Zavvi: We’re bigger than GAME

High Street chain Zavvi celebrates its first birthday this week, and the firm has told MCV that its video game offering now rivals the range available at GAME.

Video games account for 30 per cent of Zavvi’s business, putting it ahead of music in terms of sales, and CEO Simon Douglas feels that games could even overtake DVDs within a year.

DVD still leads the way but games are catching up quickly,” he told MCV. It is possible that games will eclipse DVD in a year, although if Blu-Ray progresses as the industry expects, then it’s maybe difficult for games to catch DVD in total. But it’s a nice battle to have to worry about.”

Douglas has also reported that he was shocked by Zavvi’s video game performance, and that the firm is looking to expand even further.

We communicated to MCV a while ago that we were looking to grow our gaming space, and we’ve delivered that, and now the growth has been nothing short of phenomenal,” he continued. We’re absolutely delighted and even a little bit stunned by our performance.

I’d like to think that we are becoming a games specialist, especially if your look at our space and our catalogue. If you compare some of our stores to a GAME, then we have a bigger range.

Of course not all our staff are dedicated to games, but if you went to a lot of our stores now, a big proportion of our staff are purely selling games. If GAME is the video game specialist, then I like to think that our games offer is a specialist offer.”

Zavvi revealed in its first annual report that the group has increased like-for-like sales by ten per cent, and is now exploring digital downloads.