Strategy FAQs
General investor FAQs
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We’re Europe’s leading specialist retailer of video games, with over 1,300 retail outlets plus ecommerce operations in ten territories across Europe and Australia. We’re the market leaders in the UK, Spain, and Czech Republic.
There are three brands in the Group – GAME, Gamestation and Gameplay. All have formed their own clear identity and loyal customer bases. GAME and Gamestation have stores and ecommerce websites, Gameplay is online only.
Online and in our stores, our brands offer the widest range of video games, consoles and accessories, and our knowledgeable teams are trained to give customers expert advice on everything we sell.
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Our Group head office is based at Unity House, Telford Road, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG21 6YJ, England.
We have a smaller head office for each of our international divisions in Paris, Madrid, Stockholm, Sydney and Prague.
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The team has grown with the business, and we have about 10,000 employees around the world.
Approximately 9,000 of our people work in stores, helping customers.
The rest of our employees, who are all specialists on their chosen field, support the store teams from the offices in each territory.
The number of employees varies depending on the time of year, and we recruit extra help for busy periods such as Christmas.
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Our financial year end is 31 January.
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Please see the Financial Calendar for details of future announcements.
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To contact us directly please e-mail us at investors@game.co.uk or write to us at the address given in the Shareholder services section of this site.
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Who are the key Executive and Non-Executive Directors of GAME?
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The Executive Directors of the business are Ian Shepherd and Ben White.
The Non-Executive Directors of the business are Christopher Bell (Chairman), Ishbel Macpherson (Senior Non Executive Director) and Dana Dunne.
You can read more about our Directors by going to the Board of Directors Section of this site.
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To obtain a copy of our latest Annual Report please contact investors@game.co.uk or simply download them from the Reports and presentations section of this site.
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We have over 1,300 stores worldwide, trading under two brands: GAME and Gamestation.
Approximately 1,050 of these stores are GAME. The GAME proposition and customer offer is designed to appeal to mass market consumers.
The other 250 stores are Gamestation, located predominantly in the UK, which appeal more to core gamers.
Online we have three brands - GAME, Gamestation and Gameplay.
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We currently have concession partnerships in the UK with Fenwick, Hamleys and Selfridges department stores; and a small trial in Comet electrical stores.
Financial info FAQs
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As at 31 March 2011, the Board had been notified of, or was otherwise aware of, the following holdings of 3 per cent or more of the Company’s share capital.
Number of
ordinary shares
% holdingFranklin Templeton 29,746,224 8.56 Aberforth Partners LLP 25,894,593 7.45 Ameriprise Financial Inc. 17,014,609 4.9 Wells Capital Management Inc. 14,302,232 4.12 Liberty Square Asset Management, LLC 12,981,086 3.74 Legal & General Investment Management Limited 12,038,999 3.46 Capital Research Global Investors 12,034,000 3.46 M&G Investment Management Limited 11,556,860 3.33 Toscafund Asset Management LLP 10,495,818 3.02 -
In the year to 31 January 2011, profit before tax was £23.1m (2010: £84.2m)
Strategy FAQs
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As Europe's leading pc and video games retailer, we have developed a wide range of services and offers which are tailoured to the specific needs of our customers.
We have eight core attributes to our business that are key to all of our work, and we use them to drive our business forward and offer our customers outstanding service. They are:
Customer relationship management:
- Employees – Our employees are dedicated to giving our customers the highest levels of service and advice. We give them extensive training, so they can use their knowledge and passion for video games to guide consumers to the products, deals and choices that best suit their needs.
- Product and range – We offer the widest range of pc and video games products in our stores and online. We use our expertise and customer insight to generate unique product offers and deals to give customers excellent value.
- Preowned – Trading-in games is a unique way that customers can save money, using their old games as currency against new purchases. Offering a large range of preowned games enables us to offer a broader range and great value to the more price conscious consumer. GAME and Gamestation each have over 10 years' experience offering customers great value through trade-in and preowned.
- Customer loyalty – The GAME Reward Card programme has over 15 million members around the world. Customers earn points on everything they buy at GAME which can be used as discounts against future purchases. The scheme gives us sales trend data which helps us to continually refine and target our offers.
Infrastructure and support:
- Property – we choose the best, most convenient store sites for our customers, and then regularly review those choices. With over 1,300 stores in the Group, we have strong relationships with landlords and good access to new sites.
- eCommerce – We want our online outlets to match the quality and reputation of our stores, and the expansion of our multi-channel offer is crucial to our success. We continue to invest in this area - developing the customer operations in all territories and offering new services like game downloads and streamed games on demand.
- Business relationships – We've built long-term relationships with all hardware and software suppliers in our markets. This gives us a good allocation of new products for our customers, and an ability to maximise new launches with exclusive products and exciting promotions and deals. We're constantly working closely with our partners to improve our specialist proposition.
- Distribution – In a market where launch dates are key, products must be available fast. Our distribution centres understand this. And our slick merchandising function ensures that right quantities of the right product reach their destination quickly – whether to store or direct to customer.
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When and where is your next AGM meeting held and can I attend?
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View the Financial calendar page.
All shareholders can attend the AGM and will be notified of the next year's meeting via the 2011 annual report and this web site.
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We have been offering a digital download service for pc games for the last three years. Although a small part of our overall business, it is growing, and gives us a valuable insight into consumer demands and trends.
We believe multi channel retailing offers many opportunities for the Group, and will continue to invest in our ecommerce and digital offer.
As a leading global retailer of video games, we will ensure that we can deliver games to customers in the ways that they want to receive them, while always offering great value and exceptional customer service.
