Annual Report of the Press Syndicate for the year 2004

The PRESS SYNDICATE beg leave to report to the Council as follows:

During the academical year 2003-04 the Syndicate met 18 times, the main business of these meetings as usual being to consider all new proposals for publication, whether of individual books, series, journals, electronic products, or other items, and to have regular reviews of the Press's principal activities.

The Executive Summary of the Report follows. The full Report and Accounts will be posted on the Press website at http://www.cambridge.org/annual/report and will be distributed to all subscribers of the Reporter.

Executive Summary

• The recovery programme which commenced in 2001 is proceeding to plan, with operating income improving annually. Net outgoings have been reduced from £5.8m in 2001, to £2.5m in 2002, to £2.0m in 2003, to £1.0m in 2004. Without the special charges of £1.1m to top up the pension funds and £1.8m for the start-up of the Cambridge-Hitachi joint venture, the 2004 figure would have been a surplus of £1.9m, representing an improvement of £3.9m over last year, on a like-for-like basis.
• Revenues rose by 2.7% to £129.1m, despite a 12% fall in the US dollar, in which currency many of our transactions are made. Sales in the USA surpassed the $60 million mark, and now account for approximately one-third of the Press's global business volume.
• Academic titles are selling well, and the Press remains a leader in the publication of monographs (see Appendix 1, Table 5, of the full Report for details of output). Online booksellers continue to take market share from high street bookshops, and are important customers for the Press's products.
• Roll-out commenced on the suite of new English Language courses in which the Press has been investing heavily. Their effect will be seen more fully in 2006, as they gain adoptions in the market.
• The Education group held its own in difficult market conditions, while Cambridge-Hitachi produced more than thirty packages of educational courseware in its first year of operations, to high acclaim in the industry.
• The Local Examinations Syndicate and the Press have been working ever more effectively on a range of collaborative projects.
• Against a background of over-capacity in the UK and intensified competition from abroad, and despite its fine record in winning awards, the book printing business continues to give cause for concern, and radical steps have been taken to turn it around. The other two printing businesses performed splendidly.
• On a Minimum Funding Requirement basis, the pension funds are showing a deficit, notwithstanding stock market gains and special contributions. The FRS17 accounting standard will be adopted in future years, and will significantly change the face of the balance sheet.
• The Press's strategy was thoroughly reviewed and overhauled in 2004, and the management team was reformulated to ensure delivery of a more robust business with a closer focus on its markets.
• Shortly after year-end, some seven acres of Cambridge land were sold for £18.5m, yielding a surplus of some £10m and releasing to working capital some of the value represented by real estate on the balance sheet.
• The Press Syndicate transferred to the University £11.2m of funds previously earmarked for that purpose, plus a further £0.5m of donations and services in kind.

G. JOHNSON (Chairman)	D. F. FORD	T. W. KÖRNER
C. Y. BARLOW	U. GOSWAMI	D. J. MCKITTERICK
W. A. BROWN	G. P. HAWTHORN	T. MINSON
D. M. BROOM	A. B. HOLMES	J. S. MORRILL
S. A. COLLINI	C. J. HUMPHREYS	R. N. PERHAM
T. M. COX	D. IBBETSON	J. RUDDUCK