# GW Full Year Report is out



## MadCowCrazy (Mar 19, 2009)

It's been out for a few days now but here is the yearly summary from GW.

2011 Full Year Report

When reading through it I spotted this gem:


> Sales
> Reported sales decreased by 2.7% to £123.1 million for the year. However, on a constant currency basis, sales were down by 2.9% from
> £126.5 million to £122.8 million; progress was achieved in Emerging Markets and Japan (+2.1%) and in the Other business units (+7%) while
> sales in Continental Europe (+0.6%) were flat. UK (-6.3%), North America (-4.8%) and Australia (-11.8%) were in decline.


Australian sales are down by -11.8%? Geee, I wonder why.... maybe they just dont like it up the ass as much as GW thinks?


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## Doelago (Nov 29, 2009)

Hmm, wonder how they could increase the Australian sales, eh?


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## spanner94ezekiel (Jan 6, 2011)

Hmmm... maybe by raising prices and cutting off exports to Aus. No wait they've done that.


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## Keecai (May 10, 2010)

This might explain the recent price hikes....


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## Haskanael (Jul 5, 2011)

those price hikes won't solve their problem on the long run tho.


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## Keecai (May 10, 2010)

Haskanael said:


> those price hikes won't solve their problem on the long run tho.


completely agree...
but i bet it made up for (and caused) some of those drops in sales.


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## ZARDRA (Nov 12, 2008)

dont be supprised if there are more price increases next year, 6th ed is 100% on it's way.
lets see how much the start charging for a warhound titan in a gw store next year.


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## Haskanael (Jul 5, 2011)

big problem is if they keep raising the costs a lot of people WILL quit getting new stuff. unlike all the pointless rants from people i hear that keep on getting GW stuff anyways. but at this rate i get the feeling that the Price hikes get more frequent.

I also know loads of people that would play either LoTr warhammer or 40K if it was just a bit cheaper. i recon this counts for loads of people all around the world. what would happen if they would decrease the prices to allow lower income persons to join the hobby?

Either it would solve their problem on the long run. or it would backfire and the company would end up broke.


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## Fallen (Oct 7, 2008)

its things like this that makes me wish that i took Econ/Business classes more seriously...

but from what i understand...i think...GW made LESS money this past fiscal year than the fiscal year before, correct?



> sales in Continental Europe (+0.6%) were flat. UK (-6.3%), North America (-4.8%) and Australia (-11.8%) were in decline.





MadCowCrazy said:


> Australian sales are down by -11.8%? Geee, I wonder why.... maybe they just dont like it up the ass as much as GW thinks?


same thing in the US, Canada & UK...seems like the mainland Europeans are the only ones being conned "correctly"


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## HOBO (Dec 7, 2007)

The Australian drop of 11.8% doesn't really include the Embargo backlash, because that was announced the last week of May and the Finance Report ended the end of May...it'll be 2012's financial year's report that'll show the true extent of the backlash.


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## bitsandkits (Mar 18, 2008)

well actually its likely that drop in sales in Aus is the reason for the export ban, GW's sales on the balance books take into account the sales direct from a GW point of sale not indie traders. the drop in sales in the UK are likely down to the increase in VAT in january and our economy is stuttering because of the VAT hike across the board, look at how our economy only grew a tiny amount in the last 3 months.
on a positive note GW despite everything are still profitable and are a going concern, more new stuff on the horizon!


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## Bubblematrix (Jun 4, 2009)

Mostly as expected I think, the Australian sales drop undoubtedly lead to the embargo on independants shipping there. To be honest, with such a large sales drop it is no wonder they took such drastic actions, sharholders would have demanded some assurance that they weren't wasting their time in Australia.

Interesting, finecast seems to be molded in flexible molds, I was very much under the (false) impression it was a castable resin for use with existing tooling.

'We are in the process of renewing our successful licence deal with Fantasy Flight Publishing..'

Good news I say.


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## swarmski (Jul 20, 2008)

Maybe if GW didn't charge an absolute greedy amount for Australian items they might see an increase in sales.


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## maddermax (May 12, 2008)

We'll see if the embargo causes a pickup in Australian sales, or a further decline next year. Either way, it's certainly damaging their brand with Australian customers, but that isn't going to make Australia unprofitable to them, in the short term at least. 

