A tiny model-making firm set up by three supergeeks in a bedroom has raked in billions of pounds - and is now one of Britain's most valuable companies.
Nottingham-based Games Workshop is now worth a staggering £4.6 billion, trumping the likes of easyJet, retailer B&M, fashion giants Burberry, and online grocer Ocado.
The company, founded in 1975, is known for creating Warhammer figures - a table-top model game played by millions worldwide, which has spawned a series of successful video games.
"Among the biggest fans of the wargaming hobby includes Superman star Henry Cavill - who unashamedly spends hours at a time painting his army of miniatures."
The Hollywood actor, affectionately dubbed 'King of the Nerds', is even slated to star in the eagerly-anticipated Warhammer 40,000 TV show with Amazon.
"Even former Home Secretary James Cleverly has been known to dabble in the fantasy strategy game," revealing he has 'boxes' of hand-painted figurines at home. "Does that make me cool? No, that doesn't make me cool," he joked during his failed Tory leadership campaign.
Games Workshop's profits have ballooned to new stratospheric highs. Its shares have skyrocketed by almost 50 percent in the past year while it has added £3 billion to its value since the start of the pandemic - pushing it into the FTSE100.
"Superman star Henry Cavill...is among the most high-profile fans of Warhammer. He has shared images on social media of his painted models."
The Rise and Success
Games Workshop was first founded in the 1970s by Steve Jackson, John Peake - who came up with the name - and Ian Livingstone. Livingstone has since been honored with a knighthood for services to the 'online gaming industry'.
"Originally...a manufacturer of wooden board games like backgammon," Peake crafted sets to supplement his income as a trainee civil engineer. Everything changed when they bagged distribution rights to Dungeons & Dragons.
Pivotal Changes
"The 'pivot' from traditional board games to fantasy table-top figurine battlers proved divisive and led to Peake cutting ties with Games Workshop in 1976." Jackson said: "John left because he wasn't really interested in fantasy games; he did wooden games."
Early Days
Initially working from their top-floor flat in Shepherd's Bush, west London, they started selling Dungeons & Dragons by mail order after securing an exclusive three-year deal for Europe.
Ian told Londonist: "We started selling D&D by mail order...people would be milling about outside looking for a shop." They had no shop but operated from their flat until they opened their first office behind an estate agent's office due to increasing demand.
In 1978 Jackson and Livingstone opened their very first Games Workshop store on Dalling Road Hammersmith; fast forward over four decades later there are more than five hundred stores worldwide including major UK cities towns alike!