GAME enters administration

After two months of worry and rumour, GAME has as of today officially entered administration.

PwC remains hopeful that a going concern sale of the business is achievable”, but that will not stop the closure of many stores and the potential loss of thousands of jobs.

PwC has not yet confirmed store closure plans nor how many jobs it expects to cut. However, MCV understands that calls are currently being put into stores to inform them of their fate.

Here is the statement in full:

Mike Jervis and Stuart Maddison of PwC were appointed joint administrators of the UK and Ireland operations of The GAME Group plc, Game Stores Group Limited, Gameplay (GB) Limited, Game (Stores) Limited, Games Station Limited, Game (retail) Limited, Gamestation Limited (the group”) on 26 March 2012. The appointment was made following the company’s announcements on 21 March that the listing of its securities on the Main Market of London Stock Exchange plc had been suspended from trading and a filing of a notice of intention to appoint an administrator had been made.

The group, with a turnover of 1,625m in the year to 31 January, is a multi-channel retailer of video games and video games hardware trading under the names of Game and Gamestation. The group’s head office is based in Basingstoke with operations in the UK and Ireland, Spain, Portugal, France, Czech Republic and Australia. There are currently 609 stores throughout the UK and Ireland. There are 385 employees based in the group’s head office in Basingstoke and 5,136 store employees across the UK and Ireland.

Mike Jervis, joint administrator and partner at PwC said:

The group has faced serious cashflow and profit issues over the recent past. It also has suffered from high fixed costs, an ambitious international roll-out and fluctuating working capital requirements.

Despite these challenges, we believe that there is room for a specialist game retailer in the territories in which it operates, including its biggest one, the UK. As a result we are hopeful that a going concern sale of the business is achievable.”