GW Partial Reopening-US and AUS reopening May 7

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**queen_annes_revenge**

Imagine a warhammer takeaway delivery service...

**Overread**

Plus right now reopening is more for existing than new customers. Most coming are going to have a rough idea what they want in at least a ballpark area. And even with the lockdowns reducing its not closing entirely so people won't be browsing and lurking on the streets like they were before.

**Dysartes**

queen_annes_revenge wrote:
Imagine a warhammer takeaway delivery service...

You mean... mail order?

**Danny76**

I think the problem is a lot of people are arguing their case from their respective countries point of view.
Our lockdown is very different to others for instance in what is allowed still. For opening and for the population etc.

**BrianDavion**

JWBS wrote:
BrianDavion wrote:

Also GW runs their North American supply chain through a single point.

Is that true? It seems so ludicrously quaint and backwards that I can't quite believe it, logically, yet I know it may well be the case. They're running a billion $ business from Nottingham. This is all well and good, Nottingham is as good a place as any, but even the best of places bow down to Globalism. But not GW, they're giving zero feths about it

yeah out of a single location in Texas. I;ve thought it stupid for years. forget about pandemics, one good earthquake or tornado or something could potentialy distrupt operations in North America for months. Maybe just maybe Corona will see an end to that as I suspect everyone's going to be looking at their supply chains after this.

IMHO GW'd be well served to open a smaller secondary facility in Canada (proably Onterio or Quebec) something smallish just eneugh that in the event of some sort of disruption in their other location they can shift supply.

But I admit thats a Canadian speaking whose really worried he'll not be able to get 40k stuff for awhile even after his country re-opens because America's completely out to lunch

**queen_annes_revenge**

Dysartes wrote:
queen_annes_revenge wrote:
Imagine a warhammer takeaway delivery service...

You mean... mail order?

No, mail order takes days to deliver using the postal service. I'm talking about you phone up, then someone on a scooter or a smart car brings your items, like a takeaway.

**Voss**

BrianDavion wrote:
JWBS wrote:
BrianDavion wrote:

Also GW runs their North American supply chain through a single point.

Is that true? It seems so ludicrously quaint and backwards that I can't quite believe it, logically, yet I know it may well be the case. They're running a billion $ business from Nottingham. This is all well and good, Nottingham is as good a place as any, but even the best of places bow down to Globalism. But not GW, they're giving zero feths about it

yeah out of a single location in Texas. I;ve thought it stupid for years. forget about pandemics, one good earthquake or tornado or something could potentialy distrupt operations in North America for months. Maybe just maybe Corona will see an end to that as I suspect everyone's going to be looking at their supply chains after this.

IMHO GW'd be well served to open a smaller secondary facility in Canada (proably Onterio or Quebec) something smallish just eneugh that in the event of some sort of disruption in their other location they can shift supply.

But I admit thats a Canadian speaking whose really worried he'll not be able to get 40k stuff for awhile even after his country re-opens because America's completely out to lunch

Tennessee, not Texas, on top of one of the biggest shipping hubs.
The 'stupidity' of it would really depend on the cost of additional facilities, which would be real every month costs, not... earthquakes in a part of the continent where they really don't happen.

**queen_annes_revenge**

It does seem odd to me that such a massively successful company like gw operate such strange international practices like they do. It must be much more beneficial to expand into new territory, and they clearly have the finances and wherewithal to do so.

**BrianDavion**

Voss wrote:
BrianDavion wrote:
JWBS wrote:
BrianDavion wrote:

Also GW runs their North American supply chain through a single point.

Is that true? It seems so ludicrously quaint and backwards that I can't quite believe it, logically, yet I know it may well be the case. They're running a billion $ business from Nottingham. This is all well and good, Nottingham is as good a place as any, but even the best of places bow down to Globalism. But not GW, they're giving zero feths about it

yeah out of a single location in Texas. I;ve thought it stupid for years. forget about pandemics, one good earthquake or tornado or something could potentialy distrupt operations in North America for months. Maybe just maybe Corona will see an end to that as I suspect everyone's going to be looking at their supply chains after this.

