Tom Kirby, the Group's Chairman and Chief Executive, joined us in 1986 as General Manager. In December 1991Tom led a management buy-out and in October 1994 the company was floated on the London Stock Exchange.
In October 1997, all UK based operations were relocated to the current HQ in Lenton, Nottingham. As well as helping to consolidate our UK businesses, the move provided Games Workshop with space to create Warhammer World the premier wargaming arena. These new facilities have allowed the UK business to stage increasing numbers of gaming tournaments and special events. Today Lenton is a vibrant and exciting Hobby base and has become a place of pilgrimage for gamers from around the world.
Designing the Product
There are thousands of miniatures in the Games Workshop range and getting new models and rules just right is crucial to satisfy the demanding, indeed fastidious, requirements of Hobbyists throughout the world. To do this the Nottingham Design Studio employs more than 100 full time staff all of whom are committed Hobbyists. Highly skilled artists work in acrylics, inks and other media to create the outstanding pieces of atmospheric fantasy art, which grace the rulebooks, army books and boxes. The minutely detailed master miniatures are hand crafted out of resin putty on a simple wire frame using dental tools by sculptors. Meanwhile games developers work to create and refine the rules that will allow the new troops to venture into battle. These design processes takes many months and sometimes years of hard work and dedication.
Making Fantasy a Reality
Once the final design of a miniature is approved the master models are handled in one of two different ways. Miniatures to be cast in metal are sent to the master mould makers in the UK and US who use them to make precise silicon rubber moulds. These moulds are then used by casting teams based in Nottingham and the US who make some 800 tons of pewter miniatures a year. Those to be made in plastic begin their journey through a long pattern making process in, Wisbech, UK. There our tool makers use pantographs to carve the steel tools which when passed onto our plastics factory will contribute to the seven tons of plastic injection moulded miniatures we make each year. Once completed all our products are passed to our packers who prepare the troops for their journies around the globe.
Getting Product to the Hobbyist
Customer service is the key to Games Workshop’s existence, and the warehouse and distribution teams in Nottingham, UK and Memphis, US are dedicated to getting product to all customers, be they our own Hobby stores, individuals or independent retailers as swiftly as possible. While our sales teams around the world work hard to help independent retailers to build the Hobby, our store teams work to ensure our own Hobby Stores offer gamers the very best Hobby experience we can provide.
Amusements
Amusement’s is an arcade. They are the only arcade or amusements centre in their town and nearby ones. They provide gaming machines and fruit machines and such. They get many customers due to being the only arcade in the town.
It is a sole trader located in Langley Mill, Nottingham.
Location
Where a business chooses to place itself or locate to is an important decision. There are many factors they must take into consideration when they decide to move or start up. These are:
- The number of people available with suitable skills
- The cost of labour
- The cost of premises
- Local government charges
- Financial help
- Transport links for supplies and distribution
- Sales techniques.
There are more but these are the main ones that may affect my two business.
The number of people available with suitable skills
Certain areas of the country are linked to certain types of industry. For example, English pottery making is centred around Stoke on Trent in Staffordshire. Business looking to start or expand in pottery making know that if they locate in that area they are likely to be able to find staff that are trained with the skills the company need. This helps the company save money because they will not have to train as many people, and training staff costs the company money.
How due to the nature of Games Workshop, needing mainly good linguist that can write clear and descriptive rules or entertaining and immersive stories. As well as needing people who are skilled at sculpting and painting with acrylics and inks. These skills generally don’t have a specific place associated with these skills, and so they are unable to find a place that will cater them these skills. And they must take into consideration that it helps a lot that the employees are familiar with the company and have a history with them, such as they have been collecting or playing the hobby for several years. This is also a in-direct training, because if they employee has been collecting and playing the games for several years (most have played for decades, or possibly more!) and by playing these games you become familiar with the rules and the company, as well as becoming a better painter by painting them, and a better sculptor by converting the models. So you have already got most of the necessary skills needed.
