14th Jan 2015 09:52
LONDON (Alliance News) - Games Workshop Group PLC Wednesday reported a drop in both profit and revenue for the first half of the year, as expected, hit by lower sales from its own stores and its trading partners, but still paid out surplus cash to its shareholders.
The maker of miniature figures and gaming sets reported a pretax profit of GBP6.3 million for the six months to end-November, down from GBP7.7 million the year before, as revenue fell by 6.6% to GBP56.5 million, from GBP60.5 million.
The group said it continues to be hit by the strong pound and said revenue would only have been down 1.7% at constant currencies.
However, the group declared an interim dividend of 36 pence per share, having not paid one the year before, citing strong cash generation of the business.
"Demand for our products remains strong. Our challenge is to stay focused on what needs to be done to grow efficiently and to reduce cost effectively," the company said.
The group said sales from its own retail stores showed growth in the UK, but was more than offset by declines in North America and continental Europe, due to "extensive" restructuring last year, which it said resulted in an overall decline of 9.7% in retail sales.
Trade sales, from its trading partners, were down 5.1% as growth in North America, Australia and the UK was more than offset by larger declines in areas including magazine sales. Sales in its new online shop were broadly in line with last year, it said.
A year ago, Games Workshop announced that it was flattening its retail structure and restructuring its continental European business.
"Games Workshop's core business model remains strong. Our current initiatives of ever better weekly new product releases, the low cost one man stores in retail and the stockist programme in trade, are designed to lead to growth. The board remains confident in the future growth and profitability of the group," it added.
Shares in Games Workshop were trading 1.1% higher at 505.26 pence Wednesday morning.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; [email protected]; @rharrisdoughty
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