IMHO GW'd be well served to open a smaller secondary facility in Canada (proably Onterio or Quebec) something smallish just eneugh that in the event of some sort of disruption in their other location they can shift supply.

But I admit thats a Canadian speaking whose really worried he'll not be able to get 40k stuff for awhile even after his country re-opens because America's completely out to lunch

Tennessee, not Texas, on top of one of the biggest shipping hubs.
The 'stupidity' of it would really depend on the cost of additional facilities, which would be real every month costs, not... earthquakes in a part of the continent where they really don't happen.

I said earth quake or tornado. the implication was some sort of natural disaster

**tneva82**

Voss wrote:
The 'stupidity' of it would really depend on the cost of additional facilities, which would be real every month costs, not... earthquakes in a part of the continent where they really don't happen.

Earthquake, tornado...Plenty of things. Hell the corona can leave US shut down far longer than say Canada so how Canada will get miniatures if US supply point is shut down? The corona will be dealt in Canada sooner than in US so GW US supply point could easily be locked longer than Canada is.

**Obispudkenobi**

tneva82 wrote:
Voss wrote:
The 'stupidity' of it would really depend on the cost of additional facilities, which would be real every month costs, not... earthquakes in a part of the continent where they really don't happen.

Earthquake, tornado...Plenty of things. Hell the corona can leave US shut down far longer than say Canada so how Canada will get miniatures if US supply point is shut down? The corona will be dealt in Canada sooner than in US so GW US supply point could easily be locked longer than Canada is.

GW could just ship direct to stores in Canada from the UK, it wouldn't be ideal but in a pinch it's plausible. I don't think they ship to the USA and then to Canada for logistics reasons anyway it's more likely an import/export tariff thing, USA I believe has favourable import laws for UK products , but a short term direct solution to Canada I'm sure would be possible if needed.

I suspect Lenton is back up and running or will be soon, as soon as the UK government allow smaller retailers to open with social distancing applied it will be back to semi normality.

**H.B.M.C.**

queen_annes_revenge wrote:
Imagine a warhammer takeaway delivery service...

Every meal deal would come with a Stompa.

**queen_annes_revenge**

They could start a food delivery service as a way to open up again. Deliver food and beer, and models at the same time.

**Jidmah**

You meant to say beer and pretzels, right?

**Not Online!!!**

Jidmah wrote:
You meant to say beer and pretzels, right?

only real ones tho, anything less and the prices would still be to high

**Ghaz**

queen_annes_revenge wrote:
Imagine a warhammer takeaway delivery service...

No need to imagine...

https://yottaquest.com/

One of the stores in Cincinnati is doing local delivery

**Karhedron**

queen_annes_revenge wrote:
It does seem odd to me that such a massively successful company like gw operate such strange international practices like they do. It must be much more beneficial to expand into new territory, and they clearly have the finances and wherewithal to do so.

GW takes a certain pride in their "Best of British" status. The company is homegrown in Nottingham, most of the design team are based there and the company is domiciled here and makes a point of not offshoring its profits and paying its correct share of taxes.

There is also a practical aspect. Injection molding is a fairly expensive process. The toolings need to be made from hard steel if they are to have a lifespan of years or even decades (and there are plenty of plastic kits in GW's range that are 20+ years old). The toolings are quite expensive to create and can easily cost £50K-£100K depending on the size and complexity of the sprue. Now the was to amoritize the cost is to spread it over several production runs. I suspect that things like the Land Raider and Rhino have paid for themselves many times over by now.

And this brings us to the key point. Setting up a second factory would require a second set of machines, staff and (crucially), expensive toolings. A second factory would double GW's production costs but it would not double their sales. Their Nottingham factory is large enough to meet worldwide demand. Even if they could produce twice as much as they do now, they would not be able to sell it. Their might be some economies that could be made to shipping by having a second factory in the US but I doubt it would be anywhere near the amount needed to offset the costs of duplicating their production facilities.

