GAME ‘doesn’t foresee’ mass store closures

UK retailer GAME says it is not looking to close stores in reaction to its financial results yesterday.

The firm revealed adjusted earnings of 33.1m for the first half of its financial year (up until January 23rd), a drop of almost 10m on the same period a year before. The company blames plunging sales of Xbox 360 and PS3 titles for the slump.

GAME says it will investing in its Multiplay and GAMEtronics business areas, but admitted it would be looking to make ‘operational efficiencies’ in its retail business. This includes closing its internal customer services department and moving it to an external partner.

When asked what this would mean for its current store base, GAME CEO Martyn Gibbs told MCV that a number of store leases are up this year (57), which may result in a few changes of store locations. But he reiterates there are no plans for ‘material’ store closures, and says that the firm still doesn’t have a single loss making store.

"We are reviewing every part of the business based on the market, but also based on the organisation design we need both for now and in the future,” he told us.

In terms of answering the store question, we are not foreseeing any material closures in stores. We have a lot of lease events coming up. I will give you a couple of examples. We launched a big new store in Trafford last year, we did a big store in the Metro Centre where we took two stores to one, we just moved out of Southampton West Quay and then put a store on the High Street, that is performing very well.

It is just about getting the portfolio of stores right at the right cost base, that can engage with the gaming communities in those locations. We still don’t have a loss-making store in the UK, which is still a very proud statement we can make.”