For amusements this isn’t really necessary because their or not many specific skills involved with running an arcade, maybe a basic level of electronic knowledge might be needed to help maintain machines. Or a basic maths skill to work out how much change is given for an amount of money.
The cost of labour
Wages in certain areas of the country tend to be higher, mainly where the cost of living is high- for example, in London and the southeast of England. Firms that want to keep labour costs low will tend to go to areas where wages are generally lower or where there are large numbers of unemployed people that are willing to take lower paid work, over than live on benefits. This is one of the reasons why call centres have been established in the northeast of England- the area tends to have higher levels of unemployment than the rest of the country.
In Nottingham there is generally a high number of unemployed people, however this is not much of a benefit for GW, as they will need people who are familiar with the company or have the appropriate skills. It is unlikely that and unemployed person will be able to afford or play their games, as they tend to be expensive, and to raise a small army would easily cost £200.
Amusements might not benefit much as well, because being a small company and only really needing someone to work the till for a day, and make sure all goes well, this can be done with a small workforce, or easily by the owner himself without many problems, he might hire one or two other people to help out on busy days, but isn’t really needed.
The cost of premises
Premises costs tend to be higher in the southeast of England than anywhere else. Around the country retail premises will cost more in city centres or major shopping centres, such as the Trafford Centre. Costs will be lower in outlying shopping areas around a town or city. Retail or office premises that are on the ground floor of a high street will be more expensive than those above street level or located away from the high street. The cost of industrial or warehouse premises will be affected by how close the premises are to major motorway and rail networks.
Amusements is in a reasonably good place to start with. They are located just off a main road where it is easily seen, and they have a bus route that runs just past the premises so it is easy for the customers to get there. They are also fairly close to a pub, so people going to the pub will see it and will most likely go in and have a game. Or if the customers want a drink they can go out and have one then come back.
The roads in Nottingham, form experience, are pretty dodgy, with sudden turns and road signs obscured by overgrown trees, as well as the carefully hidden road names, in the inner part of the city. This now may be a problem for GW, the roads have a tendency to be slow on busy days when the roads are congested, so this can be a problem for the delivery of products or raw materials. Even though this may be a problem, GW always seem to be able to get their products out on time or earlier than expected. And even though thee first part of the journey to the stores is difficult, they quickly are able to get onto the motorway. This may not have been a problem when they first moved there, but it may be a little inconvenience that they have to deal with now, but not enough of a problem that it will have a drastic effect on the company.
Local Government Charges
The households in an area pay council tax, for businesses they have to pay business rates. These rates pay for things like waste disposal, street lighting and road maintenance. The level of business rates is linked to a property’s rental value and will vary from council to council. It adds to the costs of running the business. Firms will consider the likely level of business rates when deciding where to locate.
Financial help
The government or the European Union (EU) may provide areas of high unemployment with financial help to develop business activity and employment. For example, an Enterprise Grant of up to £75,000 is available in certain parts of the country called assisted areas. This is to help small and medium-sized businesses purchase equipment or land. In some areas Regional Selective Assistance is available for projects that are worth more than £500,000.
Obviously due to the size of GW the Enterprise Grant wouldn’t be an issue, also because they moved to where they are now, when they were becoming very popular and a big company. This might have helped Amusements however. But it is unlikely that they did receive a grant when they started up. Nottingham is, just about, in an area where the enterprise grant is given.
The financial help form the government is managed by the Department of Trade and Industry. Local councils can sometimes provide financial help for businesses in their areas.
Transport Links for supplies and distribution
The location chosen by the business has to be accessible. Local customers need to be able to reach it easily. Businesses that distribute goods and services nationally or internationally need to be near suitable transport such as motorways, railways and airports.
This was covered in an earlier section of Location. Basically Amusements transport links are good because they link straight onto a main road, which will take you to a motorway. Games Workshop, the first few roads are difficult, but it quickly gets onto the motorway.
