Game Group shares fall as trading gets worse

COMPUTER games retailer Game Group yesterday posted an accelerating decline in sales, only partly offset by better profit margins, sending its shares as much as 11 per cent lower.

The UK-based group, which trades from 1,367 stores, concessions and franchises in nine European countries and Australia, said like-for-like sales fell 15.4 per cent in the 21 weeks to 27 June.

This compares with a fall of 6.3 per cent for the 11 weeks to 18 April, indicating underlying sales have slumped by about 25 per cent over the latter 10 weeks.

Chief Executive Lisa Morgan blamed the decline on an exceptionally strong release schedule in the previous year. She said the software release schedule for the second half of the current year was much stronger than the first half, with titles including Wii Fit Plus, Singstar: Take That and Forza Motorsport 3 due for release.