Sales up 90 per cent for GAME

Hight Street retailer GAME has announced that sales for the 45 weeks ended December 8 were up by 89.1 per cent, with like for like sales for the same period up by 44.1 per cent.

The total group sales include those of Gamestation from May 2007, when the company announced it had acquired its nearest specialist rival for GBP 74 million.

The UK and Ireland were the Group's strongest regions, with sales up 92.3 per cent and like for like sales up 46.1 per cent. Sales for the the international business were up by 80 per cent with like for like sales up 38.2 per cent.

"This exceptional sales growth reflects strong consumer demand for all product formats, particularly so for the Nintendo DS Lite and Wii console," commented Peter Lewis, chairman of GAME.

"We are very pleased with our performance for the year to date and we look forward to the key Christmas trading season.

"There is an unprecedented range of products for our customers albeit we anticipate that demand will outstrip supply particularly for the Nintendo Wii format," added Lewis.

Although GAME's share of hardware sales will rise throughout the Christmas period, the retailer expects that substantially lower margins on consoles and from the Gamestation business will reduce overall gross margin for the full year.

The company has increased its portfolio of stores by 333 and will have over 1150 open for the Christmas period.

Lewis said that he expects capital expenditure for the full year to be in the region of GBP 40 million due to accelerated store openings and IT costs for new stores and the company website.

The UK's Competition Commission has preliminarily cleared GAME's acquisition of Gamestation, and as previously detailed the costs incurred for the inquiry are expected to be around GBP 4.5 million.

In addition, a non-recurring charge of GBP 5 million is expected due to integrating the Gamestation business and a further expenditure of around GBP 3 million is earmarked for IT and distribution changes.