The need to be where customers are
By being near its customers a firm has more chance of making sales. Being near customers also reduces transport costs. It is for this reason that larger breweries are still found in cities such as Manchester, Newcastle and London when similar-sized manufacturers of other products have moved outside the city. The beer and larger that is produced by the breweries is bulky and difficult to transport. City centre location of breweries, near to pubs or hotels, reduces the cost and time involved in moving the finished products to where they are needed.
For GW the manufacturing plant is where the largest store is. So this is easy because they just need to carry the products upstairs to the shop, pretty literally. However having only this plant in the UK and several abroad, getting the product around fast may be difficult, but due to the nature of it, they normally have plenty of excess in stock, which a shop will use until a new delivery. The deliveries are normally weekly, and will contain what is expected to sell and a lot more just to be safe, they will rarely run out of stock, and if they do they are normally expecting a delivery the next morning or later on that day.
Amusements being located in a area surrounded by houses, and public houses, is pretty much in the right place to make business. There is not much of a better place for an arcade then near where lots of people live, and being the only one around, makes it even better.
Sales techniques
Traditional retail activities need showrooms or shops for the public to visit and look at and try out the items for sale. Activities such as selling cars or clothes require space that is easily accessible. Selling over the Internet, by telephone or through mail order removes the need for special locations and gives the business more choice of where to be based.
Games Workshop has taken advantage of the Internet, and as well as their phone-in sales have extended to the Internet sales for their mail order service, this has been happening for several years. They are known to have great customer service in this department. If a sale ever gets mixed up or confused, or you have even the smallest item missing or horribly damaged then they will send you replacements, and much more, maybe even your whole order again, as an apology. Though through careful control they try their best to make sure everything is fine and in order before the get it courier delivered to you.
In their shops they normally have the walls lined with shelves for the boxes and blister packs, as well as display cabinets. In the room in the middle they have several large gaming tables and a painting table, which you may use at any time.
Obviously the arcade has rows of machines with plenty of room for the customers to stand and play, and for others to move about.
Functional Areas
Large businesses such as the business I am looking at– Games Workshop- are split into departments; these departments carry out a range of tasks to support their activities. Small businesses usually aren’t split into departments, but will still deal with the same sort of tasks, or ‘business functions’. Te types of departments are usually:
- The Human Resources
- Finance
- Administration and IT Support
- Operations
- Marketing Sales
- Customer Service
- Research Service
In small businesses such ‘Amusements’ the person who owns the business will have to deal with all of these tasks alone. Large businesses may have separate departments for each task.
Human Resources
The business needs to select the right people for the jobs it has and make sure that it’s workers work well and are happy. This department is called the Human Resources Department or the Personnel Department.
The human resources department of my large business looks after the people who work in the whole business. They look after:
- Recruitment, retention and the dismissal of staff.
- Working conditions
- Training, development and promotion
- Employee organisations and unions
- Health and safety
This part of the business needs to link with the other parts of the organisation, they must make sure that the right people are being managed properly.
They must make sure that the right people are in the job they have, such as good sculptors for the model designers, and good linguist to make sure that the wordings for the rules are precise and understandable.
The department must make sure it obeys employment laws, so the employees in this department have to be able to draw on some legal skills. Also to make sure the workforce is working efficiently and effectively it also uses skills relating to psychology and sociology.
Finance
All organisations need to look after their finances. Records of money coming into and leaving the businesses need to be able to understand their financial records to help them plan the future activities and likely spending and income levels. In a small business the owner might look after their accounts, perhaps on a part-time basis. Games Workshop has full-time staff looking after their finances. These people work in a separate department, usually they are referred to as the finance department or the accounts department.
Communication
All businesses need to be able to communicate between the workers and outside of the business. They must all be able to communicate:
- Within their department
- Outside their department
- Outside the business
This communication can take place in a number of ways, the main types are:
- Oral communication
- Video communication
- Written communication
All types of communication have their advantages and disadvantages.
