It’s been a good year overall for Games Workshop as their profits have soared, as hobbyists and game stores struggle to keep up amid the chaos.
It has been another successful 6 months for the model makers in Nottingham as Games Workshop has released their trading update for their 2020-2021 sales and revenue. In another hard year when most game stores were struggling just to keep the doors open, GW put out record dividends to investors.
The numbers follow the trend from last November where basically every portion of the business grew. Just as an example, the dividends went up to 235 pence per share from 145 in 2020.
People really gobbled up all hobby content in the early part of COVID, but even with a few lackluster releases and paywalls, people still seemed to buy up every release. Looks like the hobby giant can do no wrong in terms of their investors at the moment.
If you were a GW employee this year, it was a good time to be loyal to the games giant as they also gave big profit shares to employees as well.
Games Workshop Profits & Dividends Continue to Rise
Source Games Workshop:
Games Workshop Group PLC announces that the Board has today declared a dividend of 50 pence per share, in line with the Company’s policy of distributing truly surplus cash. This will mean that total dividends declared in the 2020/21 financial year will be 235 pence per share (2019/20: 145 pence per share). The dividend of 50 pence per share will be paid on 5 July 2021 for shareholders on the register at 28 May 2021, with an ex-dividend date of 27 May 2021. The last date for elections for the dividend re-investment plan is 14 June 2021.
For the year to 30 May 2021, we estimate the Group’s sales to be not less than £350 million (2019/20: £270 million) and the Group’s profit before tax to be not less than £150 million (2019/20: £89 million). This includes royalties receivable from licensing which are estimated to be approximately £15 million (2019/20: £17 million). As in the prior year, in recognition of our staff’s contribution to these results, we will have paid during the year profit share bonuses amounting in total to £12 million (2019/20: £2 million). These are paid on an equal basis to each member of staff.
We expect to announce our 2021 annual report for the year to 30 May 2021 on 27 July 2021.
We’ll let you decide on this, but those are some wild numbers for a hobby company.
Comparing to Last Year & Profit Share
A few crazy things to note about this year compared to last. First, overall sales are expected to be no less than £320 million, (up 30 percent). On top of that, they are almost profiting at 50% overall (across the last year)- which for any company that large is just kind of insane.
So if they keep this going, who knows where they will be in a few years. It’s very rare for a company to even hit the 30% mark on profit, so that really only means one thing. GW knows how to price, and market their products to keep those profit numbers high!
Coming from the Standard, they shed a little more light on the profit share that GW gave to employees:
Around 2,500 staff at retailer Games Workshop have landed share bonuses worth £12 million thanks to soaring profits as demand surged among locked-down hobbyists. The group said each employee will receive £5,000 in shares under its profit-share scheme. The total share bonus – which will be paid out by the end of this month – marks a £10 million hike on the £2 million awards given to staff the previous year. Games Workshop said they are handed out to staff on an equal basis
Looks like a good year to be a GW employee with a profit share! Let’s see where the rest of the year takes them and if the profits continue to rise in this wild fashion.
What are your thoughts on the latest financial report, while it’s so hard for game stores and hobbyists to get the items they want most?
Let us know in the comments of our Facebook Hobby Group, and make sure you enter the latest monthly giveaway for FREE today!
About the Author: Rob Baer
