Games Workshop stumbles despite roaring revenue

Games Workshop saw its shares hit by profit taking on Tuesday even after the tabletop gaming retailer described its Warhammer game as in “good shape”' and annual revenues and profits continues to stomp higher.

The FTSE 250-listed group revenues climbed 39% to £219.9m over the 53 weeks to 3 June, while pre-tax profit increased 94% to £74.5m and the company earmarked “North America, Germany and Asia" as targets for expansion.

Retail sales grew 27% throughout the year while online sales jumped 36% after the company upgraded the infrastructure supporting its online store in September.

Having licensed its intellectual property for Warhammer to parties such as videogame developers, GW also received royalties of £0.7m over the period, up 85% from the previous year.

Kevin Rountree, chief executive of GW, said: "You can see from these results that our business and our Warhammer hobby are in good shape. The response from our customers to our models and games and how we support them has again been fantastic, thank you. The board continues to believe that the prospects for the business are good."

The dividend per share for the period was lifted to 126p from 74p the previous year.

As of 3 June GW had cash and cash equivalents of £28.5m, compared to £17.9m at 28 May last year.

Nick Bubb, retail analyst and author of The Daily Retailer, said that GW’s results were “upbeat” despite the company facing tough competition and that he expects GW to follow its current model to build on last year’s success.

The firm said its main focus for the current year will be on opening new stores in North America and Germany after having launched 43 new stores in the period ended 3 June.

Games Workshops shares, having roughly doubled over the preceding 12 months, fell 8.25% to 2,890p at 0926 BST on Tuesday.