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It’s boom time for Games Workshop, which has reported bumper profits across its business. But there are just two things holding the Warhammer 40,000 maker back right now: Trump’s tariffs and a “cute looking” bat.
Let’s start with the tariffs. In its latest financial results, the UK company behind the enormously popular tabletop wargames Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 announced such huge profits for the year that shares in the company skyrocketed to the top of the FTSE 100.
But among the celebratory language around profits and revenue, Games Workshop moved to calm ongoing concern about the impact of tariffs on the company’s primarily physical goods business.
In a note to the investment community, CEO Kevin Rountree acknowledged the uncertainty around Trump’s tariffs, but outlined his plan to deal with them.
“Our current estimate is that if we did nothing, new tariffs could impact profit before tax by c.£12 million (approx. $15.9 million) in 2025/26,” he admitted.
“This new problem will be dealt with in our normal pragmatic way. We will not change our operational plans too much. We already have a U.S. corporate entity and we are investing in our base in Memphis and opening stores across most states. Some of our trade partners, staff and customers are nervous. So to be clear — it is business as usual for Games Workshop, once again a new normal has to be accepted. It’s mostly out of our control. We continue to manage our taxes in line with our policies and are monitoring the ongoing legislative changes in the U.S., and any potential impact on our effective tax rate.
“Tariff costs are likely to reduce our reported gross margin next year. We have a detailed operational plan to make up the c.2% gross margin shortfall through efficiencies. This is not a simple task when we are already very efficient; it may take longer than one year. We will continue to invest in capacity to enable future growth (this investment is not matched by revenue increases in the short term). We will also continue to invest in necessary new jobs and gross pay (3% has been awarded for 2025/26, as well as increasing the base pay in the UK to £12.75 per hour, above the national living wage) and raise our RRPs on new products (the average was c.5% in 2024/25) to represent the significant investment it has taken to deliver them.”
Okay, so with the tariff talk out of the way, onto the fun stuff: bats. Rountree said that the exception to all the good news was the news about the aforementioned tariffs and “the cute looking pipistrelle bat that is delaying our work on our new temporary car park.”
Wait, what?
That’s right, a real-life bat is holding up Games Workshop’s development of a car park. The pipistrelle bat, which weighs about five grams and is one of the most common breeds in the UK, is causing the mighty Games Workshop a bit of a headache. That’s because the company spent £2.1 million (approx. $2.7 million) on land for the temporary car park, which would be located opposite the site for a new paint production facility near its Nottingham headquarters, and Games Workshop has the option to use the land to increase its capacity in the future.
If the Imperium had its way, the poor bat would no doubt have been scrubbed from existence without a second thought, perhaps from a well-placed bolter shot or, even better, a blast of psychic energy from the nearest available Librarian. But alas, in the real world, processes and “doing the right thing” appear to be important, and so, Games Workshop added, it was “carefully looking after” the bat.
Still, Games Workshop failed to say when work on the car park will be completed. Perhaps this particular bat has a bit of the Tyranid about it! But in all seriousness, one of the biggest challenges Games Workshop faces is production capacity. It just can’t make enough of its incredibly popular miniatures, which fly off the physical and virtual shelves so fast fans can find it near impossible to buy new releases. Fans want to throw money at Games Workshop for these things, which is why the company is spending so much time, energy, and money increasing its capacity — and is so mindful of tariffs.
Thankfully, these two issues have not prevented Games Workshop from enjoying perhaps the most successful period in its long history. As we’ve reported, it even has an Amazon-produced, Henry Cavill-led Warhammer 40,000 Cinematic Universe in the works (although it can’t say anything about it due to contractual reasons), blockbuster video games (Space Marine 2 has 7 million players), and a significant merchandise business.
And, now, it has a cute bat on its hands.
Photo by: Arterra/Universal Images Group via Getty Images.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
