GAME ups its global assault

GAME is set to significantly ramp up its presence in France, Australia and Spain before the end of the year, in a bid to get closer to being a truly global retailer”, according to company CEO Lisa Morgan.

Of the 50 new stores touted in the firm’s recent trading update, 20 will be opened in Spain, with 20 in Australia and ten in France – all before the lucrative Christmas period.

We’ve made significant progress in terms of being a truly global retailer,” said Morgan. We’ve added something like 140 stores to the international GAME network in the last year. Our Spanish business is already well established and France is a marketplace in which we needed to build some scale.”

The new expansion comes off the back of GAME’s already aggressive push into the territories. In January, the company acquired 50 Maxi-Livres stores in France, followed by a handful of Gameswizards outlets in Australia.

Morgan has also predicted that the business can build on its spectacular first half of the year in Q3 and Q4.

GAME’s trading statement, which recorded the 22 weeks to June 30th this year, showed a total international group sales rise of 82.8 per cent, and a 42.6 per cent climb when compared like-for-like against stores that existed a year before.