In its first financial report since the May merger of the Taylor & Francis Group and Informa Group, T&F Informa reported an 18% sales increase, to £246.3 million ($443 million), while operating profit rose 12%, to £27.0 million ($48 million) for the first six months of 2004. T&F is now organized into three divisions: academic & scientific, professional and commercial.
The bulk of the company's book and journal publishing is in the academic & scientific group, which reported a sales increase of 32%, to £111.7 million. The journals operation benefited from the January purchase of Marcel Dekker, which added £11.6 million to sales in the first half of the year. Other acquisitions made in 2003, including the purchase of CRC Press, also contributed to the revenue gain. Excluding acquisitions, sales rose 4%. Book sales in both the division's STM and humanities & social sciences units had solid gains in the six-month period. In the second half of 2004, T&F will consolidate its book distribution operation into one warehouse.
