Press releases
Record Christmas - sales up 51%
08/01/2002
Electronics Boutique plc, Europe's largest retailer of video games and computer software, announced today record sales for the December trading period. Overall sales in the UK and Ireland increased by 51% and like-for-like sales increased by 47% in the five weeks to 29 December 2001.This is an acceleration of the strong sales performance seen throughout the year. Cumulatively, sales are up by 41% overall and 38% on a like-for-like basis.
The Group's sales performance has benefited significantly since the launch of PlayStation 2 in November 2000 (in December 2000 like-for-like sales increased by 18%). The PlayStation 2 installed base in the UK is now understood to exceed 1.7m *, greatly outperforming the historic success of the original PlayStation, which had an installed base of under 700k * at the same stage in its lifecycle five years ago.
The Group operates from 290 standalone stores in the UK and Ireland, and also enjoys trading relationships with partners such as Debenhams and Sainsburys.
In addition to the core UK business, this year has seen the start of a pan-European chain with nearly 150 owned and franchised outlets in Spain, France and Sweden which, in aggregate, had a like-for-like sales increase of 49% in the same five week period. The potential in all our markets is immense.
The Group currently trades under four different brands; Electronics Boutique and GAME in the UK and Ireland; CentroMAIL in Spain; Scoregames in France; and GAME in Sweden. The board has addressed the issue of homogenous store branding so as to maximise the marketing benefits of a truly international business. In-store experiments have been conducted through the year and brand consultants have researched the consumer appeal of different names. As a conclusion of this process, the directors have decided that "GAME" will be the core trading name for the Group in the future. The Board will seek shareholders' approval to change the Group's name to The GAME Group plc in due course.
As a consequence, the results for the year to January 2002 will include a one-off charge for this name change, which will largely be completed over the next 12 months. The GAME brand already represents almost half of the UK store base and is used throughout the Swedish chain. The estimated charge will be up to £6m, which will include a write-off of assets and a provision for costs to be incurred. The latter includes the communication of the change of brand to the combined loyalty databases of over 3m customers, who represent over 60% of the Group's UK sales.
Even after this charge, given the strength of the operating performance of the business, the directors are confident that profits for the year to January 2002 will be in line with consensus market expectations.
Peter Lewis, Non-Executive Chairman, said:
Our strong year-on-year performance became even better in December. The remarkable sales of PlayStation 2 consoles and the coming launch of Microsoft XBox in March will further stimulate our market in the coming year. Since Christmas, demand for video games to meet the needs of the newly installed console base has continued at record levels. A golden era has begun."
*Source ChartTrack
