Games Workshop Regulatory News (GAW)

PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT

GAMES WORKSHOP GROUP PLC

14 January 2015

Games Workshop Group PLC ("Games Workshop" or the "Group") announces its half-yearly results for the six months to 30 November 2014.

Highlights:

Kevin Rountree, CEO of Games Workshop, said:

"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."

…Ends…

*Constant currency revenue is calculated by comparing results in the underlying currencies for 2013 and 2014, both converted at the average exchange rates for the six months ended 1 December 2013.

FIRST HALF HIGHLIGHTS

Revenue by segment

INTERIM MANAGEMENT REPORT

Use of capital

Core business return on average capital employed** declined in the period to 38.3% (2013: 45.5%). Average capital employed increased by £2.0 million to £37.5 million. The book value of tangible and intangible assets increased by £1.0 million and payables decreased by £1.8 million whilst trade debt (£1.1 million decrease) and inventories fell.

Dividend

The strong cash generation of the business has remained a key element of our performance. In line with our policy of distributing truly surplus cash, the Company returned 36p per share to our owners in the period (2013: nil).

Sales

Sales fell by 6.6% to £56.5 million. The net exchange rate impact of the stronger pound was £2.1 million and, on a constant currency basis, sales were down by 1.7%. We now report our sales by channel; our own stores: 'Retail'; our trading partners: 'Trade'; and our online shop: 'Mail Order'.

Retail

This channel showed growth in the UK offset by declines in North America and Continental Europe attributable mainly to the extensive restructuring that took place over the last year. In addition, our Visitor Centre in Nottingham, which is partially closed in preparation for the new Centre which is due to open in May 2015, generated a lower level of sales. The overall impact was a decline of 9.7% (£2.4 million).

Trade 

This channel showed growth in North America, Australia and the UK, offset by larger declines in non-strategic accounts and magazine sales. The net effect was a decline of 5.1% (£1.2 million).

Mail Order

Sales in our new online shop were broadly in line with comparable period in the prior year.

Profit

Operating expenses have reduced by £3.2 million: £2.7 million due to a reduction in retail channel costs and savings of £1.0 million from the continental european reorganisation. Core business operating profit (operating profit before royalty income) decreased by £1.1 million to £5.5million and core business operating margin is 9.8% (2013: 11.0%). The net impact in the six months to 30 November 2014 of exchange rate fluctuations was a loss of £1.2 million. It is not the Group's policy to hedge against foreign exchange exposure.

Structural re-organisation

In January 2014 we announced a flattening of our retail structure and continental european reorganisation. Both projects were delivered on time and in line with estimated costs.

Prospects

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. We know that we have to do the basics right every single day and we never take this for granted. For this reason, the principal risks and uncertainties for the balance of the year lie in the ability of the sales channel managers to deliver sales growth and for the product and supply chain to maintain gross margin.

As discussed in the 2014 annual report, for Games Workshop to continue to be successful we need motivated, hard-working managers in all parts of the business who understand Games Workshop's niche business model, are aligned with its values and are committed to getting things done. The biggest risk for Games Workshop is that we don't have enough of these managers to continue to grow the business globally.

This risk has been mitigated by recruiting people who fit with our culture, helping them to develop and to fulfil their potential and training them with the skills we need. During the six months to 30 November 2014, we closed a net four stores (12 opened and 16 closed). We need to improve the rate of recruitment of competent new store managers on a consistent basis.

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.

Going concern

After making appropriate enquiries, the directors have a reasonable expectation that the Group has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. For this reason they have adopted the going concern basis in preparing this condensed consolidated interim financial information.

Statement of directors' responsibilities

The directors confirm that this condensed consolidated interim financial information has been prepared in accordance with IAS 34, 'Interim Financial Reporting', as adopted by the European Union, and that the interim management report herein includes a fair review of the information required by DTR 4.2.7 and DTR 4.2.8, namely: an indication of important events that have occurred during the first six months and their impact on the condensed set of financial statements, and a description of(i) the principal risks and uncertainties for the remaining six months of the financial year; (ii) material related-party transactions in the first six months and (iii) any material changes in the related-party transactions described in the last annual report.

