Wayland Games official announcement to GW's trade embargo.

[Morgan Darkstar]

Hi Everyone,

Before we start, if you'd allow me to present a little background about Wayland before we get into the meat of the issue I'd be grateful. We laid out our little web store back in August 2008, our beginnings were humble, with my brother and I packing orders in a spare room. It wasn't ideal but it was what we had to start with and we grew and grew through the continued business of our loyal customers through four warehouses to our current location. In thirty three months we have gone from a spare room in Essex, UK with my brother and I packing boxes to a global operation with fourteen full time staff which is now positioned as one of the largest if not the largest independent hobby retailer in the world. We run our business today as we always have done, in a professional and ethical manner both within the letter and the spirit of the law. Almost all suppliers like us, customers enjoy our openness and service-oriented outlook and whilst we're realistic enough to know we're not by any means perfect we will always strive to improve to ensure our central tenet of great prices and better service.

Managing such growth has been far from simple; we have experienced growing pains like any business in any sector that has exploded in market share terms. Our growing pains have also been more painful as we continually seek to adjust to a shifting commercial landscape from our dominant supplier, Games Workshop. Like many of you, I believe that Games Workshop produce a fantastic product which gives endless joy to countless people. I am proud to be associated with them. Unsurprisingly, therefore, I read with real concern the statement by the CEO Mark Wells over the new trade terms which effectively prevents us selling Games Workshop supplied products outside Europe. Mark's statement can be found at:
[url]http://www.facebook.com/notes/games-workshop/our-changes-to-european-trading-terms/227996923881812[/url]

Mark seems to be clearly of the view that on-line retailers (and we are not purely that, of course given our bricks and mortar presence) ?free ride? on the back of Games Workshop?s bricks and mortar outlets. We have sought over the years, and I thought with some success and recognition, to demonstrate to Games Workshop the value that we provide not just in terms of sales but also in terms of pre and after sales service (not to mention our activities at trade fairs), which is clearly equivalent to the service that is provided on the ?ground? by bricks and mortar outlets. Quite aside from the legality of Games Workshop?s actions, we are confused by the commercial attitude of Games Workshop which hampers our ability to sell to hobbyists to the clear disadvantage of both Games Workshop (albeit maybe not their retail arm) and the hobbyists themselves.

I will not air anyone's dirty laundry in public. Therefore, I am writing to Games Workshop separately (its board, lawyers and their principal shareholders) to share my concerns in greater depth. I hope that commercial common sense will prevail and that we can continue to work with Games Workshop to expand their market and bring a great product to as many people as possible at the best price possible. After all, Games Workshop not only has a clear responsibility to the market but also a clear responsibility to its shareholders (which, after all, could be you and me!).
In the meantime, we believe after the announced terms are implemented we shall be able to continue to offer all of our loyal customers the same product range that we offer today. There may be a small lead time to implement but we've been given a rather short period to react. We will comply fully and completely with the new terms and conditions of sale imposed upon us and will not contravene them in any capacity whatsoever (albeit we would not wish that to be seen as acceptance of their legality), all we seek to achieve is that customers both old and new are able to benefit from our view of the market wherever they are located. We all love our hobby.
Over the next few weeks we'll be providing updates as to how the process of implementing these changes is coming along, the chances are we'll use Facebook to disseminate this information as it is a great platform for customers to interact with us and each other. We look forward to continue to serve you and we always will.

Keep on Wargaming.

Richard.
Wayland Games

Well it looks like good news for you non EU types wayland seems to have found a way around GW's trade restrictions. let the rejoicing begin

more info in the next few days & weeks.

[MarneusCalgar]

Thanks for posting the letter!!!

Hope they continue selling for all of you, non EU traders!!

[LostInTheDark]

If they try some shenanigans to continue distributing to the rest of the world they run the risk of GW refusing to supply in a similar way that Battlefront screwed Maelstrom recently. All they did was sell their product at too low a price.

Being in Aus I hope it pans out.

[Wathapend2urfase]

It's nice to have a company that can get a few lawyers to help. I ordered everything from wayland... everything.

