," stated Ovidiu Enculescu, RAO's chief executive.
The company has bookstores of its own but also sells its products in Diverta, Compania de Librarii Bucuresti (Bucharest Bookstore Company - CLB) and the Cora and Carrefour hypermarkets, which have witnessed a steady pace of growth over the last few years.
"First of all, we want to stabilise production at the high quality and quantity level it has attained, and secondly, we want to consolidate the infrastructure of the publishing house, which was seriously remodelled to withstand the growth. At the same time, we want to identify the optimum channels to communicate with our readership," Enculescu added.
RAO budgeted an approximate 8.5 million-euro (30 million RON) turnover for this year and "at least the same" profit "as last year."
In the first quarter, RAO made a 1.4 million-euro (5 million RON) turnover, which is comparable to the revenue grossed for the whole of 2004, while the net income amounted to 170,000 euros (600,000 RON).
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