Future acquires Beach Magazines and Publishing Ltd
6th December 2004
Future acquires Beach Magazines and Publishing Ltd.
Future Publishing today announces that it has acquired Beach Magazines and Publishing Ltd. and its three magazines Junior, Junior Pregnancy & Baby and Wedding Day, for an initial £1.5m and up to a further £1.5m, deferred for one year and subject to the business meeting certain targets.
Junior, Beach’s first title, was launched in 1998 and claims to have redefined the parenting magazine sector with its high production value approach. Targeted at ABC1 mothers of children from 0-8 years old, Junior reflects the shift in today’s society towards older parents who have established their careers and homes before embarking on parenthood. It is unique in attracting advertisers such as Dior, Ralph Lauren and Burberry and uses some of the finest photographers and writers in the world.
Junior Pregnancy & Baby was launched out of the Junior brand as a bi-monthly in spring 2003, aimed at brand and fashion-conscious pregnant women and new mothers. It moved to a monthly frequency in July 2004.
Wedding Day was acquired from Crimson Publishing in May 2003 and repositioned as a high-end product to complement Beach’s other titles. Aimed at fashion-conscious brides, it targets the trend towards women getting married later and the ever increasing amounts spent on weddings. Wedding Day is a bi-monthly publication with an ABC of 31,679.
Commenting on the purchase Robert Price, Managing Director of Future Publishing says:
“These certainly are exciting times for Future. We are buying a magazine business which we strongly believe has significant growth in it. These titles take us into new special-interest areas while playing to our traditional strengths of publishing high-quality and deeply targeted magazines. All three titles are firmly established and we anticipate that our strong newsstand presence should help drive further sales growth.
“The purchase is part of Future’s active UK growth strategy and these three magazines will enable us to move towards a more advertising-led publishing approach. We also see significant opportunities for the titles in overseas markets. We are delighted to add them to our growing portfolio and also to welcome the publishing and editorial teams to Future. ”
No major changes are planned for the editorial content of any of these magazines, which will continue to be run by founder Chris Taggart. They will be published from Beach’s current offices in West London for the foreseeable future. The magazines will form part of Future’s Entertainment portfolio.
Commenting on the sale Chris Taggart, who continues to run the magazines, says:
“Beach’s magazines lead their sectors in quality and innovation, not just in the UK but in the world. Future is a superb company that shares Beach’s commitment to editorial excellence and I am extremely excited by the growth potential this gives the magazines, particularly in overseas and new sectors.”
Beach Publishing was founded in 1998. Turnover for the year ended 31 December 2003 was £3.1m and operating profit was £0.2m.
This is Future’s second acquisition this month. On 1 December it announced that it had acquired What Laptop magazine from Crimson Publishing. Earlier this year, in August, Future expanded its portfolio with the purchase of Spanish Homes Magazine and PC Zone.
 Back to Magazine News & Articles Index
Publishers if you would like to send in your magazine news stories and press releases, we can make sure they appear on this page. |
