Bookseller Thalia increases sales by eight percent

Last year went well for Germany’s largest bookseller Thalia. The company was able to increase its sales by 8 percent to around 1.9 billion euros in the 2023/24 financial year.

It was about Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Adjusted for branch space, the increase was 6.5 percent, as the company in Hagen announced. It is said that Thalia does a good third of its business through online sales. As usual, the company did not provide any information about profits.

Books that have a young audience in mind sold particularly well – this is referred to as young adult or new adult. The more shallow literature is often about heartbreak stories.

Amazon Prime as a sales boost

A bestseller, for example, was a series of novels by the German author Mona Kasten which includes “Save me” and which is called “Maxton Hall – The World Between Us” for Amazon Prime was made into a film – through this series many people became aware of the story and then bought the books.

Thalia-Chef Ingo Kretzschmar speaks of a strong financial year. “We are seeing the strongest growth rates among young people between the ages of 12 and 29, and particularly among young women.”

In addition to books, other products also increased significantly, especially toys. This product category is becoming increasingly important for Thalia, also because traditional specialist retailers have withdrawn from city centers in many places, says the manager.

Thalia has 394 bookstores of its own in Germany and Austria, and the company also has a stake in a Swiss bookstore chain. There are also partnerships with owner-managed bookstores. There are a total of 48 bookstores in Austria that are run under Thalia.