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Made in es
Brutal Black Orc




Barcelona, Spain

 jmurph wrote:
The note that they are still trying to protect game rules (points) is odd, though, as that is clearly not protectable. The pictures and art is a clear violation.


It's double odd once you consider that scrollbuilder, which does have ALL point costs for AoS (and it's up to date), is available for free in their very own website and is still running. The hammer went for the artwork.
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut




Yeah, I think they added the rules offense because they had to rather than them actually caring about it.

Alot of this could've been avoided if the page owner just didn't use any official images but did like every other fan project and use only fan-made content.
   
Made in us
Dipping With Wood Stain



Welwyn Garden City, Herts

2016/17 Full Year Financials out:
https://19485-presscdn-0-14-pagely.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/2016-17-Press-statement.pdf

Headlines -

revenue up from £118M to £158M (£143M constant currency)

non-royalty operating profit up from £11M to £31M

royalties up from £6M to £7.5M

eps up from £0.42 to £0.95

Also a trading statement for the first months of 2017/18 -https://investor.games-workshop.com/2017/07/25/trading-update-6/

For the period from 29 May 2017 to 23 July 2017

Following on from the Group’s good performance in 2016/17, trading has continued strongly into 2017/18 such that sales and profits for 2017/18 to date are well above the same period in the prior year. Profits for 2017/18 are therefore likely to be above market expectations.

However, the Board remains aware that there is some uncertainty in the trading periods ahead for the rest of the 2017/18 financial year. A further update will be given as appropriate.


And Tom Kirby is stepping down as a Director https://investor.games-workshop.com/2017/07/25/retirement-of-tom-kirby-as-non-executive-chairman/

Let the discussions begin ... (ohh, share price is up from about £13.30 yesterday to £14.50 today).

   
Made in de
Longtime Dakkanaut




Thats quite the bump!
   
Made in us
Dipping With Wood Stain



Welwyn Garden City, Herts

Skimming the report I came across this paragraph:

As a direct result of our significant sales and profit growth, we rewarded all of our staff with a £1,750 discretionary
payment in addition to a £250 profit share payment each (total cost £3.4 million). We also honoured our commitment to
pay 20% of any sales increase to our retail store managers (total cost £1.8 million) who achieved growth whilst
maintaining costs broadly in-line with last year — an impressive achievement, well done to you all!


Well done to the management in recognising the staff at the frontline, especially if this was truly a discretionary payment.

   
Made in fr
Longtime Dakkanaut






Good for them. In my opinion it's quite well deserved.
   
Made in ca
Posts with Authority




I'm from the future. The future of space

Gross margin improved in the year (2017: 72.4%; 2016: 68.3%), benefitting from sales volume growth and, as always, it is affected by the sales mix of new and existing product: (34% of sales from new releases and 66% of sales from existing product).


It's really refreshing to hear GW finally connect their margins with volume. Sales volume growth improves margin when you have a high up front cost and low marginal cost. Each plastic sprue they make is relatively expensive to design, tool and bring to production, but once you are making them, each sprue is incredibly cheap to produce.

For years GW was on the path of intentionally reducing volume and increasing price to get their margins up. So it's actually really cool that when their margins do finally go up, the guy running the company points at the connection with volume. I don't think Kirby ever would have done this.

We continue to offer a broad range of price points and we have maintained our policy of aiming to only increase the prices of our new releases to reflect the necessary investment in our product quality. The annual impact of this increase on our UK RRP price list is an average increase of 3%.


I actually like this approach much better than the years of "price adjustments" that happened after the decline of LOTR sales. So many people I played with (and eventually myself) just quit out of exasperation as prices went up 10%+ each June year after year after year.

It should also make any army or faction with existing models that you like a more attractive ongoing project. If you are going to start an army that already has kits you want to get, you won't need to worry about prices shooting up unless you get new stuff- which isn't that bad of a problem to have.

The other thing publishing the break down in sales of new vs existing products and the effective price increase of 3% allows us to do is to be certain that GW has actually increased the number of products sold. After years and years of declining sales volume where each price increase meant that some combination of less people and less bought per customer was occuring. Now we have a known price increase (3% effective based on 34% of sales being new releases) and an increase in revenue well beyond that rate, we know that some combination of more people are buying more product.

