Game files for administration
Stores could still be saved
High street retailer Game has officially filed for administration, although trade will continue while the process is finalised.
"Further to this morning's announcement of the suspension of trading in shares of Game Group Plc, the board has concluded that its discussions with all stakeholders and other parties have not made sufficient progress in the time available to offer a realistic prospect for a solvent solution for the business,” said the troubled company in a statement today.
“The board has therefore today filed a notice of intention to appoint an administrator."
The statement goes on to underline the board's intentions of keeping the business running, through the continuation of trade and discussions under the protection of the interim moratorium.
The expected announcement was made after this morning's news that the company suspended shares, removing itself from the London stock exchange.
The retailer is apparently in the process of splitting assets and gearing up to launch a new firm next Monday, funded by the current bank lenders. This would essentially mean the end for Gamestation, but could see roughly 300+ Game stores saved, MCV reports.
"There's no need for two, or even three, stores in the same town or city," said a source close the negotiations.
"They get a chance to reduce debt, keep trading and work out a plan for a new owner without so many financial and lease millstones around their necks." ®
COMMENTS
Re: My local shopping centre
Mines a little different:
Alders
Game
Woolworth
Game
Millets
Gamestation
T.J. Hughes
Game
Peacocks
Game
Burton
Game
Officers Club
Game
Past Times
Happy?
RANT
I don't think we should be happy about this. The problem is the useless management. In this admin situation, the company will be bought in a pre-pack deal - shafting a load of the creditors, the shareholders, half the staff. And then on Monday, the same twats rock up to their Basingstein Headquarters and take another stab at wrecking things.
Frankly the board of directors should be ashamed of themselves, they clearly couldn't pour shit out of a boot, even if the instructions were printed on the heel.
/RANT
Re: Happy?
^ This.
I'm no fan of Game but I think this is very sad. I think the stores were consistently poorly set up. The ones where I live now (Newcastle) are as bad as the ones in the place I lived ten years ago (Nottingham). I feel awful for the people working there as there must be a lot of uncertainty right now and now is not a good time to be losing your job.
Also, these stores were crap because of the way the company was run, but they had so much potential. Had they given up on the several small stores in a town model, and opened up one large store in each town (think Apple store vibe) machines you could go in and try, a decent amount of stock, prices that didn't make you feel like you were being ripped off, plenty of staff who get regular training and can give advice on anything from what console to buy to the best way to level up in Skyrim, and I think things could have been very different.
I have seen Kinect demonstrations in shopping Centres - but not in the part with Game in. Why didn't they host things like that or at least negotiate with the shopping Centre to get it located outside their shop?
They should be ashamed.
Re: Happy?
With you on this one.
Many of the staff are genuinely knowledgeable about games, but the stores have been disastrously managed from the top. Every store has two huge two sections - one encouraging people to preorder and containing nothing but shelf after shelf of empty boxes of games that haven't been released yet. The other part of the store is pre-owned games piled up at random. A few shelves will contain the top ten games, cheap peripherals and precious little else.
Gamestation is marginally better, but all the stores have that teenager odour about them.
Game sink even lower
There's a new game out called Mass Effect 3. What kind of naughty retailer would put v2 of the game at number 1 in its charts and then put a price sticker over the 3?
http://i.imgur.com/lEkVa.jpg
