Egmont Group

History and profile

The Egmont Group was founded by Egmont Harald Petersen in 1878 as a one-man printing business, but soon became a magazine business. It was originally called "P. Petersen, Printers", named after Petersen's mother, as he was still too young at the time to register his own company. The company was renamed Gutenberghus in 1914 (after the famous inventor of the printing press), a name it kept until 1992.

Since 1948 Gutenberghus, looking for new opportunities, sent its editor Dan Folke to Walt Disney Productions, and he managed to acquire a license for publishing comic magazines in Scandinavia. In 1948 the company started to publish a Donald Duck comic magazine in Sweden (as Kalle Anka & C:o) and Norway (as Donald Duck & C:o), in 1949 also in Denmark (as Anders And & C:o). This magazine features all the well known Disney Characters, from Mickey Mouse to Little Hiawatha under license from Disney. With the acquisition in 1963 of the Danish publisher Aschehoug, Egmont also entered the book market. From the late 1980s the Egmont Group used the close connection with Disney to expand their Scandinavian focus to a global focus, being the producer of Disney for the new Eastern European market, as well as for the Chinese market. In 1991, Egmont was co-founder of the Norwegian television channel TV 2 which Egmont now owns. The following year, Egmont bought Nordisk Film. In 2008 they acquired the minority stake in magazine publisher Hjemmet Mortensen which they did not already hold, from Orkla ASA.

Egmont has a number of local country branches: Australia, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine, and United Kingdom.

Egmont is one of Scandinavia’s leading media groups producing weeklies, magazines, comics, books, educational materials, activity products, movies and TV programs. The media group also operates movie theaters and TV stations, and the Egmont name is behind interactive games, game consoles, music and a wide range of digital media. Egmont publishes media in more than 30 countries, has 6,300 employees and generates revenue amounting to EUR 1.5 billion in 2014.

Egmont acquired Forma Publishing Group in October 2014. In January 2015, the company shut down its American publishing division.

Group management

Egmont divisions

UK branch

EgmontUK publishes books and magazines for children in the United Kingdom, for example Toxic.

In 1991, Egmont purchased the Fleetway arm of IPC Media in the UK from a company owned by Robert Maxwell, and merged it with their existing comics publishing division, London Editions, and thus became Britain's largest comic book publisher. The resultant company, Fleetway Editions, was absorbed into the main Egmont brand by 2000, having largely divested itself of its original portfolio (such as 2000 AD) and continued with only reprint and licensed material titles (e.g. Sonic The Comic). The Fleetway archive comprises those comics characters first published by IPC subsidiaries on or after 1 January 1970, together with 26 specifically named characters first published in Buster before that date. In August of 2016, The IPC/Fleetway library was sold to Rebellion Developments, who had previously acquired 2000 AD.

EgmontUK is divided into two divisions: Egmont Press and Egmont Publishing.

Egmont Press

Egmont Press is Egmont’s author and illustrator list. It includes fiction novels, picture books, novelty books, illustrated books, fantasy adventures and Egmont’s own Banana books (for five- to nine-year-olds). Egmont Press also has a number of young adult fiction, award-winners, classics and epic tales.

They publish the work of authors such as Andy Stanton, Jamila Gavin, William Nicholson, Michael Morpurgo, Catherine Forde, Julia Golding, Kristina Stephenson, Katherine Woodfine, Michael Grant and Anne Fine. They are the UK publisher of A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket which has sold over 2 million copies. They are also the official publisher of Winnie-the-Pooh. Egmont published the authorised sequel to the original Pooh stories, The Best Bear in All the World in 2016.

Egmont Press’s illustrators include Helen Oxenbury and Colin and Jacqui Hawkins.

Egmont Publishing

Egmont Publishing publish a wide range of formats for children of all ages: storybooks, annuals, colouring, activity and sticker books as well as a wide range of novelty books. The Publishing list contains books featuring licensed characters, including:

Egmont Foundation

Egmont is a commercial foundation with a charitable wing. The founder’s last will and testament paved the way for Egmont's charitable work to support social, cultural and scientific causes. As a foundation, Egmont helps improve children’s and young people’s quality of life, donating more than EUR 235 million to social, cultural and health projects since 1920.