While the ERE that Grup Enciclopèdia presented a week ago and would affect fifteen workers is being negotiated, the publishing group takes another step to resolve its future through the agreement reached with Abacus and Jaume Roures to “start a negotiation in exclusively for the sale of its publishing labels,” as made public this Wednesday in a statement. The result will be a large publishing group that will represent “close to 8% of the market share in Catalan in Catalonia and will become the second publishing group in Catalan in the country, according to GFK data,” reads the statement.
Abacus has Ara Llibres (specialized in non-fiction), Amsterdam (fiction), Inuk (children's) and La Casa dels Clàssics, and among others would add, in addition to the historic children's label La Galera, Univers (narrative in Catalan), Catedral (narrative in Spanish), Elastic Books (juvenile), Vienna (classics), Kaji (manga in Catalan) or Bridge (crossover).
The statement also mentions that the new group will include “the publishing interests of Jaume Roures”, without specifying whether it is the entire Suma Libros group, formed by Navona, Folch
In a statement, Enciclopèdia specifies that from now on "it opens a new stage focused on education (Text, Veu Alta), Grans Obres (Enciclopèdia Arts) and the founding activity of promoting Catalan culture and language", so that it will maintain the imprints dedicated to textbooks (the most profitable sector) and art book publishing, in addition to maintaining its more than 30 online dictionaries. They will also maintain the Enciclopèdia seal.
In addition, Enciclopèdia will keep its distributor Àgora, but it will leave the shareholdership of Entredos, of which it had 45% and whose bankruptcy put in motion meant the aggravation of the problems of the group led by Joan Abellà, with a debt that exceeds nine million euros and which is owned by the Fundació Enciclopèdia Catalana, chaired by Xavier Cambra. In statements to La Vanguardia, Abellà explained that Enciclopèdia's will is to "reconcentrate on education", which is the foundation's mission, and that he will stay to "manage the transition".
The statement includes statements from the general director of Abacus, Oriol Soler, who values that the operation “is another example of Abacus' commitment to the Catalan language and culture and to the need to strengthen the country's cultural industries. Our goal is to keep alive the values that Enciclopèdia Catalana has always represented.” Jaume Roures, for his part, has stated that his participation arises from the will to “guarantee the continuity of historical editorial projects of great importance for the country.”
Catalan version, here
