Klett Group is a private German educational resource company, which operates 59 subsidiaries at 40 locations in 17 countries. The portfolio comprises traditional textbooks, digital interactive learning solutions, professional literature, and fiction.

Key Company Developments in 2012 & 2013

Financial:

Revenues and profits in 2012 continued a pattern of slow decline since 2009, due to difficulties in the German educational market and declining student numbers.

The Klett Group announced a “satisfactory year” for 2011 despite a weaker performance against 2010, with declines both in group revenues (from 465 millon EUR in 2010 to 457 millon EUR in 2011) and profits (falling from 21millon EUR to 17 million EUR.

The segment remained on target both domestically and internationally, with consistent growth rates among childcare facilities, kindergartens, schools and adult education providers.

“The drop in revenues and the decline in profits in comparison to 2010 can be attributed to positive special effects, the benefits of which were most evident in 2010. This includes, for example, the sale of Giesel Publishing,” explains Philipp Haußmann, spokesman for the Ernst Klett AG Management Board. “Adjusted for these effects, 2011 turned out to be a solid fiscal year marked by positive developments in our business units.”

Group revenues comprise several single businesses such as Educational Publishing (50.8%), Adult and Continued Education (30.4%), Professional Information (12.3%), Cultural Publications (4.4%), Sales and Distribution (1%), and Other (1.1%).

Ownership, Mergers & Acquisition, Internal Organization:

Klett sold Forum Institut für Management in Heidelberg in 2012.

In early 2013, Klett acquired a learning program from Langenscheidt in order to expand in the segment of German training courses for non-native German speakers.

Long time CFO Arthur Zimmermann moved to the advisory board, while Stefan Hartl was appointed financial director.

International:

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Digital:

Klett has started to increase investments in the digital media segment. The Group also intends to further expand its portfolio for schools, kindergartens and childcare facilities, followed by adult education.

Bestselling authors & titles:

Klett’s trade division Klett Cotta reported a specifically strong year in 2012.

Key points for analysis & conclusions:

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Earlier developments:

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