THE MARKET FOR COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES
Issue 609 Friday October 15 2010 £3.25
Tesco wants 20% of UK games market by 2012
Supermarket giant wants to secure second-biggest game retailer status within next two years Top 250 stores get service desks to create ‘proper’ games departments
by Christopher Dring by Christopher Dring
SUPERMARKET behemoth Tesco wants to have a 20 per cent share of the UK games software market. The firm told MCV it can achieve this goal, and become the UK’s second largest games retailer in terms of sales, over the next two years. “We have already doubled our share on software, hardware and peripherals in the last year,” said senior buying manager for games John Stanhope.
“The team has also doubled in size in the last 18 months. We now have the resource to get to 20 per cent of the games software market.”
It is a far cry from where
Tesco was two years ago, with suppliers dubbing them a ‘missed opportunity’ for gaming (MCV 532 10/04/2009). Entertainment category director Rob Salter moved to fix the problem, hiring Stanhope, increasing in- store space and adding to the games team. Salter told MCV: “I have been here just over two years
“
Tesco at its best should be as good as a specialist. In top stores we can create a proper entertainment department. John Stanhope, Tesco
and my first meetings with the video game suppliers were quite challenging. “They said ‘You are not really a priority for us’, which is unusual for Tesco.
“So when John arrived we said that we were going to grow our share, and we then
Tesco entertainment execs Rob Salter (above left) and John Stanhope (above right) have turned around the retailer’s gaming fortunes
spent the next two years getting on and delivering on that promise. We have now put ourselves way up the pecking order with our suppliers. We have a long way to go, but it’s been a decent couple of years.” Over the past 12 months
” Tesco has started taking game © 2010 Electronic Arts Inc. EA, EA SPORTS and the EA SPORTS logo are trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. “PlayStation”
pre-orders and launched a pre- owned offer in over 60 stores. And now the world’s third largest retailer is rolling out service desks specifically for entertainment and electronics. “Tesco at its best in entertainment should be as good as a specialist retailer,” said Stanhope.
“The next step is to have service desks at the heart of the department. In the top 250 Tesco stores we have the opportunity to create a proper games and entertainment and electrical department.”
UK RETAILERS could be left out of pocket as Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs clamps down on corrupt distributors. Fraudulent suppliers have been buying consoles from abroad without paying VAT, then selling the machines on to UK retailers with the VAT added on top.
These temporary traders then disappear, and when the retailer tries to claim the money back on its VAT return, HMRC may refuse to pay – as it never received the tax in the first place.
The dubious and illegal practice is called ‘Missing Trader Intra Community’ fraud. MCV understands that indies and smaller retailers have had their fingers burnt by the practice most commonly when trying to obtain cheaper Wii hardware and other similar games items. More information on how this could affect you, with advice from HMRC, can be found on page 4.
VAT shock as taxman hunts down dodgy importers
, and “ ” are registered trademarks of Sony Computer
Entertainment Inc. The PlayStation network logo is a service mark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE and the Xbox logos are trade- marks of the Microsoft group of companies and are used under license from Microsoft. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
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