It’s been another red-hot year for Games Workshop. They’ve just released their financial report to the public, and things are up… way up!
As GW has gotten very good at pumping out releases and hyping them up, they’ve gotten their numbers to new heights for the year.
It looks like Games Workshop doesn’t plan on slowing down anytime soon either.
Let’s look at their report.
GW’s Financials On FIRE: 2017-2018 Report
Take a minute and compare the two columns to each other. The bold column is the most recent. Just look at the growth in every section.
There’s been a healthy growth for the company as a whole. We began seeing evidence of this back when they announced a £5M bonus to its employees.
Percentage Growth Highlights
- Operating Profit (pre-exceptional items & royalties) +109%
- Operating Profit +95%
- Earnings per share: +95%
- Revenue: +39%
Where are People Buying Products the Most?
- Trade Sales: +53%
- Mail-order (web store): +36%
- Retail: +26%
For the most part, trade is GW’s best avenue in terms of sales. Online sales are a close second. Retail stores still do count for a large portion of their total sales, but it seems like people would rather wait two weeks for a shipment to get to them than go to a store and see if they even have the item in stock.
With the growth of the company quickly rising, that means new stores pop up. There’s also been a steady growth of opening doors for Games Workshop Stores across the world.
Here’s a graph that makes things a little bit easier to put things into perspective. Growth has been relatively constant for an entire year.
A Word From the Team
“So far so good, and our feet remain firmly on the ground. Our business and our Warhammer Hobby are in great shape, the best shape either has been for some time and as we stride in to the year ahead with more energy, ideas and drive, it’s clear to me that we’re only just getting started.
It has been another exciting year building on the progress we have made over the last few years. We have surpassed the expectations which I set the business on appointment in January 2015, so I have set the bar higher: exciting times.
I am pleased to report record constant currency sales, profit, cash generation and returns to shareholders. It has taken a long time to reach £200m+ sales, and at a record 29%+ core operating profit percentage rate, we’ve proven again we can grow sales, maintain our gross margin and manage our costs at the same time. It also shows clearly our operational gearing.
This has only been possible through the hard work and commitment of the entire Games Workshop global team. I’m incredibly thankful for and proud of their efforts – as they should be themselves. Thank you. Our passion for Games Workshop and unwavering focus have delivered profitable sales growth for the second year running across all of our sales channels.
There have been no silver bullets, more the relentless pursuit of designing, making and selling an ever better range of Warhammer miniatures. Together, we have remained focused on documenting and executing an exciting global operational plan covering all areas of the business. We’ve driven improvements in product quality, the number of new products we launch in a year, provided the highest levels of customer service and delivered online content in a tone that’s given us and our customers a very broad smile.
We are doing our best to make it sustainable. However, we are now in unchartered waters, doing everything we can to ensure our success is maintained. The challenge of managing global sales volume growth at the same time as delivering a step change in our capacity (not forgetting delivering major IT projects) is, I hope you appreciate, a fair challenge.
I’ve strengthened my senior team, adding broader skills in IT and merchandising and logistics and added over 20 additional heads in operations, support and marketing. It would be unrealistic, if not daft, of me to promise that we can continue to grow at the rates we have reported over the last two years. I am not, however, planning to scale down our ambitions, I am just informing you of the back drop.”
In case you missed last year’s report, you can look at it here to compare.
To round everything up, Games Workshop has been ramping up to new heights in terms of activity in the market. Their profit growth definitely shows it. What do you think of their growth? How do you think next year will look for them? Let us know in the comments of our Facebook Hobby Group.
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About the Author: Wesley Floyd
