Chiefs quit Game Group as profits fall by third

The beginning of the end.. for those who can't click links:
 
 

The chief executive and chief operating officer of Game Group have stepped down after the retailer announced that full-year profits fell by nearly a third to £90 million and sales continued to tumble.

Shares in the company declined by 10.12 per cent to 91.05p this morning after it confirmed that Lisa Morgan, its chief executive, and Terry Scicluna, the chief operating officer, will leave.

Ms Morgan has been with the company for 14 years, and chief executive since 2006. She will be replaced in the interim by Chris Bell, a non-executive director, while Game Group searches for a successor.

Mr Scicluna will remain with the company during a handover period, and Martyn Gibbs will retain responsibilities for the UK operations after being appointed as managing director of UK and Ireland in March.

The company said that Ms Morgan had “indicated her desire to step down to pursue other opportunities”.

It added: “The board and Lisa have agreed that this is the right time for a new CEO to lead the business through the next stage in its development.”

Announcing its full-year results, Game said that its profits were the “second best performance” in the company’s history despite income falling from £117.4 million last year to £90.4 million in the 12 months to January 31.

Group turnover fell by 10 per cent to £1.8 billion. Like-for-like sales across the UK and Ireland fell by 17.3 per cent over the year. The company blamed a 20 per cent decline in the games market.

Game said it would pay shareholders a final dividend of 3.9p per share, an increase of 5 per cent on 2009.

With a record 28 million games consoles installed in the UK, the games hardware market is saturated, leading sales of consoles and other hardware to decline by 26 per cent last year in the UK.

This year the "third generation" of videogames consoles will launch, including Microsoft's Project Natal and Sony's Playstation Move, which work with sensors that pick up movement and spoken commands without the need for handheld controllers.

Current trading is also under pressure. In the 11 weeks to April 17, total like-for-like sales fell by 14.4 per cent. In Britain and Ireland, same store sales declined by 20.1 per cent.

Game Group said that it would get rid of 18 underperforming stores among its 677 UK outlets as well as closing its Debenhams concessions, and said that it expected to reduce its portfolio to 550 stores by the end of 2013.

The group had already overseen the closure of its 19 Borders outlets after the bookseller went into administration in December 2009.

Internationally, sales fared better, growing by 4.8 per cent although global like-for-like sales still fell by 10.8 per cent over the year.

With a record number of of games consoles now owned in the UK, the company planned to concentrate on higher-end, specialist products, Game said.

“Our results were delivered against the backdrop of a very difficult trading environment, which saw global pc and video games market decline by over 20 per cent,” Peter Lewis, the chairman, said.

“Whilst we remain mindful of the challenging market in which we operate, the forthcoming new technology further enhances the profile of the specialist retailer.”

What the fuck is Game Group?

" What the fuck is Game Group? "