On the other hand, until they redo the pricing they'll probably see an up-tick in forgeworld sales - it's cheaper to buy Forge World stuff and have it shipped over than than to buy normal GW stuff here.


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## Marneus Calgar (Dec 5, 2007)

Hmm.. 

Games Workshop have a lot of grovelling to do to manage to get their sales back up. The fact that they lost 10% of sales from Aus is a big hit. It means that the price hike last year really affected the selling. God knows what this one has done. I can see losses of another 10 - 20% May next year. 

As for UK. I can see sales staying gradual, although, what with Independents being more dominant in the market, I don't see the -6% changing. Although, I expect with the release of Space Marines we might see an increase maybe.


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## Aramoro (Oct 7, 2009)

This is a good report for GW, compared to a lot of other luxury/niche good retailers they've performed well.


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## Dicrel Seijin (Apr 2, 2011)

It's nice to be able to read through these reports and see things that I normally am not privy to otherwise.

The "Chairman's Preamble" was an interesting read. It seems that the chairman himself will be heading the training of the successors of the business. (I thought he was joking when he made mention of the ages, but a look at the executive director profiles made me realize he was not. With the exception of a 41-year-old, the others are in their late-50s to late-60s.

And I would have never made the connection that the appearance of FW kits on the Apocalypse battlefields years ago was the impetus for switching from metal to resin, hastened by the rising costs of said metal.

The little nugget that the partnership with THQ has been renewed to 2020, which will allow for the completion of the WH40K MMO will surely be welcome news for my friends who are rather fanatical about the games.


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## Admiral_HACKbar (May 5, 2011)

They have just gone about the pricing structure the wrong way for Australia.
I don't mind paying more, as I am further away from the source, but not nearly double.

I had so many plans to buy other races, but the embargo hit and scared my wallet away. 

Ah well, lets see whats next years results bring...;>


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## boreas (Dec 4, 2007)

There's a very good analysis of that report here:

http://dukesinferno.blogspot.com/2011/07/financial-analysis-of-gw.html#more

Phil


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## Achaylus72 (Apr 30, 2011)

GW's problem is that more and more of its Australian customers are becoming smarter at shopping around. I can't justify spending the 87.5% mark up. So i purchase via EBay and when Waylands ever gets it act together in regards to its ROW customer i'll continue to use this option, i have calculated with a strong Aussie Dollar i am saving 55% to 60% off GW Australian Shelf Prices.

For every dollar i spend it goes directly to an overseas vendor, i can't support the local vendors.

Case in point, if Wayland gets act together and if their ROW prices are the same as domestic then i can purchase a CSM Battleforce for $81.90 AuD (this includes postage), currently that very CSM Battleforce on Aussie shelves is $180 AuD.


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## GrimzagGorwazza (Aug 5, 2010)

Achaylus72 said:


> GW's problem is that more and more of its Australian customers are becoming smarter at shopping around. I can't justify spending the 87.5% mark up. So i purchase via EBay and when Waylands ever gets it act together in regards to its ROW customer i'll continue to use this option, i have calculated with a strong Aussie Dollar i am saving 55% to 60% off GW Australian Shelf Prices.
> 
> For every dollar i spend it goes directly to an overseas vendor, i can't support the local vendors.
> 
> Case in point, if Wayland gets act together and if their ROW prices are the same as domestic then i can purchase a CSM Battleforce for $81.90 AuD (this includes postage), currently that very CSM Battleforce on Aussie shelves is $180 AuD.


I think that this is happening more and more across the world, whilst we don't have the price hike that you Aussies are getting there are people who are becoming much smarter at buying thier models. One of my friends wanted to start a tyranid army but couldn't really afford to, i told him that i could get him rolling with an army for £10 a fortnight, he didn't believe me. I'm shopping second hand so there is always going to be a price difference but he wanted me to keep track.

So far i've bought 13 genestealers (2 are space hulk, 1 is missing an arm) for £9 (a box of 8 stealers is £18, or £2.25 per stealer, 13 new stealers = £29.25) and an old hive tyrant for £11 (current new tyrant = £36) So far i've spent £20 when if i bought from GW it would have cost me £66. 

