Games Workshop moves up a level

Tabletop war games publisher Games Workshop drove down debt last year as profits soared, despite a disappointing performance over Christmas."The simple truth is that we didn't do a good enough job of helping all the customers we recruited in the summer purchase product over Christmas. We make no excuses at Games Workshop, lessons have been learned and it is good to report that in the fourth quarter [March to May] we have seen a return to steady growth," said the company['s chief executive, Mark Wells.Revenue in the year to 31 May 2009 rose to £125.7m from £110.3m, but this was predominantly because of favourable currency movements. On a constant currency basis revenue would have been only slightly higher at £113.9m.Pre-tax profit surged to £7.5m from £1.1m a year earlier, helped by increase royalty income of £3.5m, up from £1.7m in the preceding year, relating to the Warhammer Online massively multi-player online role playing game.Net borrowings at the end of May had been reduced to £1.6m from £10.1m a year earlier, but the board believe the company is not yet in a position to resume paying dividends. "We have a strong product release schedule which delivers constantly improving quality miniatures each month on time. Our manufacturing and supply operations are increasingly efficient and reliable. Our costs are under tight control and our service centres are operating well," said Wells. Games Workshop