
A guide to Warhammer, Games Workshop and 40k... for bemused finance professionals.
You might be aware that, over the last few years, a peculiar business success story has swept the pinksheets. One of the biggest stories in British business isn't a private equity firm, or a bank, or an AI start-up: its Little old Games Workshop. That's right, the funny company the unpopular kids at school were teased for liking has risen from humble origins to become one of the most highly sought-after UK stocks for investors.
But how is this all possible? Â How has a company that makes little plastic soldiers ended up on the FTSE 100, with its CEO Kevin Roundtree recently named Business Person of the Year by The Times? What does the future hold for GW? And most importantly - should I grab myself some shares?!
Fear not, imaginary finance-minded person: I've got you covered. As a semi-professional journalist-type-man with a longstanding love of the worlds of Warhammer, I'm here to give you a primer on the corporate history - and future - of Nottingham's finest purveyor of little plastic soldiers.
Let's get into it.
"Fear not, imaginary finance-minded person: I've got you covered. As a semi-professional journalist-man with a longstanding love of the worlds of Warhammer, I'm here to give you a primer on the corporate history - and future - of Nottingham's finest purveyor of little plastic soldiers."

First things first: a short history of little plastic men
Games Workshop (GW) was founded in a London bedroom by founded by John Peake, Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson in 1975 as a mail order business, producing parts for board games and then as a for Dungeons and Dragons miniatures in the UK. Seeing the potential in creating their own miniatures, GW founded Citadel Miniatures to produce metal (and subsequently plastic and resin) models of their own. Having turned down a merger with Gary Gygax's TSR group, GW moved up to Nottingham, where its "Warhammer World" home exists today.

Perhaps the key breakout for GW in this early period was the decision to create a game of its own to play with the miniatures it was already maunfacturing. This became Warhammer: the game of fantasy battles, which was released in 1983. However, its flagship product would come in 1987 with a sci-fi port of the principles of Warhammer fantasy into a grim and brutal setting 40,000 years into the future. Like its tolkein-inspired cousin, Warhammer 40,000 (more commonly, 40k) is a tabletop game in which players build, paint and then play with armies of little plastic warriors from a grimdark, far-future setting. Think Airfix meets paint by numbers meets Risk meets Judge Dredd and you're not far off. Following a management buy-out in 1991, the operations of the company were refocused onto these as its most lucrative offering.
"40k is a tabletop game in which players build, paint and then play with armies of little plastic warriors from a grimdark, far-future setting."
The GW of today is quite a different beast from the "cottage industry" company of its youth, having grown in size and stature throughout the 2010s. It has cemented itself as the leader in its niche: producing highly-detailed miniatures for its mass-battle wargames. There has been some fan backlash to what is regarded as an overly-litigious attitude in defence of its intellectual property online from some fans, but on the whole the modern company is regarded favourably, certainly more so than its more closed off, unresponsive iterations in the past.
Lockdown and the GW boom
FIne, I hear you ask, by why the sudden explosion in success now? The short (and short) of it is Covid19, but there's is a bit more to the sudden emergence of GW as a British business success story in the last five years.
It's certainly true that the sudden isolation-ism of lockdown created a new audience for GW - predominately older players who had played in their youth only to be lured back to a hobby they had passed over in their 20s in favour of socialising and, bluntly, alcohol (I should know; I did exactly this). However, newer fans were also drawn to the hobby by its unique tactlessness and creativity through a burgeoning social media presence, which GW began to fully embrace in earnest.

It's hard also not to throw a mention at this juncture to Henry Cavill: Games Workshop's accidental media figurehead and certainly its most prestigious fan. Cavill's lockdown-era omission that he has been a lifelong fan of Warhammer raised the profile of the company and its game exponentially amongst more "casual" audiences. It also made the game if not exactly cool, then certainly somewhat more palatable for mainstream audiences, standing in opposition to the somewhat sad image that wargaming had held for years.
A launch of two editions of Warhammer 40,000 during the intervening period have been (on the whole) well-received by existing fans and have drawn newer players into the hobby. Warhammer has always spread through word of mouth, rather than a codified marketing effort. The firm's marketing output tends to be more centered on engaging with existing players to entice them into purchasing new releases, than really pushing out for new fans. Rather, an explosion of associated fan-led channels and accounts online helped fuel the fire of GW's new era. The recent, mainstream success of the video game Space Marine II helped accentuate that influx.

Driven by this new and returning curiosity, GW's sales have, of course, skyrocketed during the Covid19 lockdowns and beyond. Warhammer has already been a luxury item, representing an often financially intensive hobby than more fiscally prudent obsessions and GW's mark-ups on its miniatures remain high. That said, its kits remain (predominately) UK-made, even if their publications manufacturing has moved to China and are usually considered to be in a class of their own in the miniatures space. A little like Lego, fans are generally happy to pay for the quality offered, and the collectible, competitive and evolving nature of GW's games keeps players enthralled with its products.
The future: GW and intellectual property
However, the big, BIG ace up the sleeves of GW, and likely the source of its increasing success in the next decade (if such a bold prediction might be made) lies in something more intangible than its manufacturing. It is in the strength of its intellectual property.
Throughout its 40 year history, GW has amassed a vast repository of "lore" and stories for the factions and characters featured in its model kits and games. We're talking a veritable mountain of books and short stories ready to be mined for content. Indeed, GW has an entire publication arm in-house, the Black Library, and has produced hundreds of books based on the worlds and characters featured in its games. One of its most prominent series, The Horus Heresy, which completed with 2024's The End and the Death, comprises over 50 novels, produced by a suite of authors including Dan Abnett, Graham McNeill and Aaron Dembski-Bowden. The potential for adaption of existing stories from that catalogue is huge: Warhammer is a universe as vast in terms of size and complexity as the likes of Star Wars or Marvel.
"Warhammer is a universe as vast in terms of size and complexity as the likes of Star Wars or Marvel."
It was only a matter of time before licensing talks around bringing that property to the small and big screen commenced. As you may well be aware, GW has recently signed a deal with Amazon to create shows for Prime Video, with Cavill associated as an Executive Producer. As of December 2024, the first concepts have been agreed, with pre-production to follow.
GW has already dipped its toe into the creation game through its online Warhammer+ subscription model, with varying degrees to success and quality. Equally, licensing arrangements in the video games space have been a staple for the company since the likes of Dawn of War back in the early 2000s, and cemented in 2024, as mentioned above, by the immensely successful reception to Space Marine II. However, the Amazon deal represents a seismic step forward for the company. The response to the multi-billion dollar partnership has sent GW stock skyrocketing on the anticipation of new series, likely set in the 40k universe. Time will tell as to how well such an endeavour is received - and it will likely be a few years before we see any final project on screen. But the initial signs are promising: the recent inclusion of Space Marine 2 as an episode of Amazon's Secret Level series was a relative success.
"The Amazon deal represents a seismic step forward for the company and has sent GW stock skyrocketing on the anticipation of new series, likely set in the 40k universe."

In conclusion
As I write, GW's next annual report is due for publication and another bumper year is expected. Outside pressures on businesses with a pessimistic looking market, increasing costs and tax will of course likely impact the fortunes of GW, as they will everyone over the next 12 months, but in contrast to the grimness of its universes, the future for the Nottingham-based producer looks bright.
As a fan with a fascination for this most curious of financial success stories, I look forward to seeing what the future holds.
Until next time,
Alex
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