Award-winning Leicester-based publishing house, Sweet Cherry, reports an increase in turnover by +21.2% in 2021. By the end of September, sales of their independently published children’s books reached £1.35m, exceeding last year’s million-pound milestone of £1.11m.

Sweet Cherry’s UK sales soared by 54.1%, aided by the increasing demand for their CBeebies’ Numberblocks maths and Alphablocks phonics activity books for home learning.

US sales also grew by 12.2% following the launch of a new picture book series by New York-based yoga teacher, Lauren Hoffmeier, which soon featured in the New York Times.

One of the most significant areas of growth was seen in foreign rights sales, which increased by 44.9% thanks to Sweet Cherry’s growing list of illustrated and easy-to-read editions of literary classics, including Sherlock Holmes, Dickens, Austen, Shakespeare and more, which are accompanied by free English audiobooks.

Abdul Thadha, Sweet Cherry’s Managing Director, said ‘I am so proud of Sweet Cherry’s sales growth year on year. In 2020, we hit our first million and I’m delighted to see our Leicester business defeat the pandemic with further growth in 2021.’

Abdul started his journey in the book trade in 2007 when a £3 investment at a clearance bookstore in Leicester paved the way for his multi-million-pound online bookselling business, Books2Door.com. Inspired by his Leicester heritage where over 25,000 children live in poverty and access to books is limited in ethnic communities, Abdul strives to make books affordable and accessible to children of all backgrounds through his box-set business model at Sweet Cherry Publishing and Books2Door.com, whereby children have access to a library of books in one affordable value-for-money purchase. His businesses also offer full-time employment to over 50 warehouse operatives in the multicultural Highfields area of Leicester.

Sweet Cherry marked its 10th year in publishing with the launch of two new imprints: Cherry Stone for literary classics and Clock Tower for championing new and marginalised voices in trade publishing. Submissions are open and the publisher wishes to see more submissions from writers of colour for exciting new children’s books, preferably with series potential.
Submissions can be made to [email protected]. 

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For more information please contact:
Divia Kainth – [email protected]

Sweet Cherry is an independent award-winning children’s book publisher. We specialise in fun children’s books that promote reading for pleasure with reluctant readers to improve their confidence with reading alone. In 2021, Sweet Cherry won Small Press of the Year and celebrated 10 years in children’s book publishing with the launch of two new imprints, Clock Tower and Cherry Stone.