Sure they're second hand and need stripping but a bottle of dettol costs £3.

It's just good common sense to squeeze the best deals out of the market.


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## Archermonkey (Jul 17, 2011)

It really is bizarre, the way that GW prices here in Oz. The Australian dollar is doing well overall, but disposable income for most folks is not terribly high. For comic shops (who import all of their stock, and rely on a loyal fan base, like those who play GW's games) this means that prices have gone down while profits have stayed relatively stable, thanks to the decreased costs of importing (since the Australian dollar is performing well, relative to its' traditional value). What GW are doing is keeping their prices static (in terms of the , and in fact increasing them with the general price hike. Even if they didn't increase prices, they would considerably increasing profits due to the relative worth of the Australian dollar. As it is, the price hike is just an added kick in the teeth for consumers here.

I'm not going to say that I'll boycott GW products over this, or anything so melodramatic. But I do know people who have stopped playing because the prices have moved out of reach, and I personally refuse to buy anything from a GW store that I can get elsewhere. Buying on eBay may not be the easiest way to do things, but given the fractional costs, that's where my money's going.

Personally I put the profit decrease down to the ease of online purchasing, like GW do, but I think that they're being outright greedy by charging the prices that they do, and not adjusting for the strength of the Australian Dollar over the past few years. We have a saying here in Australia: "Don't piss on my shoes and tell me its' raining." That's exactly what GW is doing with their pricing policy and embargo. Saving the hobby? No. Saving their inflation in costs here, is closer to the truth.


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## humakt (Jan 2, 2008)

In the current slow economy these are good figures I think. We shall see how the Oz thing affects them in the half yearly report.


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## Achaylus72 (Apr 30, 2011)

Archermonkey said:


> It really is bizarre, the way that GW prices here in Oz. The Australian dollar is doing well overall, but disposable income for most folks is not terribly high. For comic shops (who import all of their stock, and rely on a loyal fan base, like those who play GW's games) this means that prices have gone down while profits have stayed relatively stable, thanks to the decreased costs of importing (since the Australian dollar is performing well, relative to its' traditional value). What GW are doing is keeping their prices static (in terms of the , and in fact increasing them with the general price hike. Even if they didn't increase prices, they would considerably increasing profits due to the relative worth of the Australian dollar. As it is, the price hike is just an added kick in the teeth for consumers here.
> 
> I'm not going to say that I'll boycott GW products over this, or anything so melodramatic. But I do know people who have stopped playing because the prices have moved out of reach, and I personally refuse to buy anything from a GW store that I can get elsewhere. Buying on eBay may not be the easiest way to do things, but given the fractional costs, that's where my money's going.
> 
> Personally I put the profit decrease down to the ease of online purchasing, like GW do, but I think that they're being outright greedy by charging the prices that they do, and not adjusting for the strength of the Australian Dollar over the past few years. We have a saying here in Australia: "Don't piss on my shoes and tell me its' raining." That's exactly what GW is doing with their pricing policy and embargo. Saving the hobby? No. Saving their inflation in costs here, is closer to the truth.


Yes but here is the kicker, the problem for GW here in Australia is one of their B & M stores, especially in Sydney, Sydney has the third highest retail rents in the world, not only this but Public Liability Insurance is extremely high, GW is classified a toy importer and must pay very high insurance costs to say someone sell electonic games. This is compounded by the fact Australian have one of the highest basic wages in the developed world. A person working in a GW store in Australia would earn at least double that of someone working at a GW store in Britian. GW has no choice but to charge what they charge.

What is happening is what i said previously, Australians like me are shopping around, and finding better deals overseas at 55% to 60% cheaper than GW Aussie shelf prices.

Example i recently bought 2 x Chaos Space Marine Terminator Squads and 2 x Chaos Possessed Squads including postage for $146 USD ($135.42 AuD), the same items on GW Aussie selves $258 AuD.

