Book Retailing Orell Füssli to sell more books in 2024 and expand its Filal network
The Orell Füssli Group has made further gains in book retailing. Orell Füssli Thalia, in which the group holds a 50 percent interest, generated sales of just under CHF 249 million. Half of this amount is attributable to Orell Füssli and half to the German partner Thalia.
14.03.2025, 09:06
SDA
The book business thus accounted for almost half of the Orell Füssli industrial and trading group's sales of CHF 253 million at CHF 125 million, as the company announced on Friday. The group generates the remaining sales in security printing, where Swiss banknotes are also printed, and in the Zeiser industrial segment.
Market leadership extended
Compared to the previous year, book sales increased by 6 percent in 2024. According to its own figures, Orell Füssli was thus able to further extend its market leadership in Swiss book retailing.
This growth was due not least to the expansion of the branch network. Orell Füssli opened a total of six new bookstores last year, four of them at Chur, Aarau, Winterthur and Zug railroad stations. The two other branches were opened in the Letzipark shopping center in Zurich and in the Uster shopping district in the Zurich Oberland.
In addition, Orell Füssli took over a further Buchparadies branch in the "Mall of Switzerland" shopping center in Ebikon, Lucerne, and the Rapunzel bookstore at the railroad station in Liestal in the Basel region as part of succession solutions The branch network is to be further expanded in the current year, thus continuing to drive sales growth.
More and more eBooks
However, online retailing is becoming increasingly important. According to Orell Füssli, sales in e-commerce rose significantly again in 2024. The company also sees positive repercussions for bricks-and-mortar retail. For example, 10 percent of all online customers would have their order delivered to a store.
Reading on a tablet or cell phone is also becoming increasingly popular. Orell Füssli is surprised at how strongly the digital business with e-books and e-readers has grown. One reason for this is the personal advice and service in bookshops. This sets them apart from the competition.
Another reason cited by the long-established Zurich-based company is the partnership it entered into with Skoobe in 2022: the Munich-based provider of e-book subscriptions has established itself in German-speaking countries and is developing sustainably.
Success with textbooks
The publishing business with educational media, legal media and children's books is now also making a significant contribution to the group's success. Orell Füssli is now one of the leading suppliers of teaching and learning media in Switzerland. The acquisition of the teaching materials publisher Hep in 2022 plays an important role here.
Here, too, Orell Füssli is increasingly focusing on the digital business. For example, Hep Verlag is developing a prototype for AI-supported conversation training together with partners. In addition, the digital teaching aid "myKV" for the three-year KV apprenticeship was further expanded.
Together with Procivis, a provider of software solutions for electronic identities and digital certificates, Orell Füssli groups the publishing companies together as "Other Businesses". They contributed CHF 17.3 million to group sales in 2024.
