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http://investor.games-workshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/2014-15-Press-statement-final-website-final.pdf

Games Workshop Group PLC announces that the Board has today declared a dividend of 20 pence per share. This will be paid on 14 September 2015 for shareholders on the register at 7 August 2015, with an ex-dividend date of 6 August 2015. The last date for elections for the dividend re-investment plan is 21 August 2015.

No surprise there. It'll be curious to read whether or not they deserve to pay a dividend (I'm downloading as I type).

Wow, much more profit.

Our customers tend to be teenage boys and male adults with some spare money to spend and time to enjoy hobbies.

Poor people and opponents of boob-plate get BTFO once again.

Well, my Page 1 takeaways from a quick glance:

1. Revenue (at constant currency) is essentially unchanged
2. Profit is essentially unchanged (but no GBP 4.5M charge)
3. Gash Generated is a lot
4. EPS bump is good
5. Mail order is king! Holy crap, shows how much more profitable it is.
6. The sky isn't falling. Some people will be very disappointed that GW's imminent bankruptcy is not yet imminent.

It's better than people expected. Which means the folks who didn't sell off their GW will shares will probably be happy. And perhaps the people who think that GW is a mismanaged mess are actually wrong; and possibly, despite them making decisions that may be unpopular with many players or hobbyists, they may be making the right decisions to maximize their profits for their shareholders.

Technically, much less exceptional deductions.

Revenue down a smidgen, operating profit down a smidgen, cash generated up a smidgen.

At first glance a better report than last year's. A lot of cash has gone out of the business, presumably into dividends. Fair enough if they have also invested wisely.

Have to look in detail at the balance sheet etc to get the full story.

 Talys wrote:
Wow, much more profit.

Um, yeah, because they didn't have a 4.5 million exception expense this year (iirc it was their website redesign) and they also paid around a million GBP less in taxes. Sales and actual revenue are down.


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 Talys wrote:

6. The sky isn't falling. Some people will be very disappointed that GW's imminent bankruptcy is not yet imminent.

It's better than people expected. Which means the folks who didn't sell off their GW will shares will probably be happy.

The sky isn't falling indeed and it is better than expected (for detractors) but not as good as it should be given they more than doubled the pace of releases for their biggest line. Anyone who expected imminent bankruptcy was a fool. I did however expect to see more fatigue from the pace of releases greater than a 3% drop in sales though.

 warboss wrote:

 Talys wrote:
Wow, much more profit.

Um, yeah, because they didn't have a 4.5 million exception expense this year (iirc it was their website redesign) and they also paid around a million GBP less in taxes. Sales and actual revenue are down.

Yeah, I mentioned that in my post a few minutes after.

I think, overall, GW should be happy with those numbers.

Yeah, I saw that after I posted (ninja'd in between).

Also, if you think about it, 16.5m GBP net profit and 25.6m GBP cash generated out of 123.1m GBP revenue... 13.4% net profit is very healthy for a manufacturer/retailer.

By the way Space Marines didn't come out until FY 2016 (they launched June); only Eldar made it into FY 2015.

Regarding fatigue: I think this is an indicator that working the golden goose (read - superfans) is a highly profitable venture. Incidentally, I hope they feel validated that their post-2015 codex releases are the right track and keep going that way **until all the freaking factions are done**.

This is interesting

"Secondly, I will review our product range. We believe this is long overdue: it is time for a resetting of the ranges. Not tweaking here and
there but a top down reassessment. I expect to update you further at the half year. We will aim to continue to deliver outstanding
product and customer service, maintain our Group gross margin and continue to improve our Group stock turn. To be absolutely clear I
will not be reducing the RRP of our products: they are premium priced for their premium quality. I will, however, be looking to offer a
broader range of price points. This is exciting and is for the long term, so I'm not promising when you will see a change. We have
already started the brainstorming in our monthly strategic product meetings. It is early days, but I can already foresee some busy times
ahead."

Two non-financial takeaways:

1) FW moving to the main website publically confirmed, this becomes interesting if it allows ordering to store and removes that ridiculous postage barrier (price is a little steep in my experience considering I've been part of doing more for less in London with companies with proven track records but whatever).

2)

Secondly, I will review our product range. We believe this is long overdue: it is time for a resetting of the ranges. Not tweaking here and there but a top down reassessment. I expect to update you further at the half year. We will aim to continue to deliver outstanding product and customer service, maintain our Group gross margin and continue to improve our Group stock turn. To be absolutely clear I will not be reducing the RRP of our products: they are premium priced for their premium quality. I will, however, be looking to offer a broader range of price points. This is exciting and is for the long term, so I'm not promising when you will see a change. We have already started the brainstorming in our monthly strategic product meetings. It is early days, but I can already foresee some busy times ahead.

Hope you don't play a niche or under-performing 40k army like Sisters or Dark Eldar................or Slaanesh.

 warboss wrote:
Sales and actual revenue are down.

The important bit; everything else is just fluff and management doublespeak.

Mymearan wrote:This is interesting

"Secondly, I will review our product range. We believe this is long overdue: it is time for a resetting of the ranges. Not tweaking here and
there but a top down reassessment. I expect to update you further at the half year. We will aim to continue to deliver outstanding
product and customer service, maintain our Group gross margin and continue to improve our Group stock turn. To be absolutely clear I
will not be reducing the RRP of our products: they are premium priced for their premium quality. I will, however, be looking to offer a
broader range of price points. This is exciting and is for the long term, so I'm not promising when you will see a change. We have
already started the brainstorming in our monthly strategic product meetings. It is early days, but I can already foresee some busy times
ahead."

