Games Workshop acknowledged and apologized for many things as their product continues to dry up and gamers are left out in the cold.
If you’re trying to snag any of Games Workshop’s new releases, you’ve likely run into some issues. Basically, everything sells out in a flash, so you better be glued to your computer when the pre-order goes live.
You could try your luck at your local store, but they might not even know how much stock they’ll get. Tough luck, right?
It looks like GW is finally catching on to the struggle consumers are having to get their hands on their products despite the CEO’s statement that they’ll keep selling out of everything.
Let’s dig into these issues and brainstorm what GW could do to turn things around.
Games Workshop Acknowledges Ongoing Warehouse Issues
Games Workshop hit it big in the first half of the 2023-24 fiscal year, raking in a whopping £95.2m in profits, up from £83.6m, and even upped their dividends by 14p! The release of Warhammer 40k 10th edition in June 2023 was a total game-changer, breaking records for sales in a single month and driving the company’s impressive financial performance.
But hey, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. Games Workshop has been struggling to keep up with the demand for new releases. The launch of Warhammer: The Old World saw products flying off the shelves on pre-order day (seriously, the Bretonnians disappeared in a blink!), and the frenzy even managed to crash the Games Workshop webstore.
Plus, with so many products being exclusives, there was just no other place to get them. Talk about a wild ride!
Games Workshop Says Their Sorry For Ongoing Issues
Our staff and their team efforts are critical to our ongoing success. We thank them all for their ongoing support and their focus on delivering their department’s goals. We also thank some of them for their resilience – our ongoing IT integration projects can at times test anyone’s patience.
Removing 20 year old legacy systems, launching a new online store and maintaining service levels as we deliver the highest volumes ever at our East Midlands Gateway (‘EMG’) warehouse, was never going to be easy. I am very proud of the team’s efforts to date. We thank our impacted customers (less than 5%) for
their significant patience too.
During the mid-year announcement, Games Workshop CEO Kevin Rountree apologized to the company’s affected customers for their considerable patience during ongoing upgrades to the company’s IT, warehousing, and fulfillment infrastructure, as stated in the firm’s half-year report for 2023-24.
Rountree also expressed appreciation for the staff’s resilience during a period marked by the highest sales volumes ever recorded at the UK Warhammer warehouse.
Warehouse Integration Challenges
Boy, GW really kicked off a bunch of IT projects this year, and let’s not forget the new website, which, of course, had its fair share of hiccups, but hey, who doesn’t? Still, they did manage to reach a major milestone by wrapping up the installation of fancy new software and robots at the East Midlands Gateway warehouse. Those robots first made their debut back in 2021 in the States.
This kick-butt facility handles all orders for the UK and continental Europe, shipping products all around Games Workshop’s global network of warehouses.
Despite this progress, Rountree acknowledged existing “systems integration problems” as the newly implemented systems must interface with two decades-old legacy systems. 20-year-old systems will be quite hard to upgrade, and it makes sense why there have been so many issues over the past three years.
The Systems Improvement Programme (SIP) & Looking Forward
The core of Games Workshop’s improvement efforts lies in the internal Systems Improvement Programme (SIP), an initiative to eliminate and replace outdated legacy systems. This program has been a focal point in recent financial reports, reflecting the company’s commitment to modernizing its technological infrastructure.
GW CEO Kevin Rountree expressed optimism about signing off on the SIP in the 2023-24 half-year report, coupled with a two—to three-year investment in IT by 2024. Considering they say the systems have improved so much, let’s hope this means more products on shelves soon.
With this SIP approaching its end, we’ll have to see if it improves the hobby experience or if GW sells out of everything right away—just like the past two years.
Games Workshop Unveils New Factory Plans
Games Workshop is cranking things up a notch with their plans for a brand-new factory. This isn’t just any factory—this is their fourth Factory (F4), and it’s going to be a whopping 62,893 square feet (5843 sq. meters)!
As of June 4, they’ve officially submitted their planning request to Nottingham City Council. So, what’s this factory going to be all about? You can read more about all the big plans, here.
In conclusion, hearing a “we’re sorry and saying thanking hobbyists for being patient” is excellent from Games Workshop. Let’s hope these new systems and the proposed new factory actually make a significant difference soon!
What do you think about the Games Workshop warehouse issues and what they are doing to change it?
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About the Author: Rob Baer
Rob Baer
Job Title: Managing Editor
Founded Spikey Bits in 2009
Socials: Rob Baer on Facebook and @catdaddymbg on X
About Rob Baer: Founder, Publisher, & Managing Editor of Spikey Bits, the leading tabletop gaming news website focused on the hobby side of wargaming and miniatures. Rob has won many Warhammer 40k Tournaments over the years, including the Adepticon Team Tournament and American Team Tournaments, and is on a first-name basis with almost every major company in the space.
He’s all gaming all the time. With over 30 years of experience in retail and distribution, Rob knows all the products and exactly which ones are the best. He advocates for gaming stores and manufacturers in these difficult times, always looking for the next big thing to feature for the miniatures hobby, helping everyone to provide the value consumers want.
While he’s played every edition of Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy (since 5th Edition) and has been hobbying on miniatures since the 1908s, Titans of all sizes will always be his favorite! It’s even rumored that his hobby vault rivals the Solemnance Galleries, containing rulebooks filled with lore from editions long past, ancient packs of black-bordered Magic Cards, and models made of both pewter and resin.
