Nielsen BookScan SA: week 49–52

Sales of physical books in South Africa have grown by 2.47% in 2015 based on value but have declined by 6.38% based on volume compared to 2014 for above mentioned period.

Sales values reached R198 529 151 in this period for 2015, up from R193 751 665 in 2014 for the same period. Sales volumes totalled 1,187,728 units for this period in 2015 with a decline in units against 1,268,604 units for the same period in 2014. The average selling price (ASP) increase was 9.44 %, from R152.73 in 2014 to R167.15 in 2015.

A larger range of unique ISBN’s were sold through the panel in this period than in 2014, comparing 94,510 ISBN’s in 2015 against 90,135 in 2014.

Looking at the four main genres in sales: Adult Fiction (AF) was slightly higher in 2015 (R50 346 764) compared to R49 575 405 in 2014, with Adult Non-Fiction (AN) R 105 252 244 slightly lower (R 106 058 015) than 2014. Both Children’s Fiction (CF) and Children’s Non Fiction (CNF) were higher in 2015 with a market share increase of 13.95% in CF and 9.97% in CNF for 2015.

Top Titles
The top selling title over the period was Golden Lion with a total of 7998 units and a value of R2,376,993. The total sales for this title for the period week 1–52 was 20,570 units at a value of R6,134,066.

The top 10 titles contributed only 3.89% to the total volume sales for this period, the
top 100 titles contributed 15.33% and the rest of the titles were 84.67% of the total volume. The main income for the general trade is still generated by the range of titles below the top 100’s for this period.

Christianity: General was, in the same measured period for 2014, in the second position, Children’s Fiction in the fourth position and Food & Drink: General, in the fifth position.

TCM Publisher Trends
During this period the number one spot was taken by Jonathan Ball Publishers SA with a market share of 24.46%. Penguin Random House (Pty) Ltd was in second position with a market share of 23.97% followed by NB Uitgewers/ Publishers, Christian Art Distributors and Pan Macmillan in fifth position. The only change for this period was between NB Uitgewers/ Publishers and Christian Art Distributors which switched positions in 2015.

For weeks 1–52 of 2015 the number one spot was taken by Jonathan Ball Publishers SA with a market share of 20.73%. Penguin Random House (Pty) Ltd was in second position with a market share of 20.04% followed by Christian Art Distributors, NB Uitgewers/ Publishers and Pan Macmillan in fifth position.

Summary
“It is encouraging to see the ongoing growth of children’s books in South Africa, both in value and in units, suggesting that perhaps our digital natives are not so paper averse? Christmas seems to get ‘later’ every year, but this last season was surprisingly strong considering it occurred against a backdrop of economic unrest and currency devaluation.” Says Steve Connolly, MD, Penguin Random House South Africa.

It should be noted that 2015 has been a 53-week for BookScan, which we last saw in 2010. Week 53 is a realignment week and ensures that Bookscan keeps in line with the calendar year.

Any figures mentioned and compared to 2014 is based on week 1–52 year 2015 to align with the 52 weeks in 2014.

– Freda van Wyk, CEO SAPnet