Spartan Games announced it's closing down

[Predatorpt]

I just received this email:

http://www.spartangames.co.uk/spartan-games

The following statement is issued today, Friday 25th August 2017.

Following a prolonged period of challenging trading and despite the directors’ best efforts to manage through, Rebel Publishing Ltd was unable to continue to trade and the directors have taken the difficult decision to cease. All members of staff were made redundant.

The company, which traded as Spartan Games, is a Somerset, UK based provider of tabletop miniature games which include

Uncharted Seas, a fantasy naval combat game (now retired)
Firestorm Armada, an exciting space combat game featuring highly detailed starship models
Dystopian Legions, a game based in the world of Dystopian Wars using highly detailed 32mm scale figures and vehicles (now retired)
Dystopian Wars– an exciting journey in a Victorian sci-fi world encompassing naval combat, ground warfare and aerial combat.
Spartan Scenics – a range of detailed and easily assembled wargames terrain.

Rebel Publishing Ltd was formed in July 2002 and traded successfully for a number of years. Spartan Games was launched in 2008 and grew rapidly.  However, the tabletop games market is challenging and has changed over recent years, and suppliers are predominantly a small number of large well-known names and several small, cottage industry, type businesses.

Initially the business outsourced production but following quality control and production management issues, manufacturing was moved in house between 2009 and 2011.  Over this time and since, significant investment was made into machinery and infrastructure. The business also expanded to provide models for a well known video game, moving this into the tabletop games arena.  However, significant new development costs, timing issues and the deflection of management time from the core games brands resulted in a significant trading loss for 2015/6. The business was able to continue to trade by raising additional finance and refocusing on core brands, and direct / online trading improved significantly.   Results for 2016/17 were significantly improved.

However, despite this it continued to encounter challenging trading conditions and it became clear this month that the company could not continue to service its liabilities, particularly given the burden imposed by the amounts owing to finance companies.

The company was in the process of running a Kickstarter project to raise funds for expansion of one of its successful product lines.  This was well supported and positive feedback on the new products was given showing the popularity of the product line and ongoing demand.  However, this does not, unfortunately, provide the full range of success and resources needed to sustain the business.

In addition to challenging trading issues, one of the directors has suffered from a long period of poor health which became significantly more serious earlier this year and although now back in the business, requires ongoing treatment.  That has inevitably taken a toll on the amount of time available to the business so, along with other challenges, has significantly contributed to this difficult decision.

The directors are extremely saddened by this decision and particularly regret any losses incurred by employees, customers, suppliers or other trading partners.  The directors fully committed their time, energy and personal resources to effect a turnaround.  Employees will receive redundancy payments through state funds and although efforts have been made to fulfil customer orders, it is hoped that anyone who does not receive their goods will be able to redeem their payments through their credit card or PayPal.

If customers have made a deposit or paid for goods or services by credit or debit card and the goods or services are not going to be received by the due date, they may be able to get their money back by claiming a refund from their card issuer.  They should contact their card issuer as soon as possible.  Further information including time limits that apply is available from the UK Cards Association: Credit and debit cards: A consumer guide.  Similar schemes exist in other countries.

Throughout the years that Spartan Games has traded, it has prided itself on the highest level of product quality and customer satisfaction.  This has been delivered consistently and is evidenced though annual customer research that the company has undertaken.
We would encourage anybody who may be interested in acquiring either stock, assets or the business to make contact as soon as possible.  Spartan Games and its product lines have a strong reputation in its markets together with an asset base which may be of interest to a number of parties, and a variety of machinery in addition to Intellectual Property.

All enquiries about this matter should be sent to spartangames@mail.com.

[Daeothar]

Dang! 

Hopefully the IP and lines will be picked up by sombody else eventually, because I believe there are many players/collectors of their miniatures out there.

I know I've considered buying into Firestorm Armada several times in the past...

[Vanvlak]

Got that too 
They had some really good stuff.

[nic-e]

 
Sad but not a surprise.

Their attitude towards their existing games has always been shoddy.

Good miniatures, nice games, But weird buisness decisions and ADHD style product support were never a great mix.

[Anselm van Helsing]

Sad news. Not only to SG, but to the industry at large.

Tell you what I do find odd and amusing about these kinds of statements (not limited to just this one, or about this one in particular - it just prompted the thought is all), is the line about buying company assets because they have a 'strong reputation in the market.'
If that was the case then surely they would have sold more and wouldn't have had to go under?