In December 2014, it was announced that R F Tongue would be appointed to the board as group finance director with effect from 1 January 2015. In addition, as previously announced, on 1 January 2015, K D Rountree became CEO and T H F Kirby became non-executive chairman. There have been no other changes to the board since the annual report for the year to 1 June 2014. A list of all current directors is maintained on the investor relations website at investor.games-workshop.com.

By order of the board

K D Rountree

CEO

R F Tongue

Group finance director

14 January 2015

*Constant currency revenue is calculated by comparing results in the underlying currencies for 2013 and 2014, both converted at the average exchange rates for the six months ended 1 December 2013.

**We use average capital employed to take account of the significant fluctuation in working capital which occurs as the business builds both inventories and trade receivables in the pre-Christmas trading period. Return is defined as pre-exceptional operating profit before royalty income, and the average capital employed is adjusted by deducting assets and adding back liabilities in respect of cash, borrowings, exceptional provisions, taxation and dividends.

CONSOLIDATED INCOME STATEMENT

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME AND EXPENSE

The following notes form an integral part of this condensed consolidated interim financial information.

*Results for the year to 1 June 2014 include £4,500,000 of pre-tax exceptional costs relating to the continental european reorganisation announced in January 2014. These are included within operating expenses within the product and supply channel segment.

CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEET

The following notes form an integral part of this condensed consolidated interim financial information.

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN TOTAL EQUITY

The following notes form an integral part of this condensed consolidated interim financial information.

CONSOLIDATED CASH FLOW STATEMENT

The following notes form an integral part of this condensed consolidated interim financial information.

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL INFORMATION

1. Basis of preparation

The Company is a limited liability company, incorporated and domiciled in the United Kingdom. The address of its registered office is Willow Road, Lenton, Nottingham, NG7 2WS.

The Company has its listing on the London Stock Exchange.

This condensed consolidated interim financial information does not comprise statutory accounts within the meaning of section 434 of the Companies Act 2006. Statutory accounts for the year ended 1 June 2014 were approved by the board of directors on 28 July 2014 and have been delivered to the Registrar of Companies. The report of the auditors on those accounts was unqualified, did not contain an emphasis of matter paragraph and did not contain any statement under either section 498 (2) or section 498 (3) of the Companies Act 2006.

This condensed consolidated interim financial information has not been audited or reviewed pursuant to the Auditing Practices Board guidance on 'Review of Interim Financial Information' and does not include all of the information required for full annual financial statements.

This condensed consolidated interim financial information for the six months ended 30 November 2014 has been prepared in accordance with the Disclosure and Transparency Rules of the Financial Conduct Authority and with IAS 34, 'Interim Financial Reporting' as adopted by the European Union. The condensed consolidated interim financial information should be read in conjunction with the annual financial statements for the year ended 1 June 2014 which have been prepared in accordance with IFRSs as adopted by the European Union.

After making appropriate enquiries, the directors have a reasonable expectation that the Group has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. For this reason they have adopted the going concern basis in preparing this condensed consolidated interim financial information.

This condensed consolidated interim financial information was approved for issue on 14 January 2015.

This condensed consolidated interim financial information is available to shareholders and members of the public on the Company's website at investor.games-workshop.com.

The preparation of interim financial information requires management to make judgements, estimates and assumptions that affect the application of accounting policies and the reported amounts of assets and liabilities, income and expense. Actual results may differ from these estimates.

In preparing this condensed consolidated interim financial information, the significant judgements made by management in applying the Group's accounting policies and the key sources of estimation uncertainty were the same as those that applied to the consolidated financial statements for the year ended 1 June 2014.

The accounting policies applied are consistent with those of the annual financial statements for the year ended 1 June 2014, as described in those financial statements.

Taxes on income in the interim periods are accrued using the tax rate that would be applicable to expected total annual earnings.

There are no new standards, amendments to standards or interpretations which have had, or are expected to have a significant impact on the Group.

2. Segment information

Segment information reported for the six months to 1 December 2013 and the year to 1 June 2014 has been restated since the last half-yearly and annual reports to reflect the move to a channel based structure. This transition is explained on page 7 of the 2014 annual report.

