Topic: Games Workshop Financials!

[Gankom]

Gdubs has released their financial report for the last half year and its very interesting.

https://assets.ctfassets.net/ost7hseic9hc/1tSExWot8zVGvrPyXJOEJo/dc17ba0f8fc48a497ca6026f2a1fae4d/2023-24_half_year_report_-_final_for_IR.pdf

The Goonhammer guys have a good little write up you should check out for some better analysis, but there's a few things that caught my eye.

https://www.goonhammer.com/games-industry-news-roundup-january-16th-2024/

Firstly, the company financials are in-line with its predictions from its earlier forecast in December, which we covered here. In all areas save for licensing Games Workshop saw an increase in profits when compared to this time last year. The retail sector of the company in particular continues to do well, with Games Workshop opening 14 new stores internationally to bring the company to a total of 535 Games Workshop-owned Warhammer retail locations.

The document also outlines success in the manufacturing department for the company. The earnings report states that “improving efficiency” at the company’s three Nottingham factories has allowed for Games Workshop to break several manufacturing records this year and allowed Games Workshop to negate the need for additional new manufacturing equipment to meet demand. The document also speaks briefly about potential plans to open a fourth factory in the future, as demand increases.

So the company in general is doing REALLY GOOD. The factory stuff in particular is very interesting to me in light of the recent discussion elsewhere about limited boxes. We might rage about how quickly it sells out, but from a business perspective it seems the company is very happy with how things are going.

BUT THERE'S MORE! Check out this tidbit;

earnings report states that the company is currently working with its IT department closely to replace the 20-year-old legacy warehousing systems. This project is known as the systems improvement project, or the SIP, and during the transition period to the modern warehousing systems, it “…may cause service levels to fall short at times for some customers. We will do everything we can to minimise this impact.”

They just updated their website (poorly imo) and are in the midst of what seems like a massive update of their warehousing stuff. That could be a major part of the recent issues. if so, hopefully that means better things in the future once it gets sorted.

[GamesPoet]

Further evidence for the initial runs of products to happen as they have been.

And I agree, the new website seems to be less than favorable, as well as less than what it was before.  Perhaps they'll fix this, perhaps.

By the way ... thanks for posting!

[S.O.F]

earnings report states that the company is currently working with its IT department closely to replace the 20-year-old legacy warehousing systems. This project is known as the systems improvement project, or the SIP, and during the transition period to the modern warehousing systems, it “…may cause service levels to fall short at times for some customers. We will do everything we can to minimise this impact.”

They just updated their website (poorly imo) and are in the midst of what seems like a massive update of their warehousing stuff. That could be a major part of the recent issues. if so, hopefully that means better things in the future once it gets sorted.

Reading that gave me horror flashbacks from my own employer just this fall. This purely talk of how inventory will be managed, so depending on how ambitious knowing the number of units of each item they sell from reserves in GW's DC's to units actively on shelves in it many brick and mortar stores.  My guess is though they just started the train under the promise that they would be able to build the rails ahead of it, this of course never works and then the customer and employees suffer, but hey to Corp "line go up" so that is all that matters.

[Gankom]

G-dubs has released a really brief year end trading update ahead of their main report. It looks... freaking great for them.

https://investor.games-workshop.com/news-posts/yearendtradingupdate190624

To borrow from one of my other sites I read, who says it much better then I could.

In the update, Games Workshop shared that the company profits have soared since last year, estimating that in fiscal year 2024 “core revenue to be not less than £490 million (2022/23: £445 million) and licensing income of £30 million (2022/23: £25 million). The Group’s profit before tax (“PBT”) is estimated to be not less than £200 million (2022/23: £171 million).”

To accompany this surge of profits, Games Workshop stated in the report that it will be paying out a bonus to all company employees. The sum total of this bonus will be £18 million, divided equally among the Games Workshop staff. This staff bonus is up from last year’s group profit share sum of  £11 million in 2023.Games Workshop shareholder dividends in FY 2024 were reported at £138 million, up £2 from FY 2023.

[GamesPoet]

Seems like a significant profit year.  That means a continuation of the business and the a good portion of fun that those folk are having in the hobby, regardless of what game they are playing, this can't be that bad of a thing.

[Gankom]

More financial reports! I'm going to copy paste some of the blurb from the great folks at Goonhammer for the discussion/record,

https://assets.ctfassets.net/ost7hseic9hc/6nhjgj1BVPlaTocG6L4IbS/e42b72a50979ca58769b9e85e04ae79a/2023-24_accounts_-_final.pdf

The report, which covers the time period between May 29th, 2023 to June 2nd, 2024, shows an impressive profit surge for Games Workshop. The company posted a core revenue of £454 million, and a pre-tax operating profit of £203 million. This is a nearly 20% increase in pre-tax profits for the company since FY 2023, when Games Workshop reported a pre-tax profit of £170 million. 

Speaking further on these financials and the company’s future in the strategic report, CEO Kevin Rountree attributes the success of Games Workshop to a focus on “long term goals, with short term gains.”

Games Workshop elaborated their plans for a fourth factory in Nottingham in the report as part of the company’s success strategy for the near future. The factory is expected to cost around £9 million to construct, with an estimated completion date of spring 2026.

Speaking of challenges during the fiscal year, Games Workshop cites its continued struggles with legacy IT systems, as well as struggling to find balance in the company’s level of stock between too much or too little.

Still, with the release of Warhammer 40,000 tenth edition during this fiscal year, it’s little surprise that Games Workshop has posted strong financials. As for FY 2025, while major releases like Age of Sigmar 4.0 and licensed products such as Space Marine 2 are sure to drive strong profits, it will be difficult to top such a strong year.   

A fourth factory is a pretty big deal, thats a fair bit of expansion in only a few years with the third one only recently fully spun up. Things are looking good for Gdubs.

[Gankom]

Adding a link to the article I pulled this from for due diligence.

https://www.goonhammer.com/games-industry-news-roundup-august-7th-2024/

[GamesPoet]

Thanks a bunch for posting this!