French publishing group Hachette turns 200 in 2026, marking its bicentennial with Spanish as its engine: Spain and Latin America grew 13% in sales during the first half, according to results from Lagardère, its parent company, published in July. Mexico, one of its priority markets, is now the "bridgehead" for its expansion in the language.
The Spanish-language market is managed from Spain through Grupo Anaya, and Mexico is the entry point for the group's imprints to reach the Americas, said Elisardo Pérez de Mata, general director of Hachette Livre México, in an interview with El Universal published on August 3. The double-digit advance in the region reflects a combination of factors: the early start of the back-to-school campaign in Spain, the 2025 launch of a paperback imprint, and sustained growth across Latin America in education and general literature, as Publishnews detailed when reporting the half-year results. The contrast with mature markets is stark: France fell 1.6% and the United Kingdom 1.2%, while the United States grew 1.3%.
Lagardère Publishing, the division that houses Hachette Livre, posted revenue of 1,343 million euros in the first half, with comparable growth of 1.3% and an operating margin of 8%. In Mexico, the group operates imprints including Larousse, Patria Educación, Anaya, Alianza Editorial, Cátedra, and Hachette Literatura, and already has editors dedicated to Mexican authors to tailor the catalog to local tastes. Elisardo Pérez de Mata acknowledges that the house is a generalist publisher and that the challenge is adapting a global catalog to readers in each country. In parallel, the Spanish-language expansion crosses borders: since spring 2025, Hachette Book Group has been selling and distributing Grupo Anaya titles in the United States, Puerto Rico, and Canada, a catalog that launched with around 80 adult fiction titles.
Looking ahead to the second half, the group plans to consolidate distribution of its Spanish-language catalog in the United States and Canada, with Mexican authors among its new releases. The next figure to watch: the sum Lagardère will receive from the out-of-court settlement approved with Anthropic in the United States.
This article was written with artificial intelligence assistance from verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.