So for the cost less than of 2 x Chaos Terminator Squads on GW Aussie shelf price i got to add 2 x Chaos Possessed Squads for free and including postage, and it took only 6 days to get from the USA to my Post Office Box in Australia


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## AlexHolker (Apr 27, 2011)

Achaylus72 said:


> GW is classified a toy importer and must pay very high insurance costs


There is no "must". If the cost of insuring their imports is so high that their wholesale price is twice that of other countries, then GW should just not insure their imports. Unless one in every two kits is being destroyed or lost in transit, they'd be better off.


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## Aramoro (Oct 7, 2009)

AlexHolker said:


> There is no "must". If the cost of insuring their imports is so high that their wholesale price is twice that of other countries, then GW should just not insure their imports. Unless one in every two kits is being destroyed or lost in transit, they'd be better off.


Having your cargo insured is probably a legal requirement, it is here at least.


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## Achaylus72 (Apr 30, 2011)

AlexHolker said:


> There is no "must". If the cost of insuring their imports is so high that their wholesale price is twice that of other countries, then GW should just not insure their imports. Unless one in every two kits is being destroyed or lost in transit, they'd be better off.


You have no concept of business. Public liability insurance is a must, public liability insurance means that you are insured if someone is injured whiile in your place of business (ie... a B & M Store).

I had an internet business operating from home, no-one ever came around to my place, but i was legally required to have Public Liability Insurance which eventually crippled my business.

You are confused, every insurance vendor in Australia rates and catagorizes every business as to what they sell as i was selling GW bits of the sprue i was buying my product from Maelstrom and then breaking down the sprues and selling the bitz and so they the insurance catagorized me as a toy importer and i had no choice but to pay very premiums.

GW Australia can opt out of paying insurance but if someone hurts themselves and sue GW Australia for negligence they are screwed.


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## Archermonkey (Jul 17, 2011)

Achaylus72 said:


> Yes but here is the kicker, the problem for GW here in Australia is one of their B & M stores, especially in Sydney, Sydney has the third highest retail rents in the world, not only this but Public Liability Insurance is extremely high, GW is classified a toy importer and must pay very high insurance costs to say someone sell electonic games. This is compounded by the fact Australian have one of the highest basic wages in the developed world. A person working in a GW store in Australia would earn at least double that of someone working at a GW store in Britian. GW has no choice but to charge what they charge.


I understand these factors (though I believe some of them are exaggerated), and I know that they play into the pricing that we get here. But that doesn't say word one about why they simply rode the increase of the Australian dollar to higher profits. Were thy running at a loss before the dollar improved? I doubt it somehow. Yet when the Australian dollar improved, they simply took that as an opportunity to line their pockets with the conversion rates, and expect us to continue buying from them at what have become over-inflated prices. That's why it's now so much more cost-effective to buy from online vendors - the fact that our dollar is stronger has adjusted the price of buying from international retailers with our money.

Many Australian importers have lowered their prices as a result, because our money now buys more on the world market. That is entirely aside from the issue of insurance or any other local cost. It is, in fact, the way that a competitive market is supposed to work, by forcing price adjustments so that the consumer pays a fair price. What GW is trying to do is to kill the competition, thus allowing them to continue to charge prices which are vastly (and continually) over-inflated relics of a time when our dollar was worth roughly US$0.70, not about US$1.05 as it is now.


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## Achaylus72 (Apr 30, 2011)

Archermonkey said:


> I understand these factors (though I believe some of them are exaggerated), and I know that they play into the pricing that we get here. But that doesn't say word one about why they simply rode the increase of the Australian dollar to higher profits. Were thy running at a loss before the dollar improved? I doubt it somehow. Yet when the Australian dollar improved, they simply took that as an opportunity to line their pockets with the conversion rates, and expect us to continue buying from them at what have become over-inflated prices. That's why it's now so much more cost-effective to buy from online vendors - the fact that our dollar is stronger has adjusted the price of buying from international retailers with our money.
> 
> Many Australian importers have lowered their prices as a result, because our money now buys more on the world market. That is entirely aside from the issue of insurance or any other local cost. It is, in fact, the way that a competitive market is supposed to work, by forcing price adjustments so that the consumer pays a fair price. What GW is trying to do is to kill the competition, thus allowing them to continue to charge prices which are vastly (and continually) over-inflated relics of a time when our dollar was worth roughly US$0.70, not about US$1.05 as it is now.