It might have something to do with being neither 'cottage industry' nor a large company, and having production inhouse. You can have a solid, well-received product, but it's simply too costly to keep producing it, after the initial success and growth. Like they said, they had invested big time, but then management took up more and more time, and then someone in the lead had health problems. In small/medium companies these are really big issues.

Their attitude towards their existing games has always been shoddy.

Good miniatures, nice games, But weird buisness decisions and ADHD style product support were never a great mix.

Companies run by enthusiasts have these symptoms. They fulfill a dream and might grow fast, not fully comprehending what needs to be done at which point. Maybe hobby firms should have someone solely in the management, less interested in the product itself.

[mellis1644]

Yeah having grown up around small business the jump from a small company to a medium one is risk and all it takes is a few missteps and things can go wrong big time...

Sad to hear - I have some of their stuff but was not a regular player of their games.

[nic-e]

On the subject of buying assets..
Warlord have been searching for that golden IP that will give them the same boos that lord of the rings gave GW.
We all thought Halo would do this for spartan but sadly it didn't due to the way they handled it. I wonder if warlord would be up for buying their right/moulds/game and changing it to fit in with their line?

They could do it as 15mm skirmish, or just buy the IP rights off them and make 28mm halo gates of antares.

(Not that I want warlord to absorb anymore of the industry for it to then hold in a warehouse somewhere for the rest of time,but it's an idea.)

[nic-e]

On the bright side it gives us all something to get nostalgic for an track down on ebay in 25 years time for ridiculous amounts of money.

[Hupp n at em]

I'll have to snap up some of the Halo stuff now before it's gone... was hoping to be able to wait on that a while longer. 

[Elbows]

Not terribly surprising.  I've got my finger on a lot of pulses in the gaming community (like most of us, I'm sure) and Spartan Games was and is simply on no one's radar.  It does sound like a "we bought in too heavily to manufacturing and weren't able to make it work" kind of thing - happens to a lot of Kickstarter companies/projects from what I read.

[nic-e]

Not terribly surprising.  I've got my finger on a lot of pulses in the gaming community (like most of us, I'm sure) and Spartan Games was and is simply on no one's radar.  It does sound like a "we bought in too heavily to manufacturing and weren't able to make it work" kind of thing - happens to a lot of Kickstarter companies/projects from what I read.

I would say they were on everyones radar for something, But never for very long. Either using weird scales, lack of support or just long release times, The things people wanted just never quite made it off the ground so people stopped buying.
Every thread on Facebook about this is full of players saying " I played X when they released it but stopped when they stopped supporting it." I think they simple killed their own player base through attrition.

Now what we don't want is for their collapse to discourage the growth of other companies that are doing things right and cause a slowdown of the whole industry.

[mellis1644]

Goes to the old adage of never trust a person if they use the comment/phrase 'trust me', because they believe you likely should not...It rarely goes well if you have to use that phrase.

And another observation.
(again, this is not really about Spartan Games in particular as it is about inane marketing - it's just there's some good examples in their statement).

I notice that both Firestorm Armada and Dystopian Wars are 'exciting' games. Since they felt the need to point this out to differentiate then we can only assume that the other games are not exciting?

Kind of reminds me of something my mother said last weekend when we round there for dinner. She said she'd made a 'nice pie'. That's good to know, but why would she make a 'bad pie'? Actually, thinking about it, knowing we were coming round...
It was a chicken, asparagus and mushroom pie and she was wrong. It wasn't nice, it was bloody lovely. We took the rest home with us.

Still, good to know that at least two of Spartan Games' games were exciting. Shame about the others, but I suppose there's only so much adrenaline one can take.

[Elk101]

I have some of the Spartan Scenics stuff and it's very good. I often had a hard time getting it though as it was often out of stock with companies for lengthy periods.

[FramFramson]

Goes to the old adage of never trust a person if they use the comment/phrase 'trust me', because they believe you likely should not...It rarely goes well if you have to use that phrase.

Reminds me of how I always say never to eat at a place which has a sign up saying "Good Food". 

[carlos marighela]

I love it when barely beyond cottage businesses style their management as 'directors', CEOs or MDs. I suppose at least director, might have some legal meaning in the context of going tits up but it's not like there's a board responsible for shareholders interests. Says a lot about the people running the place usually.

Not long ago I had cause to ring up a small gaming distribution company in Oz. Having fucked up my order in almost every way possible, including but not limited to swapping it with someone elses order on the other side of the country, the owner said he would pass me on to their 'Distribution Manager', which I assumed to be his wife. "Distribution Manager?" I enquired. "Is that the person that posts out your packages?". A brief pause followed by "Er, yes" was the response.