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Hight Street retailer GAME has announced that sales for the 45 weeks ended December 8 were up by 89.1 per cent, with like for like sales for the same period up by 44.1 per cent.
The total group sales include those of Gamestation from May 2007, when the company announced it had acquired its nearest specialist rival for GBP 74 million.
The UK and Ireland were the Group's strongest regions, with sales up 92.3 per cent and like for like sales up 46.1 per cent. Sales for the the international business were up by 80 per cent with like for like sales up 38.2 per cent.
"This exceptional sales growth reflects strong consumer demand for all product formats, particularly so for the Nintendo DS Lite and Wii console," commented Peter Lewis, chairman of GAME.
"We are very pleased with our performance for the year to date and we look forward to the key Christmas trading season.
"There is an unprecedented range of products for our customers albeit we anticipate that demand will outstrip supply particularly for the Nintendo Wii format," added Lewis.
Although GAME's share of hardware sales will rise throughout the Christmas period, the retailer expects that substantially lower margins on consoles and from the Gamestation business will reduce overall gross margin for the full year.
The company has increased its portfolio of stores by 333 and will have over 1150 open for the Christmas period.
Lewis said that he expects capital expenditure for the full year to be in the region of GBP 40 million due to accelerated store openings and IT costs for new stores and the company website.
GamesIndustry.biz wrote:
The UK's Competition Commission has preliminarily cleared GAME's acquisition of Gamestation, and as previously detailed the costs incurred for the inquiry are expected to be around GBP 4.5 million.
In addition, a non-recurring charge of GBP 5 million is expected due to integrating the Gamestation business and a further expenditure of around GBP 3 million is earmarked for IT and distribution changes.
Also..
Retailer reports 15 per cent growth in games for UK and Ireland
Games are at the heart of HMVs revitalisation for the first half of this year as the company reveals that software and hardware represent 15 per cent of sales for the entertainment chain in the UK and Ireland, up from 9 per cent for the same period last year.
In Canada, where games were first introduced into its offering at the end of last year, five per cent of sales for the first half of the year are attributed to success in the gaming market.
Total sales for the entire HMV Group were GBP 790.2 million for the 26 weeks ended October 27, up from GBP 767.2 million for the same period last year.
Profit after tax was GBP 25.9 million, up from a loss of 26.1 million in 2006, boosted by the sale of HMV Japan for GBP 70.6 million.
"Less than a year into our three year strategic plan, we are pleased with progress," commented Simon Fox, chief executive of HMV.
Quote:
"The Group's first half was driven in particular by like for like sales growth in HMV UK and Ireland, where we are successfully exploiting the high growth games and technology categories and increasing our share of music and DVD."
HMV has this year trialled a number of new store formats, including a dedicated console zone in Edinburgh and a PC gaming concession in London.
Although HMV is pleased with the performance of the first half of the year, the Christmas period will be the most crucial for 2007.
Quote:
"At this stage, the most important days and weeks of our financial calendar are still ahead of us, and our stores and websites are very well prepared for Christmas,"
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