I absolutely agree,but also we have seen hundreds of businesses some major businesses having to completely shut their doors or in the process of shutting their doors because they can't compete especially with online retail shopping via overseas vendors, where as Australian are getting bang for our buck. 

Not only this but recent reports on Australian Consumers of Australian businesses especially in the retail sector indicates that customer relationship is very poor, it does not help the situation for Australian Retailer out there that we have the worst customer service and sales staff in the western world. 

People are now voting with their feet and fingers. Another main problem with Australian Businesses and that is they are very slow to change.


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## Archermonkey (Jul 17, 2011)

Achaylus72 said:


> I absolutely agree,but also we have seen hundreds of businesses some major businesses having to completely shut their doors or in the process of shutting their doors because they can't compete especially with online retail shopping via overseas vendors, where as Australian are getting bang for our buck.
> 
> Not only this but recent reports on Australian Consumers of Australian businesses especially in the retail sector indicates that customer relationship is very poor, it does not help the situation for Australian Retailer out there that we have the worst customer service and sales staff in the western world.
> 
> People are now voting with their feet and fingers. Another main problem with Australian Businesses and that is they are very slow to change.


I haven't heard those details myself, but they don't surprise me terribly much. I do know that there are some Australian importers that are getting by quite well, however - I work for one (a comic shop which has a behind-the-scenes wholesale aspect which supplies stock to most of the comic stores in the state, excepting a few of the larger ones). I'm not disagreeing with you on general terms, nor do I know the details well enough to agree or disagree specifically, but I do know this: none of that changes the fact that GW are getting a much, much higher profit margin from selling their products in Australia due to the monetary conversion rates. They were making a profit before the Australian dollar went up. They didn't adjust their prices down, so that they could use that to get better profits. Now they are trying to kill competition. How much of the Australian market do you think they'd lose to online sales if their prices were only 10-20% above the British ones? Or even 30%? The GW stores undeniably offer a service, and all other things being equal, I'd prefer to buy from them than from a place where I get no customer service, have to wait several weeks for my purchases, and cannot get the games and painting tips, etc that GW stores provide. Instead, they charge more like 80% on top of the British prices, making the difference too great to justify buying from their stores, even with the positives that come from doing so.


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## Achaylus72 (Apr 30, 2011)

Archermonkey said:


> I haven't heard those details myself, but they don't surprise me terribly much. I do know that there are some Australian importers that are getting by quite well, however - I work for one (a comic shop which has a behind-the-scenes wholesale aspect which supplies stock to most of the comic stores in the state, excepting a few of the larger ones). I'm not disagreeing with you on general terms, nor do I know the details well enough to agree or disagree specifically, but I do know this: none of that changes the fact that GW are getting a much, much higher profit margin from selling their products in Australia due to the monetary conversion rates. They were making a profit before the Australian dollar went up. They didn't adjust their prices down, so that they could use that to get better profits. Now they are trying to kill competition. How much of the Australian market do you think they'd lose to online sales if their prices were only 10-20% above the British ones? Or even 30%? The GW stores undeniably offer a service, and all other things being equal, I'd prefer to buy from them than from a place where I get no customer service, have to wait several weeks for my purchases, and cannot get the games and painting tips, etc that GW stores provide. Instead, they charge more like 80% on top of the British prices, making the difference too great to justify buying from their stores, even with the positives that come from doing so.


I agree, it would please me more if i could walk into my local GW and go on a spending spree but i can't knowingly justify paying the 87.5%* mark up above British and US Prices.

I keep using this as an example

Wayland Games gets its RoW operations up and running and it charges the same price on its RoW range as it does with its regular domestic range.

So i log on and decide that i want to buy 2 x Chaos Space Marine Battleforces this will set me back $155.79AuD this includes postage.

But here in Australia if i walk into my local GW B & M store or online store or local indie and decide to buy just 1 x Chaos Space Marine Battleforce i will pay $180 AuD, so for the same price as 1 x Chaos Space Marine Battleforce here in Australia i can get 2 from overseas fully delivered and i still get $24.21 AuD in change.

That converted to USD is $198.13USD, compared with US shelf price of $110.00USD that is a whopping $88.13USD more expensive.


