GW store opening in San Diego...how will this effect LGS?

[Wise Ol Bird]

GW opened a new store in Va Beach in January. Somewhat similar demographics. We will see how things turn out.

BTW, GW did not do a good job of advertising the new store. I happened upon it by chance. I would have expected a least one email going"hey, look over hear"

[JMichael]

GW opened a new store in Va Beach in January. Somewhat similar demographics. We will see how things turn out.

BTW, GW did not do a good job of advertising the new store. I happened upon it by chance. I would have expected a least one email going"hey, look over hear"

Same here. I just happened to notice it on GW's list of retailers.
The store has a facebook page, but no real effort to advertise to the public.
I will say they are the perfect area (location could be better), surrounded by upper middle class neighborhoods with tons of kids, nothing much to do in the area, and parents with money!

[Herzlos]

And again...they have increased sales volumes, and well beyond their price raises.

Sales volume appears to have decreased, though profits have increased by a small margin. So they are doing well now but the long-term trend doesn't look good if the sales keep decreasing.

Company is doing just fine, and in one of the worst financial downturns in living memory. UK high street has been shredded, closures everywhere. GW? Hardly batted an eyelid, and made more money.

I wouldn't say they've hardly batted an eyelid. They've survived but they've had to make some serious cost savings across the board, including the closing/relocation or downsizing of stores and reduction of store staffing (many stores are 1-man now, whereas that was unheard of pre-recession) and services.

They are still going, and still profitable, but I'm not sure where they'll be in another 5-10 years unless they can turn things round.

[Wolfshade]

They are still going, and still profitable, but I'm not sure where they'll be in another 5-10 years unless they can turn things round.

GW has been growing and expanding since 1975, I think over the last 38 years they know what they are doing, even if we the consumers do not always see it/agree.

[Mr Mystery]

GW has been growing and expanding since 1975, I think over the last 38 years they know what they are doing, even if we the consumers do not always see it/agree.

Indeed. There is a large difference between closing and relocating stores. They continue to refurbish what they have, sometimes relocating, and continue to open new stores.

Hands up people in retail land that can say this? And this is whilst growing their profit margin, and takings going up. Things are very much turned round.

[Herzlos]

I agree they are doing quite well to still be going, but expanding they aren't. They posted profits because of huge cost cutting measures.

There are plenty of retail chains that are still fine, and plenty that have folded, and plenty who have had to cut staff back. I can't think of any companies on that scale that have cut staff and retail costs as severely as they have (reduced opening hours, minimum staff count, store size reduction or cheaper locations).

I'm also sure they'll be in a good position to scale back up after the recession, but I'm not sure how much reputation and market share hit they'll have taken by that point.

It's probably also worth pointing out that whilst GW has been going since 1975, the world is somewhat different now, as are the staff that make up GW. A lot of the people who made GW great have moved on so it's not the same company it was 30 years ago (and neither should it be).

[eldargal]

Some historical context is useful here; until 2005 GW sales were growing, in 2005/6 they collapsed (revenue halved or something, it was huge) from 2006-8 as far as we can tell they started going up again and GW started restructuring after the 2005/6 collapse. In 2008 the GFC hit and sales and revenue in Europe started declining. It is possible that the decline in sales volume is a reflection of that rather than any particular trend of customers away from GW. We won't know until the economic situation stabilises.

As to reputation, consumers have short memories.

[Mr Mystery]

Worth also noting their share price seems fairly resilient, which says something about confidence in them, and I have to say I'm willing to bet the share holders (Pension companies hold a lot, according to the annual report) know a lot more about these things than anyone here present (certainly more than myself. I'm proper rubbish with money!)

So we're swing a company willing to restructure, that's a market leader. PWC give them a virtual monopoly on UK sales, and the UK represents one of their largest customer bases (no surprises). If memory serves, last annual report showed all sectors of its operation in profit, including Oz, which after. Their 'embargo' the interwebular predicted would collapse.

As a company, their borrowing is practically non-existent, which is a healthy sign. Any expansion is performed through actual cash (could be incorrect term) rather than increased borrowing.

They are also a very peculiar business. No other player in their field has their own stores, and whilst yes that does come at a financial price, it gives them an unrivalled edge and market presence.

As for their competitors, not being public ally owned renders them unknown quantities. Nobody but their owners knows their profit and turnover. Internet people postulate, and list anecdotes. I read one sight which based on interviews with the companies and FLGS, placed Warmahordes as 2nd after 40k, and ahead of Fantasy in the US. Whilst I cast no aspersions on the veracity of their findings, it is impossible to draw any firm conclusion based on that info, as at least from what I read, no gathered info was published.

So we can only truly rely on GW's published results. I know some feel they are cooking the books, but that's pretty much impossible to substantiate. What we do know is that as the single biggest player, GW are more likely to maintain, and lose market share as more competitors come forward. It each of those losses could be going to any one of those companies.

Overall, GW are looking pretty robust as a company.

[Warptiger]

Cutting off sales to retailers would be insane. If you carry GW products at all in your store, you've probably have a couple thousand dollars of their product sitting on your shelves (or more). Product that's already been purchased and paid for by the retailer. Games Workshop already made money, even if the retailer can't sell it. In that case, you want as many stores as possible... 20, 30, 50, 100. Every single store has to buy a certain amount of product to fill their shelves.

You want to be like the merchant selling picks and pans to the gold miners in a gold rush. You don't care if the miners strike it rich, go broke, or dump the stuff on the ground five seconds after they buy it... you're still getting paid by every single one of them (and at inflated rates too), and you're making money off the fact your product is in demand.

Cutting off retailers would be like the merchant in the example above deciding it's better to take all the equipment and go try panning for gold himself. Yeah, you might strike it rich, but more likely you won't. You assume all the risk. The merchant who's selling gear to the gold miners has hardly any risk at all (about the only risk is not spotting that the demand has peaked, and getting stuck with a warehouse full of picks no one wants anymore).

It really doesn't make a lot of sense at all, and it doesn't dovetail with anything they've done in recent memory. It's like the tournament scene. Games Workshop pretty much walked away from that, and with good reason. There are tons of independent tournaments all over the place now, and they don't need to be involved in it anymore. They ran them long enough to get it jumpstarted, and then let nature take it's course. I've been playing 40K since 1st edition, and I remember you could count the number of tournaments in a year on one hand, and still have plenty of fingers left over.

I actually consider the fact that GW even has brick and mortar stores slightly surreal. Always seemed like some half baked attempt to make the hobby more "mainstream".

[Psychosplodge]

Worth also noting their share price seems fairly resilient, which says something about confidence in them, and I have to say I'm willing to bet the share holders (Pension companies hold a lot, according to the annual report) know a lot more about these things than anyone here present (certainly more than myself. I'm proper rubbish with money!)

I once read an interview with a financial analyst that said if the people running pension funds knew what they were doing they'd be running hedge funds.