But everything still to play for
Games Workshop Group today announced poor trading figures for the year ending May 29. The company suffered as last year's Lord of the Rings frenzy died away.

However, the retailer said the underlying business was healthy. Turnover was down to£136 million, compared with£151 million the year before. Operating profit was reduced from£19.9 million last year to£13.9 million.

The retailer said it was the first set of reported results that had shown a fall in sales and profits, but that it was not going to resort to short-term actions to the detriment of long-term growth.

Games Workshop chairman and chief executive Tom Kirby said: 'For the past two years, we have been concerned that the Lord of the Rings business [within Games Workshop] might create a bubble effect that might not be sustainable, but we have to confess that we underestimated the impact this would have on our sales and profits in the last quarter of this financial year. We see this as a temporary reduction in sales for a business that has proven its growth credentials over many years.'