GAME wards off the competition

The supermarkets might be marking their territory in games, but a confident GAME has said it is ‘constantly evolving’ to take on any increased competition.

The comments came from CEO Lisa Morgan after the GAME Group posted record end-of-year results last week, flying in the face of the recession that is squeezing the rest of the UK High Street.

The group reported turnover at 1.97bn for the year ending January 31st – a 32 per cent gain on the previous year. The firm also managed a 67 per cent jump in profit before taxation at 126.2m.

Morgan told MCV that the Group’s success came in line with the UK games market’s comparable ‘stunning performance’ in 2008. She added that the GAME and Gamestation chains were the best retailers placed to take advantage of the demographic explosion in the industry.

We have a fantastic and perfectly placed product proposition within our stores,” said Morgan when asked about the increasing pressures facing retail in 2009.

As we all know, the UK video games market last year saw stunning performance. And GAME within that, particularly in the UK with our dual brand strategy, is able to appeal to a broad range of consumers.”

On the competition, she said: Because we are a specialist in this market, and because that is all we do, we are always watching the market and the competition.

I think it’s really important that you never become complacent – you need to have a compelling offer that is evolving constantly to ensure you are looking after customers better than anyone else. It will always be competitive because it is an attractive market to be in.”

She added: We are best placed to take advantage of that market growth.”

Morgan reiterated the group’s cautious optimism for the year ahead, pointing out that the robust games market is still performing really well” and could once again buck trends in 2009.

She said: We have to be cautious given the wider issues in the market – but at the same time we have a good geographical spread, we have a customer offer that lends itself to today’s consumer extremely well and we are working hard to drive overall group profitability.

So we are cautious but confident in the year ahead – the industry is still performing really well.”