Shapero Rare Books' Parent Confirms First Profit in Four Years
- by Michael Stillman
Shapero Rare Books' parent corporation, Scholium Group, confirmed earlier preliminary results that the company made a profit in their latest fiscal year, ending on March 30, 2022. It was a healthy profit of £177,000 on revenue of £8,129,000. The previous year they experienced a loss of £437,000 on sales of £5,148,000. Since Scholium has closed its stamp business this effectively reflects the performance of Shapero Rare Books.
Chairman David Harland issued a statement on their results, along with an upbeat but cautious look at the future. He said, “I am delighted to present my first statement as Chair and to report that the Group's revenues for the year ended 31 March 2022 increased by 58% to £8.1 million as a result of the return to some semblance of normality following the adverse impact of Covid in the prior year. This is the first profit in four years.
“The Board is delighted with the turnaround and remains focused on further enhancing shareholder value, incentivising its executive and staff and continuing to search for further opportunities in related areas to build upon this pleasing result.”
He continued, “Trading conditions have improved over the year and the Group's retail premises have enjoyed at least a return to something approaching normality following the closures of the prior Covid impacted year. Trading for the first four months of the current year has been profitable, which is encouraging, and net cash is positive. The current global political and economic environment is not only depressing but challenging and it is difficult to forecast the future prospects of the business though based on current trading we remain cautiously optimistic.”
Of course it's hard to make predictions in unpredictable times – rampant inflation, a new government in the UK, a war in Europe with threats of a nuclear attack no less. These are uncertain times but if the world will just be a bit more cooperative, Shapero's moves should continue to pay out.
