The 2020 financial year has proved highly satisfactory for Hubert Burda Media. The company generated external turnover of almost €2.8 billion. Both its turnover and its investments (€171 million) are at around the same level as the previous year. In 2020, Hubert Burda Media’s portfolio contained more than 550 products in Germany and 16 other countries. The group’s key sources of revenue are trading and sales turnover, commission models, advertising and B2B services. At the end of the financial year, the consolidation scope included a total of 225 companies, 142 in Germany and 83 in other countries. At the end of 2020, the group employed almost 11,000 people.
Paul-Bernhard Kallen, chairman of the board of directors, comments: “Despite the considerable impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the economy as a whole, we have mastered the 2020 financial year with stability and success. This is all thanks to our decentralised corporate structures and various business models. We have continued to seize opportunities during the pandemic and are on course for growth once again.”
The BurdaDruck Group specialises in high-quality magazines, catalogues and printed advertising produced via high-volume gravure printing and all services required to do this. With sites in Offenburg, Nuremberg and Vieux-Thann (France), it is one of Europe’s largest printing companies. Its external turnover in 2020 was €136 million. Despite the market decline accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic, the group’s sales revenue was only slightly lower than the previous year.
In 2020, the National Media Brands division (Burda’s German publishing arm) published a total of 165 regular magazine titles, reaching 44.28 million people per year – this equates to 62.7% of the German population aged 14 and over. This division operates a number of sustainably profitable business models and generated turnover of €736 million last year. This means that, despite the Covid-19 crisis, its turnover decreased only marginally in 2020. To continue growing its core journalistic business, on 1 January 2021 Burda merged all German publishing activities into the BurdaVerlag publishing unit.
The strategic expansion of the Health division continued in 2020. The health magazine My Life moved to an entirely payment-based model, and further key partners were found for the “Zukunftspakt Apotheke” (Pharmacy Future Pact) alliance founded by Hubert Burda Media and the pharmacists’ association Noweda.
In the 2020 financial year, Burda acquired the German licence for the internationally renowned Gault&Millau gourmet brand. In early 2021, it harnessed the brand’s food and lifestyle expertise to launch a print magazine. Burda is one of the largest media providers and print market leaders in the German food segment.
The German publishing business’s digital activities also expanded further in 2020. The total reach of all digital offerings increased by 24% to 2.41 billion cumulated visits; in 2020, the division recorded a 24% rise in unique users to 28.12 million.
In 2020, the Digital Brands division achieved turnover of €1.542 billion, around 56% of total turnover. Despite the generally weaker economic situation caused by the pandemic, New Work SE enjoyed stable development in 2020. Xing, the professional network for the modern working world, had more than 19 million members in the DACH region in 2020.
The e-commerce companies Cyberport and Computeruniverse exhibited particularly strong growth in the 2020 financial year in a highly competitive market. Jameda, Germany’s largest doctor/patient portal, further increased its customer base and turnover in challenging economic times. Hubert Burda Media has held a majority stake in Nebenan.de since 2020. With over 1.7 million address-verified users, it is Germany’s leading neighbourhood network. In the midst of the pandemic, it not only organised rapid neighbourhood assistance and strong (help) networks, but also benefited economically from a rise in demand.
In 2020, HolidayCheck Group AG was seriously impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic and the global travel warnings and restrictions that it triggered. In particular, demand for package holidays practically disappeared. At the same time, numerous holidays booked in 2019 and the first quarter of 2020 for the current year had to be cancelled. Consequently, the HolidayCheck Group saw a significant decline in turnover and results.
BurdaForward’s constantly growing publisher network now unites the services offered by 170 media outlets and publishers, whose content is displayed on BurdaForward’s digital platforms on equal terms with its own. The company recently developed a new business model to organise online financial seminars with notable speakers. This has allowed it, for example, to reach more than 10,000 people in Germany with an interest in finance.
BurdaPrincipal Investments has an international focus and provides long-term growth capital for fast-growing technology and media companies. In 2020, it made further investments in Germany, the USA, the UK and Southeast Asia.
Burda’s international activities, consolidated in its International Media Brands division, focus on the UK, continental Europe and Asia. The business unit is active in Germany and 16 other countries. In addition to its online activities, which were further enhanced in all markets in 2020, Burda and its partners published 240 titles abroad. With 228 titles, Europe is by far the most important region.
In 2020, the external turnover of the International Media Brands division totalled €348 million, lower than the previous year. While digital business experienced sustained growth, the traditional print industry and marketing services (e.g. events) saw turnover decline. Most sales revenue comes from Immediate Media, a group focused on magazines and digital consumer business in the UK, where the pandemic forced many sales outlets to close for extended periods and magazine sales were therefore significantly impaired. The international publishing business is divided into five independent subsections: Immediate Media, Publishing Europe, Burda Luxury, Burda Create! and BurdaEducation.
Hubert Burda Media continues to work systematically on digital transformation and on building and expanding new business models. It anticipates a rise in sales revenue in 2021. Burda will continue to make investments and acquire stakes in new companies where favourable opportunities arise.
| 2019 | 2020 | Change | |||
| € million | in % | € million | in % | ACTUAL (in %) | |
| Digital Brands | 1,440.2 | 51.6 | 1,541.6 | 55.6 | 7.0 |
| National Media Brands | 756.2 | 27.1 | 736.0 | 26.5 | -2.7 |
| International Media Brands | 444.3 | 15.9 | 348.4 | 12.6 | -21.6 |
| 139.3 | 5.0 | 135.8 | 4.9 | -2.5 | |
| Other | 12.1 | 0.4 | 12.7 | 0.5 | 4.7 |
| Sales revenue | 2,792.1 | 100.0 | 2,774.5 | 100.0 | -0.6 |
Contact:
presse@burda.com