Black Library 2017: £2,296,000 2016: £1,776,000


For those of us who were hoping GW would decrease the time between the launch of their books and when they become available in normal bookseller distribution or were hoping to see their eBooks in our favourite market place rather than buying them direct from GW, I think we are going to be disappointed. GW is going to continue on this path of selling directly at high prices and only having books go to normal bookseller distribution long after they've had a chance to sell them direct.

Whatever we might think of how GW is handling their fiction publication, it's working for them.

Operating expenses by segment :
Trade (10,855) (8,899)
Retail (42,849) (35,930)


Trade sales are simply more efficient for GW. Hopefully GW continues to make dealing with them as a trade account easier and easier.

Operating Profit:
Trade 17,956 10,625
Retail 461 (3,927)


So their retail operation is no longer costing them money to run but is now actually profitable. I hope they realize that this is a result of higher actual sales volume. That they need a certain critical mass of customers and units sold in order for their retail operation to be profitable and that it is not sustainable to have very fixed retail costs in the face of declining revenue and a shrinking customer base, even if each customer is paying a higher price.

One thing I've blasted GW for over the years was talking about a theoretical return to growth but never actually having a plan to get there. And at the same time intentionally pursuing margins through declining volumes sold at a higher price. That they were doing a controlled shrinking of their business to drive their margins up as high as possible.

We know from previous reports that Rountree saw some of the cuts to retail administration and support as going too far and has reversed those cuts, so I think it's safe to say that GW is no longer cutting costs as their means to maintain margins. That was Mark Wells' plan to deal with GW actually losing money and then when Kirby was both chainman and CEO he doubled down on it. "Cut costs and raise prices!" was Kirby's one move and it wasn't even his idea but taking Wells' approach to turning around a money losing business and continuing to apply it even if it was sub optimal.

I haven't heard from too many of the more recent ex-employees of GW, but it seems like Kirby's enthusiastic cost cutting may have inadvertently cleaned up their internal culture. All the middle managers who played office politics and looked down on their fellow co-workers who actually played GW's games in the North American production and distribution centre are gone. And so is the production-- it's been only a distribution centre for quite some time. It's been a long, long time since I have heard any inkling of contempt for their own customers that would occasionally pop up. Kirby is gone (now formally) and Merrit is gone and I'm beginning to think that GW might now actually see their customers as something other than "goobering" or "plebs."

Where to from here? Predicting the future is the worst, but I'm going to guess than 8th edition 40k is going to be the best selling and most profitable version of 40k ever made. Rountree has been consistent in his payout of dividends in relation to the actual earnings of the company, so I expect the first indicator we will see of how much money new 40k is going to bring in for them will be a large dividend.

I'm talking about around October. The proportional increase over last October's dividend of 25p will be a pretty clear indicator of just how well the launch of 8th edition 40k has gone.

This message was edited 4 times. Last update was at 2017/07/25 09:41:50


Balance in pick up games? Two people, each with their own goals for the game, design half a board game on their own without knowing the layout of the board and hope it all works out. Good luck with that. The faster you can find like minded individuals who want the same things from the game as you, the better. 
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut




Bravo GW!

   
Made in gb
Rampaging Reaver Titan Princeps





Warwickscire

Not too shabby. Actually chasing your customers and treating them respect and not, as one Merrit said, "Goobering plebs" actually nets you cash. Of course, having a quality product that people want at the right price is king, but it's good to know they actually care again!
   
Made in gb
Longtime Dakkanaut




Nice To read.

greatest band in the universe: machine supremacy

"Punch your fist in the air and hold your Gameboy aloft like the warrior you are" 
   
Made in us
Powerful Phoenix Lord





Very good work, though it's always going to be a bumper year when you launch a new (well received) product. GW needs to make sure they have the kind of big headline releases every year to keep this kind of performance/momentum.

   
Made in us
Archmagos Veneratus Extremis






Home Base: Prosper, TX (Dallas)

 Elbows wrote:
Very good work, though it's always going to be a bumper year when you launch a new (well received) product. GW needs to make sure they have the kind of big headline releases every year to keep this kind of performance/momentum.



