TOY GLORY!
Games Workshop is now worth £4.6billion with shares rising by almost 50 per cent in the past year
The company's value as surpassed that of household names
A MODEL-making business known for its fantasy battle figures has stormed into the ranks of Britain’s most valuable companies.
Games Workshop is now worth £4.6billion — more than household names such as easyJet, retailer B&M, fashion brand Burberry and online grocer Ocado.
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Its shares have surged by almost 50 per cent in the past year while it has added £3billion to its value since the start of the pandemic — pushing it into the FTSE 100.
Its success has been built on sales of figurines, such as Space Marines and Ork Boyz, based on its Warhammer franchises.
An investor when it was listed 20 years ago would have made 11 times their money.
Charles Hall of investment bank Peel Hunt, and broker to the company, said: “Games Workshop is a great British success story.
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"It takes a very long-term view and intends to build the hobby globally forever.”
The Nottingham-based firm was founded in 1975 by three schoolmates who bagged the distribution rights to Dungeons & Dragons before developing their own handmade wooden board games.
Its resin models typically sell for £26 a pop but collectors’ insatiable pursuit of their hobby means it now has 548 shops around the world.
Actor Henry Cavill is a fan and is working on a Warhammer series with Amazon.
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Plain-speaking CEO Kevin Rountree, 54, has been with the business since 1998 — but has never given an interview and there is no recent photograph of him.
He said in its annual report: “These results are built on our hard work.”
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