**BrianDavion**

tneva82 wrote:
Voss wrote:
The 'stupidity' of it would really depend on the cost of additional facilities, which would be real every month costs, not... earthquakes in a part of the continent where they really don't happen.

Earthquake, tornado...Plenty of things. Hell the corona can leave US shut down far longer than say Canada so how Canada will get miniatures if US supply point is shut down? The corona will be dealt in Canada sooner than in US so GW US supply point could easily be locked longer than Canada is.

that's really my big concern, Canada is actually doing pretty well with this, meanwhile the US is according to every account making up complete cockup of this.

**Platuan4th**

Ghaz wrote:
queen_annes_revenge wrote:
Imagine a warhammer takeaway delivery service...

No need to imagine...

https://yottaquest.com/

One of the stores in Cincinnati is doing local delivery

My local here in Oklahoma is doing free local delivery for orders over $25.

**LiftForSwift**

Karhedron wrote:
queen_annes_revenge wrote:
It does seem odd to me that such a massively successful company like gw operate such strange international practices like they do. It must be much more beneficial to expand into new territory, and they clearly have the finances and wherewithal to do so.

GW takes a certain pride in their "Best of British" status. The company is homegrown in Nottingham, most of the design team are based there and the company is domiciled here and makes a point of not offshoring its profits and paying its correct share of taxes.

There is also a practical aspect. Injection molding is a fairly expensive process. The toolings need to be made from hard steel if they are to have a lifespan of years or even decades (and there are plenty of plastic kits in GW's range that are 20+ years old). The toolings are quite expensive to create and can easily cost £50K-£100K depending on the size and complexity of the sprue. Now the was to amoritize the cost is to spread it over several production runs. I suspect that things like the Land Raider and Rhino have paid for themselves many times over by now.

And this brings us to the key point. Setting up a second factory would require a second set of machines, staff and (crucially), expensive toolings. A second factory would double GW's production costs but it would not double their sales. Their Nottingham factory is large enough to meet worldwide demand. Even if they could produce twice as much as they do now, they would not be able to sell it. Their might be some economies that could be made to shipping by having a second factory in the US but I doubt it would be anywhere near the amount needed to offset the costs of duplicating their production facilities.

But GW have a factory in China don't they? Terrain pieces are a different plastic and say MADE IN CHINA on the boxes

**Overread**

Yes but if you compare terrain and endless spells to GW models there's a difference in quality of fine details.

You can also have issues with factories in China, even GW has suffered this. One aspect I've heard from a few places is that the ethics and work culture is such that if a problem occurs no one wants to report it. So problems can be maintained through a whole production run until the product is landing in peoples arms and complaining.

GW has already had one kit which was produced where a whole order was missing one sprue

**Danny76**

Obispudkenobi wrote:

I suspect Lenton is back up and running or will be soon, as soon as the UK government allow smaller retailers to open with social distancing applied it will be back to semi normality.

Certainly not up and running now, as they aren’t allowed.
But at some point soon yeah, depends what the decision is in two weeks (I think another two/three week lockdown, then the one after that might be the restriction lightening, at which point they could reopen).

**Kid_Kyoto**

LiftForSwift wrote:

But GW have a factory in China don't they? Terrain pieces are a different plastic and say MADE IN CHINA on the boxes

I believe they outsource to a Chinese company or companies and do not own a plant there.

IIRC at least one of the suppliers seems to be Wargames Factory's supplier who ended up buying them out and refocusing entirely on supplying others. I seem to remember someone identifying new GW products by looking at their online shipping reports.

**xttz**

Plastic crack is coming back!

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2020/04/28/reopening-soon-games-workshop-com/

Hi Everyone,

I hope you and your loved ones are safe and well.

Last week, I let you know that some of our stores were beginning to reopen. The question you’ve most asked since then has been, “What about online? When will games-workshop.com start taking orders again?” I’m happy to confirm what you might have seen over on our Investor Relations site earlier this morning: we’re now able to open up some of our warehouses and will begin shipping orders very soon.

