GW has posted it's year-end financials for 2012. If you were hoping for any sort of dip in their sales/profits, you won't find it here. The numbers look pretty strong. Expenses are down, and profits are up. Particularly in North America, which saw the greatest sales growth of all their regions.
Here's the link to the report:
http://investor.games-workshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Final-group-accounts-3-June-2012.pdf
Let's look at some of the numbers...
These are pretty solid growth numbers. Particularly compared to the last several years. I think we're seeing the effect of the management switch from Kirby to Wells as CEO.
I'm not sure what 'Export' represents, probably Forge World and other shipments from Britain to other countries. Since it seems to be wrapped into their other numbers elsewhere.
In terms of regions, North America is leading the pack.
The average price increase last year (not this year's, which will affect next year's financials) was 13.2%. So while GW's overall sales only increased 6.47% (Indicating a lower number of individual products sold overall), North American sales growth came pretty close to matching the price increase. It seems we like 'dem higher prices. Go figure.
Other Points Of Interest
They've added 24 employees to 'Design and Development'. Which will hopefully help speed up their anemic release schedule.
They made £546K from the appreciation of the US Dollar. If you deduct that from the North American Revenue, it knocks %1.63 off of the sales growth for a total of %10.8. Which still isn't a bad number. Of course they also lost £306K on the depreciation of the Euro.
GW has £17.6M in the bank. But their cash flow for this year and last was negative by £214K.
Looking at the shares owned by major holders since last year, we can see that Nomad and Phoenix have reduced their stakes in the company. While Investec and Polar held firm.
That's it for now. I'll keep looking over the report and see if there's anything else interesting. But GW seems to be happy with where it's at financially. With the hobbit money coming in this year, things should be rosy for next year too, even if 40K/Fantasy sales drop due to overall dissatisfaction (if any) with those games.
GW is smarter than we give them credit for sometimes. You have to accept that the company is run by suits and not gamers.
ReplyDeleteWhen it was run by gamers back in the day, to managed to turn out a hell of a product, break new ground and expand. Fun is the only word to describe it. Now that is is run by business people as a business, they have taken a lot of the fun out of it but we are getting a lot more out of it too. That being said, non-gamers (or suits) are not in touch with the common gamer and something is lost on them like thinking that Finecast was a good idea. In a way it was a good idea. It saved them a ton on metal minis and allowed them to preserve their production model in the light of rising prices on metal. Great business choice! A gamer never would have green-lighted that project and the company would have either have to overhaul how they produce minis or take the hit.
DeleteI am ambivalent. I would love to see a company take a stand and refuse to produce an inferior product but then again, I want them to make smart choices for them as a company to ensure their future. It goes both ways.
Personally, I'd have been fine with Finecast if they'd dropped the prices some instead of raising them and pretending that they'd spent years developing a 'superior' solution that they bought off-the-shelf from a vendor.
DeleteBut pay more for less quality? Who dreamed that up? It's delusional.
Accepted. They're getting what THEY want out of the business. Who am I to argue with that?
ReplyDeleteOf course they are. It is their company. So no reason argue.
DeleteThey have to make money to stay in business. It is puerile to think that making money is bad.
DeleteMaking money isn't bad, not at all. I just think they could go about it better.
DeleteIf they took a more customer-centric approach, and combined it with an effort to expand the wargaming market instead of riding it's decline, they could have happy(er) customers AND more profits. But GW prefers to act like they're a municipal power utility instead of a consumer products company. They have that luxury, I guess. But they could be so much more than that.
In the report, Kirby says GW intends to still be around in 50 years. But if so, how many customers will they have? Five? You can't keep shrinking your player base with price increases and expect the profits to flow forever.
I think GW should send me free armies every week. It would be good business for them because I could like tell people about how awesome it is that I get free armies and stuff.
DeleteGood luck with that. :)
DeleteOther people seem to be pretty happy about it too.
ReplyDeleteI have spent a lot of money on GW product recently, but it hasn't been models; I had to bail out of the tabletop after unsuccessfully trying to invest in a Footslogging Imperial Guard army.
ReplyDeleteIt's actually been Black Library literature, and if only their miniatures line followed the same pricing scheme; Their Omnibuses and Chapterbooks are insanely cheap at around $15 and $10 respectively (even cheaper through Amazon). I've bought $200 worth of Gaunt's Ghosts, Eisenhorn/Ravenor, and the Horus Heresy, and I'm looking forward to purchasing more when I've finished with them.
There's an interesting table on page 54 of the report. I'm no accountant, but it seems to say that GW (The Holding Group), is making all the money. While GW (The Company) actually lost £2.45M on a cash basis this year, and £2.27M last year.
DeleteI want to see a trained accountant look at that with a critical eye before I make too much of it. But it would seem to indicate to me that Forge World and the Black Library are doing much better than the miniatures business. Boosting the profits of the group overall.
But again, I'm not an accountant. Those numbers may just reflect some investments that haven't paid off yet.
This is such a great post. Everywhere else where they've posted the financial report, it is just a link to the page. Here at least you have done some critical thinking and analyses.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
DeleteIt seems a waste not to look at what everyone wants to know and then talk about it.
Thank you for taking the time Sandwyrm.
ReplyDeleteFor me the best news all day has been "24 new employees in Design and Development." That's probably double what they had to start with! Could that mean double the releases? We can only hope!
It's not that big of an increase Atrotos.
DeleteThey went from 90 employees there to 114. So I can only assume that the number includes sculptors, painters, and (of we're lucky) another designer or two.