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## Warlock in Training (Jun 10, 2008)

I wonder whats Privateer Press sales look like after all the Shit GW pulled at once? Future Price Hikes ain't going to help. :laugh:


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## Necrosis (Nov 1, 2008)

Warlock in Training said:


> I wonder whats Privateer Press sales look like after all the Shit GW pulled at once? Future Price Hikes ain't going to help. :laugh:


It's so high they can't even keep with all their orders.


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## maddermax (May 12, 2008)

Yep.



Warlock in Training said:


> I wonder whats Privateer Press sales look like after all the Shit GW pulled at once? Future Price Hikes ain't going to help. :laugh:


They've actually declared they won't be releasing any new models during both September and November, in order to catch up on their back orders as they try to ramp up production. They've also had to create a separate "core orders" list, as a temporary measure, which are core models that they say will definitely be available without a backlog, so stores can keep stock on shelves. I think their sudden spike in demand is a bit dangerous though, as they'll be pissing off some customers with long wait times on their orders, and retailers who have problems getting stock in. We'll see, but they've definitely been riding a wave for the last year or so.


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## Archermonkey (Jul 17, 2011)

maddermax said:


> They've actually declared they won't be releasing any new models during both September and November, in order to catch up on their back orders as they try to ramp up production. They've also had to create a separate "core orders" list, as a temporary measure, which are core models that they say will definitely be available without a backlog, so stores can keep stock on shelves. I think their sudden spike in demand is a bit dangerous though, as they'll be pissing off some customers with long wait times on their orders, and retailers who have problems getting stock in. We'll see, but they've definitely been riding a wave for the last year or so.


Seriously? And no-one in GW upper management has considered that it might be something to do with _their own policies and pricing schemes_ that is losing them market share? That kind of arrogance astounds and saddens me.

*GW Peon:* Sir, the latest sales figures are in. Our profit margins are falling, still.
*Tom Kirby:* Then we must raise prices! Again!
*GW Peon:* But sir, customer feedback suggests that the prices are one of the reasons that--
*Tom Kirby:* SILENCE! Our customers are far too loyal to waste money frivolously on things like rent, utility bills, groceries, or petrol. They will pay. And to prove to them how good our customer service is, we shall assassinate all of the online vendors, sacrificing them to Khaine...


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## HOBO (Dec 7, 2007)

maddermax said:


> I think their sudden spike in demand is a bit dangerous though, as they'll be pissing off some customers with long wait times on their orders, and retailers who have problems getting stock in. We'll see, but they've definitely been riding a wave for the last year or so.


A friend of mine who owns a LGS is having this exact drama with some people.
Some simply don't like waiting for their models, irregardless of what caused the delay, so orders have been lost...which does hurt business.

I'm in the process of building/buying a couple of Hoards lists and there's several models I want that are missing from the core list, so I'll just have to wait until PP catches up on their production upgrade...luckily patience is one of my virtues:biggrin:


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## Achaylus72 (Apr 30, 2011)

I can remember a vid a while back from some guy who clearly spelt out in which direction GW is heading.

This seems far fetched but it has merit.

In this, GW manufactures a crisis within its own company, habitual price rises, the embargo and other things to piss off its customers.

What happens is that companies like Privateer Press begin to rapidly expand due to demand from pissed of ex GW customers.

More and more GW loses market share to companies like Privater Press.

Companies like Privateer Press are pouring vast sums of money into expansion, they are riding on a wave of hightened demand.

At some point companies like Privateer Press over-reach themselves.

Then

GW then goes boom, hits the market like a tsunami.

GW first begins to shut out the Indies, rapidly expanding their Bricks and Mortar stores, this has the effect if you want to buy GW products you have to go to a GW store as it is all in house. Then this they follow-up by cutting their prices, to levels that Privateer Press can't compete with.

Ex GW customers are happy, they ditch their Warhordes in their droves and begin to purchase their GW product again. Many indies will go out of business and Privateer Press is left high and dry, and most likey ready to file Bankrupt Protection


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## Archermonkey (Jul 17, 2011)

I don't know how much credit I'd put in that - it does seem a bit too risky as a strategy, to be honest, and overly-complicated. But the first part seems pretty accurate so far!


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