13th Nov 2014 09:34
LONDON (Alliance News) - GAME Digital PLC saw its shares fall Thursday morning, even though it reported a 17% rise in revenue in recent weeks, in line with its own expectations and outperforming the growth in the UK and Spanish games markets.
In a statement, the company said the 17% increase for the 13 weeks to October 25 was ahead of a 14.1% increase in the overall growth in the video games market in the UK and Spain, and was predominantly driven by continued growth in hardware sales.
It also said gross margins were inline with its expectations thanks to the increase in hardware in terms of its sales mix.
"Both GAME's UK and Spanish businesses continue to grow their market share across hardware, software and digital in their respective territories. In particular, the group's focus on the development of its digital offer has helped drive an increase in digital market share through in-store and online sales over the period, with strong growth in non-IFRS digital receipts of 49% year-on-year," it said.
Like most retailers, GAME is approaching its major peak trading season, Christmas.
"Overall we remain well prepared for peak, with our campaign "It's GAME season" now launched across all forms of media, exclusives secured on many of the major pre-Christmas new game releases, a great line-up of customer offers across all product categories and a strong balance sheet," Chief Executive Martyn Gibbs said in a statement.
The retailer said it has upgraded its UK website and launched the "Scan it!" service on its GAME app, allowing customers to access interactive gaming content and their own 'personalised' price, based on the value of their GAME Wallet credit. It said over 150,000 customers registered with GAME app across the UK and Spain, taking total numbers to over 900,000.
It added that it has now completed the transfer of 43 of the 45 stores from GameStop in Spain.
Still, GAME Digital shares were down 1.4% at 359.00 pence Thursday morning, having risen strongly Wednesday in the lead up to the announcement.
By Steve McGrath; [email protected]; @stevemcgrath1
Copyright 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
GMD.L