Games Workshop profits surge amid video games and Amazon TV deals
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Games Workshop has cheered joining the FTSE 100 with its best ever half-year performance, as interim profit soared by a third. Best known for its Warhammer game series, the retailer made its once-unlikely debut on London’s premier stock index late last year.
Profit reached £126.8 million for the six months to December 1, while revenue was just under £300 million, a jump of one-fifth compared to the same period last year. The results mark the period in which Games Workshop completed its ascent to the FTSE 100, just under 50 years after founders Ian Livingstone, Steve Jackson and John Peake set up the company in a Shepherd’s Bush flat in 1975.
It means the retailer – which still sells its collectable cards and board games – joined the likes of Shell, HSBC and Sainsbury’s on the blue-chip stock index on December 23. A fast-growing chunk of its new cash is coming from video game adaptations.
Two new games around the Warhammer 40,000 sci-fi universe launched in the second part of last year, making up the bulk of a 140% increase in licensing revenue. In December, Games Workshop also struck a deal with Amazon to allow it to adapt the product for film and television.
While it did not give figures on the deal, chief executive Kevin Rowntree said: “We own what we believe is some of the best under-exploited intellectual property globally.”. The proceeds from the Amazon deal were not included in these interim results as it was struck after December 1.
