As it approaches its 36th birthday, Nigel Newton CBE the founder and chief executive of Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (LON:BMY), says the publisher has “Never been a more fun company to run and to work at.”

One of the reasons for that he says is: “Success breeds success, and this 41% growth in sales that we’ve seen over the last two years and 70% increase in profits is a joy to manage.”

Newton says that the reading habit re-engaged with during lockdown has been “permanently reacquired” and that the company is trading in line with management expectations which he says are “high expectations.”

He talks not only about the joy of management but at the core of the business the joy of reading aiding those who are now pursuing hobbies that are well serviced by books.

Bloomsbury, says Newton, is an unusual publisher describing it as half general, half academic which is platform agnostic selling authors’ works in hardback, paperback and e-book and as an audio book download. “We promote the story and leave the decision to how to consume it to the reader.”

It is also the leading publisher of ornithology and sailing and one of the lead publishers for baking.  At its most fundamental level, says Newton, books are filling a new information need and there’s reading itself for ‘escape, enlightenment and entertainment.’

Bloomsbury is also a beneficiary of the self-publishing phenomenon with many of its authors starting out on that route including internationally renowned fantasy writer Sarah J Maas, who is also much recommended by the TikTok subcommunity #BookTok which has had over 60 billion interactions as of June 2022.

Beloved by readers, Newton says that the company’s dividend policy makes it much beloved too by investors particularly growth funds in the city.