Worldwide sales were up 12% to $688.7 million (converted from British pounds at today’s exchange rate) from $616.8 million in the previous fiscal year. CEO Kevin Rountree called out the 10th edition of Warhammer 40,000, which he said drove growth through the entire Warhammer 40,000 product range, the launch of the large-scale Horus Heresy Legions Imperialis, Cities of Sigmar, and Warhammer: The Old World as sales drivers.
Sales in North America were up 10% to $283.8 million from $258.6 million in the previous year. Both sales through the trade and sales through company stores were up by about the same percentage, although Games Workshop opened an additional 13 stores in the territory, bringing the total to 185 stores.
After tax profit rose to $197.2 million from $174.5 million in the previous fiscal year. Yes, that is a 29% after tax net profit.
Rountree addressed some of the logistics and stocking problems the company has had in the annual report. In North America, he pointed to an old IT system that fails randomly and causes the company to fail in its service goals. The company has purchased another 25 picking robots for its Memphis warehouse to improve throughput, Rountree said, and accomplished a warehouse move to a new facility in the first half of 2024 without "drama." The company also plans a complete changeover from its legacy IT system worldwide, but it didn’t sound like the move is imminent.
Worldwide, Rountree told investors the company is working on its chronic product shortages. "We have flexed up our safety stock levels in the last year, and we are still working to get this balance right," he said. We heard in our most recent round of interviews, which we reported in July, that while there’s usually enough of new products, there are still ongoing stock-outs on backlist (see "Miniatures March Along"), so there is still work to be done. Inventory was up about 28% to $55.3 million at the end of the fiscal year.
Overall, the miniatures category was the fastest-growing part of the North American hobby games market in calendar 2023 (see "Miniatures the Strongest Category"), and sales remained strong in the first part of 2024, although it appears that Games Workshop’s sales growth slowed in the first half of 2024 compared to the last half of calendar 2023. How well Games Workshop manages its inventory is going to have a big impact on miniatures sales the rest of 2024.