The chief operating decision-maker has been identified as the executive directors. They review the Group's internal reporting in order to assess performance and allocate resources. Management has determined the segments based on these reports.

As Games Workshop is a vertically integrated business, management assess the performance of sales channels and manufacturing and distribution channels separately. At 30 November 2014, the Group is organised as follows:

- Sales channels. These channels sell product to external customers, through the Group's network of Hobby centres, independent retailers and directly via the global web store. The sales channels have been aggregated into segments where they sell products of a similar nature, have similar production processes, similar customers, similar distribution methods and are affected by similar economic factors. The segments are as follows:

- Trade. This sales channel sells globally to independent retailers and also includes our White Dwarf and newsstand business, and the distributor sales from our publishing business (Black Library).

- Retail. This includes our retail Hobby centres and our visitor centre in Nottingham.

- Mail order. This includes our global web store, our specialist resin miniatures business (Forge World) and our publishing business (Black Library).

- Product and supply. This includes the design and manufacture of the products and incorporates the production facility in the UK and the Group logistics and stock management costs.

- Central costs. These include the Company overheads, head office site costs and the costs of running the Games Workshop Academy.

- Service centre costs. Service centres are established in the UK and in North America to provide support services (IT, accounting, payroll, personnel, procurement, legal and customer services) to activities across the Group.

- Profit in stock. This includes adjustments for profit in stock arising from inter-segment sales.

- Royalty income. This is royalty income earned from third party licensees after deducting associated licensing costs.

The chief operating decision-maker assesses the performance of each business based on operating profit, excluding share option charges recognised under IFRS 2, 'Share-based payment' and charges in respect of the Group's profit share scheme. This has been reconciled to the Group's total profit before taxation below.

The segment information reported to the executive directors for the periods included in this financial information is as follows:

3. Dividends

A dividend of £6,372,000 (20 pence per share), and a dividend of £5,099,000 (16 pence per share) were declared and paid in the six months to 30 November 2014. No dividends were declared in the six months to 1 December 2013, but dividends of £5,077,000 (16 pence per share) were paid.

Dividends of £5,077,000 were paid during the year ended 1 June 2014.

4. Profit before taxation

The following costs have been incurred in the reported periods in respect of ongoing redundancies, impairments and loss-making Hobby centres:

5. Tax

The taxation charge for the six months to 30 November 2014 is based on an estimate of the full year effective rate of 26.1% reflecting higher overseas tax rates offset by the UK tax rate reducing to 21% and 20% from 1 April 2014 and 2015 respectively. (2013: 27.5%, reflecting higher overseas tax rates offset by UK tax rate reductions).

6. Earnings per share

Basic earnings per share

Basic earnings per share is calculated by dividing the profit attributable to owners of the parent by the weighted average number of ordinary shares in issue throughout the relevant period.

Basic earnings per share - pre-exceptional items

Basic earnings per share - pre-exceptional items is calculated by dividing the profit attributable to owners of the parent, before exceptional items, by the weighted average number of ordinary shares in issue throughout the relevant period.

Diluted earnings per share

The calculation of diluted earnings per share has been based on profit attributable to owners of the parent and the weighted average number of shares in issue throughout the relevant period, adjusted for the dilution effect of share options outstanding at the period end.

Diluted earnings per share - pre-exceptional items

The calculation of diluted earnings per share has been based on profit attributable to owners of the parent, before exceptional items, and the weighted average number of shares in issue throughout the relevant period, adjusted for the dilution effect of share options outstanding at the period end.

7. Reconciliation of profit to net cash from operating activities

8. Other intangible assets

9. Property, plant and equipment

10. Provisions

Analysis of total provisions:

11. Seasonality

The Group's monthly sales profile demonstrates an element of seasonality around the Christmas period which impacts sales in the month of December.

12. Commitments

Capital expenditure contracted for at the balance sheet date but not yet incurred is £3,302,000 (2013: £606,000). The committed spend includes the renovation of our visitor centre in Nottingham, tooling and machinery spend and web store improvements.

13. Related-party transactions

There were no material related-party transactions during the period.