Hachette takes hold over market share, as Random falls back

08.07.10 | Catherine Neilan in The Bookseller

Hachette UK has increased the market share gap between itself and nearest competitor Random House to a record 3.7 percentage points in the first half of the year. According to Nielsen BookScan figures for period up to 26th June 2010, Hachette now accounts for 16.2% of the market, while Random House now makes up 12.5%.

This is the largest difference between the two groups since Hachette bought Time Warner and builds on an increase that started last year: Hachette had finished 2009 with 16.1% of the market - an increase of 0.9 percentage points - while Random House ended the year down from 15.1% of the market to 13.1%.

Chief executive Tim Hely Hutchinson told The Bookseller: "Hachette UK's market share reflects our consistent growth in a very challenging market. Market share is just one way of measuring our success: others include the number of bestsellers over the period - for example, we regularly have more than 25% of the Sunday Times bestseller list - that we are reaching and exceeding our budgets and that we remain the only major publishing group to grow consistently ahead of the market over the medium term.

"I am delighted that our growing market share reflects our strong first half and I am looking forward to the second half of 2010 which includes the best line of up likely big bestsellers since our record-breaking year in 2007."

Hachette managed to increase market share, despite sales falling 5.5%, as the drop was less than the market average. For the first 24 weeks of the year, the trade has seen turnover decline 5.7%.

A spokesperson for The Random House Group, said: "Publishing is driven by periods of exceptional bestsellers which is terrific for the trade but can at different times distort market share which is only one measure of performance."