I work in a independent book store in Norway. Ive had two calls from GW wanting to convince us to start selling Warhammer.
First time i fobbed him off, we barely have room for our product as is. But he insisted he wanted to talk to the owner. Shes rarely in the store, but i told him to call back later to talk to someone else. He called again today and got me again, he was still very keen on getting us to carry warhammer, and ended up taking the owners email to send her a pitch.
This is not the first time theyve called, they pitched us back around 2016 or so. At the time there was no local gaming store, but that has changed and a major one is now operating barely 15 minutes from where we are.
Simultaneously to this, we are not the only ones being pitched. We have a FB group of independent stores, and someone in there posted asking if anyone had any experience with warhammer, as they'd clearly had the phone call and received one of the little sample packages they send out.
The two most interesting things i got from the guy who called was
-
GW doubled their sales 2022 to 2023. I assume that was the Norwegian market he was referring to.
-
They were calling because they want to capitalise on this boom in sales and are pushing for more book and toy stores to carry GW products to "reach a wider audience".
My take is they are pushing hard to maintain or raise sales in 2024. Cost of living and inflation has hit hard everywhere, GW stock has been loosing value for 6 months and just now their CFO dumped two thirds of her stock as she's leaving the company. I dont think their sales this year will match 2023, and with the recent drama they might have alienated enough customers they'll be taking a serious hit.
GW will be competing against 3D printers so probably best not get involved.
Heard some of their books can be hit and miss too depending on author, the fact the CFO dumped shares and left is a BIG red flag as she is one of the few with the clearest vision on the balance sheets.
Dumping FFG for Ulisses Spiele sure worked out for them...
Yeah but accessible SLA been around for at least 6 years (200-300 dollar range) and GW earning report shows half a billion in sales last year.
They'll blame SLA eventually but it's not going to be SLA that kills their golden goose.
If I ever get back to the hobby, unlikely, I would either buy a budget used army and skip painting or go SLA and print a vast amount of different armies and find friends willing to play skirmishes with.