What did they release this year? You do realize that 40k was intentionally held till after the 2016-2017. That means that 2016-2017 was a massive year increase in a year where people knew their flagship game was ending for 6 months of it. That's frigging amazing when you think about it. It helps that AoS turned into a full fledged game this year but in when you can have the first increase in volume in a decade (ish, not sure real time) in a transition year of your flagship game you're doing damn good work.

Also good on them for giving a little back to their frontline employees.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2017/07/25 13:18:44


Best Painted (2015 Adepticon 40k Champs)

They Shall Know Fear - Adepticon 40k TT Champion (2012 & 2013) & 40k TT Best Sport (2014), 40k TT Best Tactician (2015 & 2016) 
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut





IL

Bloodbowl and Shadow War releases certainly seem to have had a strong impact on generating sales. 8th has been going gangbusters so it'll likely drive those sales even further when they are figured into the next annual and yearly reports.

Paulson Games parts are now at:
www.RedDogMinis.com 
   
Made in gb
Regular Dakkanaut



Derbyshire, UK

I'm really pleased to see the New GW (TM) ;-) being rewarded.
   
Made in us
Powerful Phoenix Lord





Yeah, a number of AoS released, Blood Bowl, Shadow Wars, a heap of FW stuff, the three books/kits from that trilogy etc. That's not "small potatoes" as they have in some years.

Add to that the semi-panic buying of people who wanted to stick with 7th (probably not many) and they had a decent amount of product. I don't recall if any of the boxed games came out this "year" though. Prospero, etc?

GW has had a few scant years, scraping by with IP payments from video games for the past few years. They needed a shot in the arm.
   
Made in us
Archmagos Veneratus Extremis






Home Base: Prosper, TX (Dallas)

Panic buy to play 7th? They weren't destroying the setting, models weren't getting culled. I know exactly zero people who wanted to continue 7th or who purchased with the intent of using in 7th. Either way it's impressive to have that kind of boost in a year without an edition change and on the cusp of a 40k edition change.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2017/07/25 17:44:48


Best Painted (2015 Adepticon 40k Champs)

They Shall Know Fear - Adepticon 40k TT Champion (2012 & 2013) & 40k TT Best Sport (2014), 40k TT Best Tactician (2015 & 2016) 
   
Made in ca
Dakka Veteran




Panic buying for 9th age picking up steam.
   
Made in ca
Preacher of the Emperor






Does the report show any sign that GW is putting more stock in the idea that their games are a gateway into the hobby and not a superfluous extra?

Any mention of how threatening they consider 3rd party infraction of their IP, bootleg models, and 3D printing to their continued business model?

   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut




@Coldgaming,
Pre-1.3 update that would've been a possibility but not now that 9th ticked it's oldhammer fanbase off so much and began becoming it's own thing.

Also, they have so many alternative hobby options and kickstarters listed that it's hard to believe they contributed much of anything to GW to whom they have a big grudge against.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2017/07/25 18:05:56


 
   
Made in ca
Posts with Authority




I'm from the future. The future of space

 Captain Joystick wrote:
Does the report show any sign that GW is putting more stock in the idea that their games are a gateway into the hobby and not a superfluous extra?

Any mention of how threatening they consider 3rd party infraction of their IP, bootleg models, and 3D printing to their continued business model?


No. And no.

On the first point they have a section about their mission statement and it's all about miniatures, not rules.

On the 2nd, my guess is that during times of success you don't need to blame things for failure.

Balance in pick up games? Two people, each with their own goals for the game, design half a board game on their own without knowing the layout of the board and hope it all works out. Good luck with that. The faster you can find like minded individuals who want the same things from the game as you, the better. 
   
Made in us
Infiltrating Prowler








So time to update the title to ding dong the witch is dead? Still not happy he is pulling a paycheck as a consultant.

Looks like Roundtree likely got an ally appointed as director and they are starting the process of removing the remaining Pro-Kirby board members. If this is the case, I'm all for it because that means there will be little chance for Kirby to be brought back. No one will be left on the board who could advocate for his return.
   
