Game confident on profit forecasts as full-year sales surge 30%

The retailer said it maintained “cost discipline” over the period and expects underlying operating profit for the year to be in line with market consensus of £43.7m.

Game, which floated on the London Stock Exchange on June 11, ended the year with a net cash position of £80m, driven by “improvements in working capital, credit insurance and one-off capital structure benefits due to the IPO”.

The retailer said both its UK and Spanish businesses “performed well” and grew share. Game added that investment in its digital content platform “drove a strong digital market share through in-store and online sales”.

It said it continues to invest in its omnichannel offer, improving its in-store experience, website, mobile site and app. It recently launched Game Wallet, a payment mechanism “designed to significantly improve customer purchasing functionality”, Game said.

Over the year, one million new customers signed up to Game’s reward card programmes, bringing the total membership across the UK and Spain to over 16 million.

Game Digital chief executive officer Martyn Gibbs said: “Our consistent focus on improving the group’s specialist customer proposition has delivered a strong performance and positions the business well for the future.

“We have great new physical and digital games being launched in the coming months and are working closely with our supplier partners to provide early trials, exclusives, deals and new and exciting ways to pay for all our gaming communities around the UK and Spain.

“On behalf of the board I would like to thank all of our teams for their continued hard work and dedication and for the support of our customers and suppliers that make our community of gamers so valuable.”

Game will unveil its preliminary full-year results on October 16.