Consulting firm Insight View indicates that the sector has managed to maintain its solvency despite the gradual adjustment of the profit margin
The region of Murcia has 3% of bookstores in all of Spain, the sixth highest percentage in Spain by province. A view it shares with Malaga, Seville, A Coruña and the Balearic Islands, as shown by the report prepared by consultancy Insight View.
According to this report, prepared the day before the start of the Madrid Book Fair, 14% of bookstores are at high or maximum default risk, compared to 74% with low or minimum values. The company Iberinform, which collects this data, points out that bookstores have suffered “a deterioration in their economic profitability ratios” since 2013, which registered minimum values in the historical series in 2020.
However, despite this gradual adjustment of margins, the industry has managed to maintain other “key” ratios such as solvency, cash, liquidity and availability.
The worst financial behavior is recorded at the bookstores that have been established in the past decade. The default risk amounts to 19% of the bookstores in this segment. In contrast, at consolidated bookstores with an existence of more than 25 years, this ratio drops to 11%.
“The aggregated analysis of the official accounts presented by the booksellers shows the reality of a sector that is able to show profound resilience in the face of profound changes in its activities that the 21st century has brought,” they point out to Iberinform.
Having resisted product substitution—the electronic book has not replaced the paper book in reading habits—bookstores face the challenge of new forms of purchase and distribution. «In this context, many build their added value by evolving in search of specific market niches: we go to a larger number of bookstores, but each time smaller and more specialized. That explains the distribution by company size,” he explains.
The presence of large and medium-sized companies is thus a “testimony” in this sector, where a nebulization has taken place: 88% are micro-enterprises, a percentage that rises to 99% if small ones are also added.
According to Insight View data, Madrid (19%) and Barcelona (12%) are the provinces with the most bookstores, followed by Valencia (5%), Vizcaya (4%), Alicante (4%), Region of Murcia (3% ), Malaga (3%), Seville (3%), A Coruña (3%) and the Balearic Islands (3%).
Source: La Verdad
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