Sales Rise 74 Percent At UK Retailer GAME

Officials from UK based international retailer GAME Group have announced details of the first twenty-two weeks of the company’s financial year, in which sales have increased dramatically over the same period last year. For the twenty-two weeks ended June 30th, total Group sales rose by an impressive 74.1 percent with like-for-like sales up by 45.6 percent - excluding results from new acquisition Gamestation (which has still yet to be approved by the UK Office of Fair Trading). Total sales in the UK and Ireland were up by 71.1 percent, with like-for-like sales up 46.6 percent. Internationally total sales rose by 82.8 percent and like-for-like by 42.6 percent. The company attributed the strong sales to the success of the Wii in particular and also announced plans to open fifty additional stores by Christmas, the majority outside of the UK. This will bring the company’s new total to 1,115 stores worldwide. Despite concerns over lower margins on hardware, and the financial impact of the Gamestation acquisition, the company is still expecting a net profit of £1 million to £3 million ($2m to $6m) for the first half of the year. “The PC and video games market has grown strongly in this period and I am pleased to report that GAME is performing in line with our expectations for the first half of the year,” said chairman Peter Lewis. “Consumer demand remains strong for all formats, particularly for the Nintendo Wii. However, the UK trading environment in particular continues to be very competitive with retailers expanding their PC and video games offer to capitalise on the growing market,” he added.