GAME plans more store closures

Only 550 GAME and Gamestation outlets will remain on the UK High Street by Christmas 2013, according to GAME Group chairman.

Until recently GAME had 695 stores across the country, but in February it announced the closure of 18 additional outlets, as well as all 25 of its Debenhams concessions. This new target represents an additional 127 closures in the next three and half years.

We continue actively to review our UK store base, with a view to minimising store overlap and maximising opportunities from lease expiries, breaks and rent reviews,” chairman Peter Lewis stated.

Operationally we have continued to derive benefits from the integration of GAME and Gamestation. We have also rationalised our store and head office cost base which, in conjunction with the store closures, will result in savings of a further 5m in each of the next two years.”

Interim chief executive, who is temporarily filling the role vacated by long-term CEO Lisa Morgan this morning, also outlined some of the improvements GAME intends to make to its outlets.

Our stores are a place to experience games, and the format is evolving to cater for their changing needs and the incoming new technology,” he added. We are trialling interactive kiosks and improved ecommerce connectivity in selected stores to expand further the range with thousands more product lines and enhanced the customer experience.

To deal with the transactional volumes through our stores, we continually upgrade our IT infrastructure. As part of this we are installing both customer conversion technology and top-up card activation capabilities within our outlets.”