Bloomsbury to meet forecasts after festive ebook fillip

Bloomsbury Publishing said in an interim management statement that group performance in the period ended December 31, 2011 was strong and that it expects to deliver full year results in line with its expectations.

According to the company, it had success across a very wide range of titles, in digital and in print, front and back list, trade and specialist, adult and children's.

Ebook sales grew 38% year on year and the firm generated significant revenues from intellectual property and publishing services projects.

It was a good Christmas for trees, publisher Bloomsbury showed today, after its ebook sales jumped 38% in the last three months of 2011.

The news backed up data from online bookseller Amazon, which said Christmas Day was the biggest ever day for book downloads for its Kindle e-reader.

Buoyant ebook sales helped Harry Potter publisher Bloomsbury report it would hit City expectations for 2011 results. Its Christmas best-sellers included cookery books River Cottage Veg Everyday! by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Heston at Home by Heston Blumenthal.

Chief executive Nigel Newton said: "We have a robust business."