BELGIAN BOOK MARKET SUFFERS THE STEEPEST DECLINE IN YEARS

In Flanders, the regulated book price has been in force for exactly one year, but, for the time being, it is not bringing any relief.

After staying barely out of loss in the first quarter, Flemish book sales were severely hit in the second quarter, shrinking 6,4% in value.

In Flanders, a quarter of a million fewer books were sold than in that same period of 2017, a decrease of no less than 8,8%. Over the course of 12 months since the regulated book price (GBP) was introduced, the average price increased 1,8% compared to the same period (of non-regulation) one year prior. Whether this is uniquely due to the GBP is uncertain. The rise does not exceed the trend that the average price was already following in recent years and is in line with the general price inflation.

Nor should we (yet) conclude that GBP has directly had a restraining effect on the market development.
On the contrary, by looking more closely at the results of the past 12 months, we find that the average price of a new book (of less than 6 months old) is 14,93 euros, which is exactly the same as in the period July 2016 to June 2017. The average price of books older than 6 months, and no longer subject to the law, did however increase from 12,8 to 13,1 euros.

Still, the main catalyst of the negative trend of 2,6% that the market has experienced over the past 12 months are the new books, were turnover is down 5,7%. In contrast, the 2% decline in books older than 6 months remains somewhat more limited. A decisive driver of this decline seems to be the absence of new bestseller successes. In the last 12 months before the introduction of GBP, the top 20 most sold books generated a share of 8% of the total market turnover, compared with only 6,6% in the last 12 months: a decrease of almost 20%.

Alongside the steady 12,1% growth of online sales, independent bookshops were also able to reverse the decline in the past six months and the channel shows a promising growth of 0,7% in turnover.