[Wildeybeast]

I can understand where Wayland are coming from but they really are playing with fire. Not only have they completely failed to understand GW's point that they are not doing anything to increase GW's customerbase they seem to be implying that they intend to find a way round GW's trade embargo, which would be a profoundly stupid thing to do. GW has shown that they are more than willing to take legal action against anyone who crosses them and by Wayland's own admission GW is their 'dominant supplier'. GW could simply get huffy, take their ball home and not play with Wayland any more, which leaves them well and truly up the creek without a padle. I suspect that there would be considerably less than 14 full time staff if that happened.
Tread very carefully Wayland, it's never advisable to bite the hand that feeds you.

[flekkzo]

I can understand where Wayland are coming from but they really are playing with fire. Not only have they completely failed to understand GW's point that they are not doing anything to increase GW's customerbase they seem to be implying that they intend to find a way round GW's trade embargo, which would be a profoundly stupid thing to do. GW has shown that they are more than willing to take legal action against anyone who crosses them and by Wayland's own admission GW is their 'dominant supplier'. GW could simply get huffy, take their ball home and not play with Wayland any more, which leaves them well and truly up the creek without a padle. I suspect that there would be considerably less than 14 full time staff if that happened.
Tread very carefully Wayland, it's never advisable to bite the hand that feeds you.

Question is, how much are they loosing on not being able to sell to outside of Europe? I am pretty sure that they will have to fire people because of GW's actions.

I think that if GW wants their stores to be more profitable / grow the hobby more, they should find a way to do so without using strong arm tactics. Create better stores, have more events, have them be a haven of hobbydom. Make it worth while paying their prices in their store. It's the reason I pay full price at my local store even though I can get hold of things cheaper. It's because I like the store, and without it I have nowhere to play. Make it worth my while and I'll support you. Simple as that!

[Lexington]

Tread very carefully Wayland, it's never advisable to bite the hand that feeds you.

Ah, if only GW felt the same way...

[Wildeybeast]

Question is, how much are they loosing on not being able to sell to outside of Europe? I am pretty sure that they will have to fire people because of GW's actions.

I think that if GW wants their stores to be more profitable / grow the hobby more, they should find a way to do so without using strong arm tactics. Create better stores, have more events, have them be a haven of hobbydom. Make it worth while paying their prices in their store. It's the reason I pay full price at my local store even though I can get hold of things cheaper. It's because I like the store, and without it I have nowhere to play. Make it worth my while and I'll support you. Simple as that!

Agree with everything you said, and they may well improve their stores with the extra money they pick up having cut out the likes of Wayland. But at the same time, Wayland and others were undercutting GW's market without doing anything to grow it, so I can see both sides. By the sounds of it GW had two choices
1) cut out wayland et al and raise international prices
2) Scale back their store presence in places like Oz
Either way, customers and the hobby suffers, GW had to make a decision as to whic one would have the least damage.

[Mobynick]

Wildeybeast are you a GW employee ? Your comments to me seem out of touch and imply a lack of understanding.

" We will comply fully and completely with the new terms and conditions of sale imposed upon us and will not contravene them in any capacity whatsoever" how is this "playing with fire". How is compliance while questioning the legalities "biting the hand that feeds them? Honestly I will buy all my products from Wayland now because they alone have shown that they will fight for their customers rather than hobble them like GW seems intent to do. I appreciate Waylands courage and integity, traits long lacking within GW.

"Wayland and others were undercutting GW's market without doing anything to grow it". Really I would have thought selling GW products at a fair and reasonable price would indeed "grow" the hobby. Wayland has also stated that they do displays and turn up to major events. GW can't be bothered to do the same in Australia or Canada...proberbly not NZ either. GW has been lazy and have grossly overpriced their products here and now seek to blame inderpendants for GW stupidity. The current trend with GW stores is that they are closing them all over the globe, scalling back and not opening new hobby stores. So they themselves are cutting back their own bricks and mortar.

Surely the smart thing to do would be to see why the independants are so successfull. Little overheads better prices. Perhaps this is the model GW should aim for, maybe then they could "support" the hobby properly by visiting gameing clubs, giving each country a gamesday of their own and building some good will.

[daboarder]

Agree with everything you said, and they may well improve their stores with the extra money they pick up having cut out the likes of Wayland. But at the same time, Wayland and others were undercutting GW's market without doing anything to grow it, so I can see both sides. By the sounds of it GW had two choices
1) cut out wayland et al and raise international prices
2) Scale back their store presence in places like Oz
Either way, customers and the hobby suffers, GW had to make a decision as to whic one would have the least damage.

3) actually charge international customers an appropriate cost for the product?


see if they did that they wouldn't be hanging themselves right now.