Company Profile: Asmodee

New vision

Asmodee UK CEO Alex Green tells us the company’s vision ‘More People Playing Games More Often’ and how they are achieving that end

Alex Green CEO

What is your vision for Asmodee?

The Vision for Asmodee UK is More People Playing More Games More Often. We are working hard to make that come true in the UK. The last two years have been good for the gaming category and our challenge, of course, is to make sure that the fun and delight that games bring and have brought to families and friends is not forgotten. We have several exciting initiatives, including our biggest ever marketing spend, that we hope will make that happen.

The great thing about games is that they can be played and enjoyed by anyone from 3 to 103 . Social interaction is something to cherish at every age. We can play games at home with family and friends, at dinner parties, on holiday. The next step for us is to take games to people, not just expect them to come to us. We want to see our games in more places but we know that building awareness takes time. We need more space where we have distribution and we need to find retail solutions to ensure that our games work well for our retail partners. From a business point of view this means growing all of the games category that we are in, while securing a larger share of that category. Asmodee is well placed to do these things as we have a great array of products and partners. We work with fantastic third party partners such as The Pokemon Company and Wizards of the Coast on their awesome brands, are a very proud distributors for many companies in the gaming arena and are the representatives of our own group games.

We have had amazing growth for the last two years and we want that to continue. We want to enhance our working relationships and collaborations with retailers and partners.

There is a new and exciting opportunity as Covid measures ease but there are also some hurdles. As

The vision for Asmodee UK is More People Playing More Games More Often

Alex Green, CEO Asmodee

we know the cost of living is on the increase, so family budgets are under pressure. Also there are many other things to spend money on that haven’t been available for some time – going out to the cinema, the pub, a restaurant. Our job is to ensure that people see games as a value for money, fun alternative. We believe in the strength and value of our games.

What are your Hero Products and are there new Heroes to come?

Dobble has been a Hero for over 10 years and we predict further success as we continue to innovate with new Dobble lines such as Harry Potter, Marvel and Pixar as well as football clubs. Other great products are Catan, Bananagrams, Ticket to Ride and Dixit which are growing at a good rate. Unlock and Carcassonne are Heroes as is The Sock Game.

We are fortunate to have a number of routes to developing successful games – we have games from our group studios who invent, develop and publish and we work with designers, and our great third party publishers where we believe we can accelerate their growth with our marketing and distribution prowess for example The Sock Game.

From our own resources we have Yak, which we’re launching at UK Games Expo (the UK’s biggest consumer games show). It’s great fun and we expect it will become a big seller. And we are always looking for gaps in the market and new opportunities.

The last two years have been a challenge for everyone in the workplace. How do you see the future?

We can be proud as a team of how we faced the challenges of the last two years. To have your entire employee business model over-turned in five days was a huge challenge and, of course, Covid was a much longer-lasting issue than anyone could foresee in March 2020. I was incredibly proud and impressed by the response across the whole company.

Like most companies our office staff became home workers, which is where we still have a majority of people working. Our warehouse teams were based from our sites and continued throughout being physically available to do the core function of getting goods in and out. To undertake that change and still grow our sales quite dramatically is a credit to our hard working and incredibly passionate colleagues at every level in Asmodee.

For the future I do see a return to the office with hybrid working. At first not necessarily everyone every day but getting people together to share, collaborate, learn and engage is a fundamental part of our philosophy. I am sure this is the right thing. As we grow we will need new and bigger offices. We have designed a purpose-built operation in

Borden, which will house the distribution centre, marketing, sales and all offices. This building will be ready within the next 12 months. This gives us the ability to get back to having social events for our colleagues. For example, we can run pre-release games nights with new product. We need to have fun and that sense of fun can go back to families and then back into the market. This spirit is part of what attracts people to come to work and grow their careers with us – we are all passionate about what we do and how we can do better. It’s infectious and that DNA strand goes through the whole company so it is important we all make time to spend time together.

Why is it important for families to play games?

Game play is so important. There’s proper social interaction. Youngsters learn social skills, competitiveness, negotiation, strategy, co-operation and develop a sense of worth and achievement. Games help develop their personalities. They understand it is possible to have fun without being reliant on technology alone. Games provide something you don’t get just by watching TV. Outside the home, people can go to games cafés or consumer shows where they can make new friends sharing a common interest. We need to remind people that games are not just for holidays or Christmas! Maybe your entry level will be Dobble but we want you to progress through to Azul, Catan, 7 Wonders for more stimulation and enjoyment. The great thing about Asmodee is that we offer everything from quizzes to Push Your Luck type games, Trading Card Games, Abstract, Fantasy, Role Play and Guessing.

What is your view of the gaming world v the board game?

I’d say that digital games on console and mobile phone tend to be a more individual pastime than our games world. The digital market is bigger but enthusiasts often also want something more social. We can work together as we offer subtly different things. Maybe learning from console games our graphics have come on leaps and bounds in recent years. There’s a lot of cross-fertilisation between both. A healthy digital gaming world feeds a healthy board game world and vice versa.

What is the future of board games?

To us it is putting games wherever people are. That might be festivals –we might go to Glastonbury. It could be championships. But we certainly will be at festivals and family events throughout the summer. We need to get people to play more often so we should take the games to them. This is something we intend to do a lot of in the months and years to come.

Can you let us into any secrets?

Not really! We have access to fabulous products - and distribution and productivity are things we are good at. We have started doing television sponsorship with CITV and have built a relationship with Absolute Radio; we will be looking to continue those types of activities. This helps us spread the word and encourage people to get into games. We are very keen to get back to doing a lot more demonstrating.

Sometimes people believe that a game is too complicated for them or just not for them. When we give them time with an expert to showcase and explain the games they often become total fans. We’re planning a ‘Summer of Fun’ but watch this space as more will be revealed when the time is right!

We certainly will be at festivals and family events throughout the summer. We need to get people to play more often so we should take the games to them

Alex Green CEO, Asmodee

Who do you see as the big players in the puzzle and games sector?

One of the wonderful things about the games industry is the many and varied people and products. To single any one out would be unfair to the rest. In summary, we want to change the world by having ‘more people playing

more games more often’.

Contact details :

info@asmodee.co.uk 01420 593 593 Asmodee.co.uk

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