Safety First
The health and safety of all our customers and staff remains our number one priority, so a whole host of new precautions have been introduced to make sure operations can be carried out in a safe environment. We’re being very careful in how we do this – our Health & Safety and warehouse teams have worked tirelessly to ensure that these facilities adhere to all government guidelines and that our staff will be maintaining effective social distancing at all times.

Thanks to these heroic efforts, we’re able to reopen some of our warehouses from today. This means that (depending on where you are in the world) if you have an order pending with us to be shipped out to your home address, it will be processed and dispatched over the next few days. If you have an order pending to be shipped to a Games Workshop or Warhammer store, we’ll be in touch soon to sort out the next steps for your order. The warehouse teams will be working hard to make sure you get your orders as quickly and efficiently as possible while taking the utmost care to keep everyone safe.

How About the Webstore?

Games-workshop.com won’t be taking any new orders just yet, as we want to make sure pending orders are cleared while we are getting the site back up and running fully. Don’t worry though, the webstore will be open for business again very soon! Like, Friday soon. From the 1st of May, you’ll once again (subject to your location) be able to place orders on games-workshop.com and stock up on all those hobby essentials.

It won’t quite be business as usual though, and there are a few things to bear in mind:

With many of our retail stores still closed, the “ship-to-store” delivery option won’t be available. To offset this, we’re reducing the Free Shipping threshold by 50% in all territories where this option was previously available.
With the warehouse reconfigured for extra safety, it may take longer than normal to process, pack and ship your order.
With the factory still locked down, we are likely to see a few more items than usual go out of stock, and it may take us a bit longer than normal to resupply them.
Our focus right now is on getting you your hobby essentials. No news on when we’ll be unleashing new releases just yet. We’ll keep you posted.

Supporting Independents
Now, I know that loads of you love supporting your local independent stores, and as the warehouses come back online, we’ll be able to start resupplying them. While many of them aren’t open for business right now (and it may be some time yet before they are), we’ve come up with something special to help them out when that time comes. We’ll be sending our independent stockists a supply of a very special edition Catachan Colonel free of charge, so they can keep every penny they make! Like other limited edition or Made to Order miniatures, this Catachan won’t be available anywhere else, so keep in touch with your local independent store – they’ll be counting on your loyalty when they reopen.

**terry**

good news and good to read that while they're opening up, it is in a limited capacity for the health and safety of there employees

**Aenar**

US, Canada, NZ, Australia and Italy are the 5 countries to which they won't be selling nor shipping for the foreseeable future.
UK and rest of Europe should be fine, apparently:
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Keeping-Our-Staff-Safe

**Mad Doc Grotsnik**

Yarp.

Particularly impressed with the Ltd Model to support FLGS. I mean, making it available in the first place is great. Supplying it for free, so they stand to get a solid cash injection? Even better.

No, it’s not altruism. GW are doing it to keep those wholesale orders coming in. But it’s about as close as you can get to altruism.

**Not Online!!!**

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Yarp.

Particularly impressed with the Ltd Model to support FLGS. I mean, making it available in the first place is great. Supplying it for free, so they stand to get a solid cash injection? Even better.

No, it’s not altruism. GW are doing it to keep those wholesale orders coming in. But it’s about as close as you can get to altruism.

it's corporatistic, as in you work with your workers and 3rd parties because you allways meet twice.

For GW the FLG's dying off means in some cases wholesale losing market access. and one of the reasons why GW is successfull is market coverage.

**Mad Doc Grotsnik**

GW cancelled my Saga of the Beast order, as I’d plumped for it to go to my local store.

They’ve refunded me via voucher....to the tune of £30! Time to place that order again, I guess!

**Overread**

Right now the countries GW isn't shipping too seems to be most of those using super-lockdowns or in the USA block. Not sure why USA and Canada are excluded, but heck it could just be that they are such big markets on their own that GW wants to get the EU and "rest of world" settled down before hitting the USA block - esp since that block likely takes much longer to restock.

Also out of interest, does anyone know if their new factory came online yet? Now would be a great time to have that factory running as that means increased capacity even if they have to limited workers within each factory and perhaps also limit the number of machines running. Though I still think the bottleneck won't be machines but packing.