About:
Founded in 1911 by Gaston Gallimard, the grandfather of today’s president and CEO Antoine Gallimard, as Les Editions de la Nouvelle Revue Française (NRF), Gallimard has been home to many of the most prestigious writers in French literature throughout the 20th century, including Marcel Proust, Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, and 2008 Nobel laureate Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio. The centenary of Gallimard’s creation has been widely celebrated with numerous publications and exhibitions in 2010 - 2011. In these 100 years, the most popular authors ever published by Gallimard had been Albert Camus (with 29 million copies, including 10 million for L’Etranger (The Stranger), Antoine de Staint Exupery (26,3 m copies, including 13 millio of Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince), and J.K. Rowling (26 million copies for the seven volumes of Harry Potter).
Madrigal, Gallimard's holidng company, took over a majority share in the publishing house in the late 1990s. Shares were repurchased from two of Gallimard's three big corporate shareholders, the Italian publisher Einaudi and the French media group Havas. Havas was compelled to sell its shares after the Gallimard board ruled its merger with Vivendi made it a direct competitor. After the repurchase, Madrigall, which is controlled by Antoine Gallimard and his sister Isabelle, had a 60 percent majority holding in the publishing house. That was increased to 98 percent in January 2003 when Madrigall repurchased the Gallimard holdings of five other outside shareholders for 92 million EUR.
“Having a coherent capital structure will allow us to move at will. It has been said that all family run (publishing) companies will disintegrate. We will make proof of the opposite” (Antoine Gallimard).
Groupe Gallimard controls a majority stake in the following publishing houses: Denoël, Mercure de France, Gallimard Loisirs (tourist guides), Gallimard Jeunesse (youth), POL, Éditions de la Table Ronde, Futuropolis, Verticlaes, Alternatives, and a few others; as well as in the distribution services Centre de Diffusion de l'Édition, Sofedis, SODIS, and France Export Diffusion. Gallimard also owns 6 bookshops, including Le Divan (Paris), Librairie Kléber (Strasbourg), and Librairie Gallimard (Paris). It has a Canadian subsidiary, Gallimard Limitée, in Montreal. Gallimard publishes roughly 1500 titles annually, with a backlist of more than 20 000.
Publisher Antoine Gallimard, president of the French Publishers’ Association from June 2010 to June 2012, continues to keep a high profile in France’s efforts to contain digital developments. Th country has maded significant initiatives in public regulations, notably on a law extending the French system of a fixed book price (“Loi Lang) to ebooks. Gallimard also was and is outspoken on the underpinning the crucial role of independent publishers for contemporary literature.
Key company developments in 2011 & 1st half year 2012
Financial:
Gallimard, as a private company, does not release financial data other than annual revenues, which show a rise of 4.8 % in 2011 against 2010, after three flat years, and a significant drop from 290 million EUR in 2007 to 241 million EUR in 2008.
Ownership, mergers & acquisition, internal organization:
Gallimard has announced to bid for Flammarion, the French trade arm of the Italian group RCS.
International:
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Digital:
By year end of 2011, Gallimard announces to lower prices of eBooks to compensate for the normally higher VAT on digital publications.
In September 2011, Gallimard, together with Albin Michel and Flammarion, decides to drop charges against Google over their library digitization program.
In 2010, Gallimard co-founded the ebook distribution platform Eden Livres together with La Martinière and Flammarion.
Bestselling authors & titles:
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Key points for analysis & conclusions:
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Earlier developments:
Results in 2010, 2009 and 2008 fell short 2007's record year because in 2007, the group had several particularly strong bestsellers, including the last Harry Potter novel and Muriel Barbery’s surprise success, L’ élégance du hérisson.
Note: Figures are based on sales generated in calendar 2011 or—for corporations with a fiscal year—from fiscal 2011. Data are from publicly available sources and include sales of books, journals, and digital products. Because publishing data were unavailable, Pannini and Disney/Hyperion are excluded from the rankings. The listing and publisher profiles were compiled by international publishing consultant Rudiger Wischenbart under the aegis of Livres Hebdo.