Baragash wrote:

Hope you don't play a niche or under-performing 40k army like Sisters or Dark Eldar................or Slaanesh.

In context, he seems to be saying that he will consider releasing cheaper options for some models. and possibly some more expensive ones. Does not look like dropping 40k factions is hinted at.

In the dropping-support sense they have already reviewed the hel out of their range (epic, BFG, WFB).

 Silent Puffin? wrote:

 warboss wrote:
Sales and actual revenue are down.

The important bit; everything else is just fluff and management doublespeak.

Over the full year, it's down a tiny amount. However, given that the first 6 months was significantly lower, the last 6 months outperformed the same period in the prior year.


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 Baragash wrote:
Two non-financial takeaways:

1) FW moving to the main website publically confirmed, this becomes interesting if it allows ordering to store and removes that ridiculous postage barrier (price is a little steep in my experience considering I've been part of doing more for less in London with companies with proven track records but whatever).

This is such a wonderful thing. If it can be ordered via FLGS (through web orders) they will get, like tens of thousands out of some peeps.

123,5 -> 119,1
That is small? That's actualyl another step into getting small.

The effect of these non-core activities and the continuing effects of unfavourable exchange rates mean that our reported sales show declines in retail (-
4.6%) and trade (-6.3%). Mail order growth was 3.9%.

Jeez GW is taking a long time to just collapse already

Considering how hard GW blitz the 2nd half of the year with rapid releases and with 7th Edition dropping at the start of the fiscal year to have continued sales drops is not a great sigh for their long term gameplan. They are quick to stamp out any notion of price drops because that apparently sounds like corporate heresy to them.

"In July 2015, we relaunched Warhammer Fantasy to broad acclaim ‘Warhammer: Age of Sigmar’."


Broad acclaim? Wouldn't have called it that.

 Baragash wrote:
Two non-financial takeaways:

1) FW moving to the main website publically confirmed, this becomes interesting if it allows ordering to store and removes that ridiculous postage barrier (price is a little steep in my experience considering I've been part of doing more for less in London with companies with proven track records but whatever).

Interesting and good news. The stupid postage actively puts me off purchasing. Every now and then maybe once, twice a year I'll have enough to justify spending enough to get free postage, but I won't indulge in the odd impulse buy.

 Fenrir Kitsune wrote:
"In July 2015, we relaunched Warhammer Fantasy to broad acclaim ‘Warhammer: Age of Sigmar’."


Broad acclaim? Wouldn't have called it that.

Well, broadly speaking some of it could be called acclaim.

 Fenrir Kitsune wrote:
"In July 2015, we relaunched Warhammer Fantasy to broad acclaim ‘Warhammer: Age of Sigmar’."


Broad acclaim? Wouldn't have called it that.

Not to mention i thought the official line was that aos isn't whfb :p

FW moving to main GW website? Does that mean that FW prices for Australians are about to skyrocket for no God-damned reason?

And does this report actually include the AoS launch?

 H.B.M.C. wrote:


And does this report actually include the AoS launch?

It does not. Their 2014/2015 year ended on 31st of May, so AoS won't be included in this report.

To be absolutely clear I will not be reducing the RRP of our products:

"You're not much good to me alive, are you, GW?"

 Talys wrote:

Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Baragash wrote:
Two non-financial takeaways:

1) FW moving to the main website publically confirmed, this becomes interesting if it allows ordering to store and removes that ridiculous postage barrier (price is a little steep in my experience considering I've been part of doing more for less in London with companies with proven track records but whatever).

This is such a wonderful thing. If it can be ordered via FLGS (through web orders) they will get, like tens of thousands out of some peeps.

The people spending thousands get free shipping anyway, so there's no barrier there. It will mean a pretty significant boost in smaller purchases though .

@OP- You missed off one of the best parts of this release. The Chairman's preamble.

Let's take a peek inside the mind of Tom Kirby.

To be absolutely clear I will not be reducing the RRP of our products:

All hail the Eastern Sun!

Herzlos wrote:

 Talys wrote:

Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Baragash wrote:
Two non-financial takeaways:

1) FW moving to the main website publically confirmed, this becomes interesting if it allows ordering to store and removes that ridiculous postage barrier (price is a little steep in my experience considering I've been part of doing more for less in London with companies with proven track records but whatever).

This is such a wonderful thing. If it can be ordered via FLGS (through web orders) they will get, like tens of thousands out of some peeps.

The people spending thousands get free shipping anyway, so there's no barrier there. It will mean a pretty significant boost in smaller purchases though .

Where does this leave the whole "I don't support GW, I give my money to FW" "you know its the same company?" stuff that was going on elsewhere?

 Sigvatr wrote:

To be absolutely clear I will not be reducing the RRP of our products:

All hail the Eastern Sun!

We will defeat East Asia!!!

 AlexHolker wrote:

To be absolutely clear I will not be reducing the RRP of our products:

"You're not much good to me alive, are you, GW?"

All they have to do is repackage some stuff into smaller, cheaper, or larger cheaper bundles, and they can create cheaper prices without seemingly reducing prices. Also, stop raising prices, and inflation will gradually erode the price barrier. If there was any inflation anyway, ATM the UK has gone to zero inflation again.