Tuesday 12 January 2010

The Empire Expands

I read an interesting article yesterday on John's Toy Soldiers the blog of John Lambshead (great blog by the way, well worth a visit). John reports that Games Workshop seem to be doing quite well at the moment despite the tough time retailers are having generally across the board. They have just revised their projected profits for the 12 months to May 30th upwards from £9 Million to £14 Million resulting in an increase in their share price of 30%!

There are various reasons for this success but key to it seems to be the new one-man-stores. A recent article on the FT website suggests that this has enabled GW to open stores in smaller towns. Another factor highlighted by the website Sharecast suggests that part of the companies success comes from its licencing of titles to games developers. John also highlighted an article by the Times which suggested that factory efficiencies meant that plastic miniatures now had a larger profit margin which was also contributing to the success of the company.

Its interesting to note that often variable performance of Games Workshop over the years is hotly debated on various Internet forums. The most vocal contributors still look on GW as some sort of Evil Empire that has been around too long and is bad for the hobby in general. Clearly this old dog isn't dead yet and can still learn some new tricks. Whether they are good for the industry in the long run, only time will tell.

3 comments:

  1. Games Workshop do confuse me. I find it really hard to get a solid opinion on them. On the one hand it looks like they write army books based on sales rather than what the units should play like (among other mean things), while on the other they are releasing so many new kits that they just dazzle us into submission.

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  2. I only wish they had a business model that made them appealing to me. I like some of the stuff they do and their universes, but I cannot abide the way they run their business. Successful as it may be, it is at a cutthroat pace.

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  3. I can remember GW in the good old days - yes I am 50!

    The modern stores are interesting browsing spots - and I still believe that their paints and brushes are fantastic, but I believe that they are now a sales based retail chain and the gaming element is now missing or at least less that I remember!

    OK - rose tinted glasses are now removed.

    Good luck to GW. They are and remain the giant of the industry so with these profits - they must be doing something right.

    Tony
    http://dampfpanzerwagon.blogspot.com/

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