Cutter
08-13-2015, 02:15 AM
Some of you may find this interesting,
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/stockrank-movers-games-workshop-wields-123411209.html
especially if your one of those
‘slightly odd customers that these shops attract are probably very loyal, as they are locked into that nerdy lifestyle, and probably won't be getting married anytime soon.’
Charon
08-13-2015, 02:50 AM
I can understand him. If I have to go to one of these Warhammer stores because I need an ink this is basically what I see... and poor standards of hygiene is what I smell.
Mr Mystery
08-13-2015, 03:12 AM
Started reading it.
Got the technical stuff
http://www.quickmeme.com/img/b7/b7fc029207afd5f9013bae8745ce496f3dc5868d8e6a46dfc6 152b818d5925ab.jpg
Erik Setzer
08-13-2015, 08:23 AM
Wow. Just... wow. So, because the stock has had a slight bounce, that makes it a good buy? Yeah, it's up from July 13 X%, but considering it hit a high of 600 and is bad down to 575 at the moment, I'm not sure I'd be calling that a lasting upswing. I also think it's peculiar to try to play up a company having higher margin when it sells a LOT less product, in fewer places, and tries to set a monopoly where people have to buy a lot of the product through their skimmed-to-the-bone system. Sure, you can get better margins if you do that. But when your revenues are still dropping at a rate faster than you can come up with excuses, does it really mean that much? A lemonade stand likely has outrageously high margins, guess we better invest in those...
While he takes the claim that "yep, growth is just around the corner, we swear it's true this time!" at face value, he ignores a lot of the recent history of the company, likely because he doesn't know what they actually do (I mean generally with the hobby, but yeah, he doesn't know the business practices either). In their own report, they've noted an inability to get in many new customers (even as they refuse to market and are rebranding stores to be more recognizable to existing customers, both of which are how *not* to increase your number of customers).
The company has trimmed its lines down to just two, discounting the soon to be gone Hobbit/LOTR line (which they never really promoted much), and they just killed off their longest running line because they mismanaged it so poorly, and it's early to get a read on the replacement, but so far the strategy for it isn't exactly going to help them get a large player base or sell much new stuff (particularly the newer, pricier stuff).
The biggest issue right now, but one that some guy writing at Yahoo! without doing more than skimming the annual report wouldn't recognize, is that competition is coming back hard. In the '90s, there were a lot of games that vied for attention, but GW held them off because it had competitive pricing and supported the games and treated its customers well, so people stuck with their games, latching on more with the Fanatic/Specialist Games. Now, the competition level is rising again. You've got Warmachine/Hordes (granted, it's been around a while), X-Wing & Armada, DZC, the Halo fleet and skirmish games, Flames of War, Bolt Action, Kings of War, Infinity, Malifaux, Frostgrave, and others appearing. Games Workshop's sole advantage is that so many people have dropped so much money on GW product that they don't want to leave, lest that money be "wasted." As price goes, they're not competitive with most of these new games. As quality goes, they have a leg up with models over some of them, but with the rules themselves some of the other games easily handle them or match them. Customer outreach and marketing, it's the others who have the edge. But the real issue is the FLGS's. As GW becomes more combative to them and tries to pull people more and more to buy strictly through GW (to keep that margin high!), the FLGS's recognize that it makes more sense for them to push these other games. And the more that happens, the more people will see these other games, and likely migrate to them. A new player coming in looking for a game in a community that has multiple choices will likely be prompted away from the GW games because of price. While in many areas there's still a decent GW following, and it's nice to have more players, you don't want to steer a new guy toward something that costs hundreds of dollars just to get started, and where he'll start taking money away from your shop. (Some stores get around this by also selling used minis, so they can sell some GW minis at prices competitive with eBay and such, but then that still represents an issue for GW as those aren't new sales providing them with new money.)
Given that GW just pushed out a new edition of its flagship game last year (and the only top system they have left), as well as Knights, the whole End Times series, three new armies, multiple new codices, and a slew of new higher-priced kits, and still saw revenues drop, I wouldn't be jumping to believe they'll suddenly see a rise in revenues.
But hey, maybe they can cut some employees, close some shops, and keep the profit and margin percentage up, so as their sales dwindle, people will say how magnificently well they're doing.
- - - Updated - - -
Another commentary:
http://www.iii.co.uk/news-opinion/richard-beddard/games-workshop%3A-inflection-point
This guy actually caught the fact that GW hasn't been making trade accounts or customers happy, which is not what you need when you're trying to stop the bleeding and start growing again.
Also interesting to note Rountree just bought 4000 shares:
http://www.4-traders.com/GAMES-WORKSHOP-GROUP-PLC-4001963/news/Games-Workshop--CEO-Buys-4000-Shares-DIRECTOR-DEALINGS-20859294/
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