23rd Mar 2016 08:06
LONDON (Alliance News) - Video games retailer Game Digital PLC on Wednesday said pretax profit and revenue fell in the first half of its financial year as the group struggled against a tough UK market.
Game said its pretax profit for the 26 weeks to January 23 was GBP22.5 million, down 32% on the GBP33.2 million posted a year earlier, as revenue declined to GBP549.2 million from GBP585.9 million, off 6.3%.
In response to the problems, the group slashed its interim dividend 77% to 1.67 pence per share from 7.35p a year earlier.
Game said the UK retail market was the main culprit for the declines, though the trading environment did show signs of improvement in December and January. The group launched a review of its UK business in January and is now working to implement measures to respond to current trends in the retail market.
This includes diversifying away from video games and consoles, with a third of Game's gross profit in the first half coming from sales of accessories, pre-owned mobile phones and tablets and digital content.
"I remain confident in the prospects for the group. We are making good progress driving retail and business diversification, with strong growth delivered in higher margin categories such as preowned phones and tablets, PC accessories and licensed merchandise. In addition, sales of digital content were up almost 10% and our customer engagement metrics remain positive. At the same time we expect the impact of falling legacy software sales to lessen in the future," said Chief Executive Martyn Gibbs.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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