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This morning’s news of wholesale changes at GAME Group have sent shockwaves through the industry and its share price tumbling.
On a day when tough trading conditions have finally been brought into focus for the entire business, erstwhile chief executive Lisa Morgan has stepped down after 14 years of service.
UK chief operating officer Terry Scicluna has also revealed this morning that he will step down from the role, but assist with the handover to interim CEO Chris Bell – the former Ladbrokes chief exec who joined Game’s board seven years ago.
The management changes come at the same time as a disappointing set of financial figures.
GAME made an underlying pre-tax profit of 90.4 million in the year to January 31st. This is slightly up on analysts’ consensus forecast of 87.5 million but is 27 per cent down year-on-year.
Total annual sales fell 10 per cent to 1.77 billion across the 1,400 outlets that Game operates in nine European countries and Australia.
The Game share price had fallen 10 per cent to 89 pence within an hour of the financial and strategic update, but the company says it remains confident of future prospects.
"We have delivered the second best trading performance in our history," said chairman Peter Lewis.
"Our results were delivered against the backdrop of a very difficult trading environment, which saw the global PC and video games market decline by over 20 per cent."
