Bloomsbury is hoping celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal can serve up some sales for Christmas as the publisher looks to offset the conclusion of the highly lucrative Harry Potter series. The absence of another instalment of the boy wizard's adventures lead to a 66% drop in profits in the first half of this year.
"People were very sceptical when we published Heston's original book at £125 more or less on the day that Lehman Brothers collapsed last year, but the book did do well," said chief executive Nigel Newton.
"This year we are doing a £35 edition based on the same book, which we think will be huge as well. It's a new, more affordable edition."
A slimmed down version of Blumenthal's Big Fat Duck Cookbook, with a price aimed at cash-strapped cooks eager to enjoy the benefits of his scientific methods, is part of an extensive Christmas list from Bloomsbury that includes a new book from fellow celeb chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood, William Boyd's Ordinary Thunderstorms, John Irving's Last Night in Twisted River and a new version of Schott's Almanac.
Bloomsbury is also rushing to complete a new companion version of its Wisden Cricketers' Almanack to capitalise on the success of the England team against Australia this summer. The first edition of Wisden on the Ashes, published in May, sold out before publication and Bloomsbury hopes the updated version will be a hit.
Blumenthal himself, meanwhile, has won plaudits for his work revitalising the menu of roadside stalwart Little Chef. His makeover of the outlet at Popham services has been so successful that it is being included in The Good Food Guide 2010, to be published next month – though by Which?, not by Bloomsbury.
After sampling dishes such as braised ox cheeks and Hereford steak and Abbot ale pie, inspectors awarded the Hampshire roadside cafe a score comparable with a good gastropub. Although the menu has retained the spirit (and prices) of the old-style Little Chef chain, it has been tweaked and upgraded. The new Olympic breakfast includes free-range eggs, outdoor-bred British pork sausages, Wiltshire-cured back bacon and Ramsay of Carluke black pudding.
But the celebrity chef has a large hole to fill in Bloomsbury's financial results. In the first half of last year the publisher benefited from the Deathly Hallows and the publication of Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns, the follow-up to The Kite Runner, which, like its predecessor, found its way onto the lists of book clubs up and down the country after gaining the recommendation of Richard and Judy.
As a result of last year's strong comparison, Bloomsbury's revenues for the six months to end June this year were £35.3m, down 16%, and profits of £1.8m down sharply from £5.4m.
Bloomsbury has been using the proceeds of the Potter phenomenon to expand its business into academic and specialist publishing, with Wisden just one of a number of titles it has snapped up. It has bought school and college stalwart The Arden Shakespeare and more recently Tottel Publishing, a specialist in law and tax publications.
