PRH UK to cut 38 roles

In the UK, Penguin Random House (PRH) has proposed removing 38 roles as the publisher faces ‘longer-term’ challenges to profitability ‘in the face of increasing cost pressures’, reports the Bookseller.

The proposed job losses will be across several divisions and departments and represent about 2% of PRH UK’s headcount. The redundancies are separate from the previously announced job losses from the closure of PRH’s third-party distribution services operation in Grantham.

In an email to staff, PRH UK CEO Tom Weldon said that while revenue has grown over the past five years, ‘the business faces a longer-term challenge around growing our profits in the face of increasing cost pressures’.

‘Global geopolitical and macroeconomic factors have created volatility and uncertainty for all economies and businesses, which have escalated over the past few years,’ wrote Weldon. ‘On a micro level, the book market is impacted in many ways by these factors. It is getting increasingly harder—and more expensive—to do business, driven by cost inflation, supply chain complexity and a slowing market coming off the high of the pandemic.

‘Paper, for instance, is more than 20% more expensive than it was in 2018. Increasing book prices (resulting from the rising costs) have buoyed the market but overall volumes are down by 4.5% versus last year.’

Weldon said PRH UK would continue to invest in areas with strong growth potential, such as its recent acquisition of Hardie Grant’s UK publishing arm. ‘While it might seem counterintuitive, we have to do this while we are in a relatively strong position to prepare us for what is an uncertain future and protect the business from these headwinds’, Weldon said. ‘These headwinds are likely to last a while, so we need to act now.’

A collective consultation process will run until 5 December. The PRH Union Committee told the Bookseller: ‘We were saddened to hear the news yesterday that PRH is proposing to remove 38 roles from the business. We understand this is an unsettling time for all of our colleagues and as a union we are doing our utmost to support all those who may be affected.’

Category: International news