Warhammer maker Games Workshop set for FTSE 100 debut

Warhammer maker Games Workshop will make its debut on the blue-chip FTSE 100 index on Monday.

It’s the culmination of an astonishing rise for the fantasy figure maker.

Shares in the Nottingham-based company have risen almost 2,600 percent in the past decade and are valued at just under £4.3 billion.

This puts the company on the heels of budget airline EasyJet – valued at just over £4.3 billion – and B&Q owner Kingfisher with £4.5 billion.

The group was helped this month when it struck a final deal with Amazon for the US giant to adapt its sci-fi universe Warhammer 40,000 into film and TV shows.

The ascent to the FTSE 100 comes almost 50 years after Games Workshop’s founders – Ian Livingstone, Steve Jackson and John Peake – set up the company in a flat in Shepherd’s Bush in 1975.

After starting out selling board games, the trio got an early break when Dungeons and Dragons creator Gary Gygax asked to become the exclusive distributor of the popular role-playing game in Britain and Europe. Warhammer followed shortly after in 1983 and would become by far the group’s most successful venture.

Livingstone and Jackson sold their shares in Games Workshop for £10 million in 1991. In 1994 the company was listed on the London Stock Exchange and moved to Nottingham in 1997.

Games Workshop’s headquarters are at the heart of the ‘Lead Belt’ – a collection of the world’s leading war game makers based in the East Midlands. From its humble beginnings in the west London flat, the company has grown into a global behemoth and its former employees have spawned several smaller companies that employ more than 2,600 staff and contribute millions of pounds to the British economy.

While many would dismiss the pastime of sending hand-painted miniatures of fantastic creatures into battle as the domain of children and maladjusted men in dimly lit basements, Warhammer has legions of devoted fans around the world. Famous enthusiasts include Superman actor Henry Cavill, musician Ed Sheeran and former Home Secretary James Cleverly.

The company’s success is even more remarkable given the extremely low profile of its management team.

CEO Kevin Rountree, who has been with the company for more than a quarter century, is an enigma with virtually non-existent public fame.

Finance director Liz Harrison is also a Games Workshop veteran, having joined the group in 2000 as finance manager for its German operations.