Pearson reports 5% decline in first quarter update

Pearson has announced a 5% decline in revenue in its first quarter update, in line with revised expectations reported in March due to Covid-19. It also reported a 10% decline in international revenue ‘due to test centre and school closures across many of our international markets’ as a result of Covid-19, as well as ‘the phasing of courseware sales in the UK’.

The Bookseller reported Pearson plans a £50m in savings for 2021 mostly through technology process improvements, but also ‘with a small headcount reduction across the business (less than 1%)’. Pearson told the Bookseller the pre-planned redundancies were going to be made earlier but that the Covid-19 pandemic ‘forced the company to push this back’.

The publisher’s CEO John Fallon and new CFO Sally Johnson have taken voluntary pay cuts of 25% and 20% respectively, with the proceeds to go to charities engaged in Covid-19 related activities, but no other staff salaries have been reduced due to the pandemic.

Category: International news