Made in ca
Posts with Authority




I'm from the future. The future of space

Given how many shares Kirby owns, I'm guessing he's probably pretty happy to have his approach proven the inferior. The share price change since Rountree took over represents millions in Kirby's pockets. And now he's no longer on the board, he can sell and get that money without it looking like the guy running the business is selling out of it.

Balance in pick up games? Two people, each with their own goals for the game, design half a board game on their own without knowing the layout of the board and hope it all works out. Good luck with that. The faster you can find like minded individuals who want the same things from the game as you, the better. 
   
Made in au
Steadfast Grey Hunter




coldgaming wrote:
Panic buying for 9th age picking up steam.


Haha, good one
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut




(Checks Coldgaming's post history)

(Facepalms from own obliviousness)
   
Made in gb
Courageous Grand Master




-

I won't deny I got a lot of fun from GW products over the years when I played their games, and a lot of my fellow dakka members still enjoy GW products and I respect that, but I do wonder where the profits are coming from, because a lot of their prices are still crazy IMO.

GW PVA glue is £5 for 120ml. I get 568ml for £2 from the budget art store.

GW plastic glue is £4 for 0.7 fl oz. I buy Revell poly cement, also the same amount, for £2.20 from the same art store.

GW superglue is £5.25. I get 10 tubes for £1 from poundland, and it's not bad. Just make sure the area is well ventilated before using it

And of course, Vallejo textured paint and brush on primer is cheaper and bigger than their GW counter-parts, and so on and so on....

And the mini prices are even worse. A box of Genestealer hybrids is £50 for 15 models

and a box of bolt action minis is £25 for 30 minis...

As always, each to their own, but these GW prices are crazy to my eyes.






"Our crops will wither, our children will die piteous
deaths and the sun will be swept from the sky. But is it true?" - Tom Kirby, CEO, Games Workshop Ltd 
   
Made in de
Longtime Dakkanaut




Thats is definately true. NEVER buy any hobbyproducts from when there is an alternative and there usually are lots of alternatives.
   
Made in gb
Courageous Grand Master




-

RoninXiC wrote:
Thats is definately true. NEVER buy any hobbyproducts from when there is an alternative and there usually are lots of alternatives.


I also make it a rule never to buy terrain when you can make your own

"Our crops will wither, our children will die piteous
deaths and the sun will be swept from the sky. But is it true?" - Tom Kirby, CEO, Games Workshop Ltd 
   
Made in ie
Calculating Commissar




Frostgrave

I don't think GW's business model revolves around selling hobby material to anyone but new hobbyists and a few diehards, and presumably sells in fairly small volumes so needs high margins.

Not that they aren't a rip off.

All in though, well done GW - they really seem to be turning around in behaviour (sales up quite a lot) and attitude (the money going to front line staff).

Hopefully these are signs of real change and not just side effects of 8th Ed and some specialist games. I know my local gaming group is getting back into 40K pretty hard, though my wider area group seems to be a lot of people selling up (mostly due to kids rather than dislike of the game).
   
Made in gb
Ridin' on a Snotling Pump Wagon






With regard to branded hobby equipment - it's there to make sure anyone can walk into a GW/Warhammer store, and walk out with not just an army, but a battlefield if they so wish, and tools fit for the job.

For someone not otherwise into building model kits, will they even know what Poly Cement is, let alone that Revel do a very nice line in it? Superglue? Far less necessary these days thankfully, but having an 'endorsed and up to the job' bottle isn't a bad idea.

All about the customer convenience, rather than some Machiavellian scheme to make millions of quid on something.

Consider a tool we all almost certainly take for granted - clippers. The GW ones are sharp enough to get the job done quickly and cleanly. More general purpose sidecutters for IT jobs? I personally don't find their cuts to be sharp enough - and I find them curiously unwieldy, as their tips tend to be blunted rather than pointy. YMMV of course, but this is after all just to demonstrate the purpose.

   
Made in gb
Lit By the Flames of Prospero





Rampton, UK

Aye, not everyone cares about getting the most out of their pound notes, there are plenty of people that prefer convenience over value for money and would rather get everything in a one stop shop rather than scour different outlets for different hobby equipment.
   
 
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