Games Workshop has revealed plans to create a fourth factory for Warhammer 40k and Age of Sigmar miniature production. Factory four will add 43,750 square feet of work space at the firm’s HQ complex in Nottingham, UK.
Demand for Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Age of Sigmar, and the other miniature wargames that Games Workshop makes has risen steadily since 2016. The Coronavirus pandemic caused a surge in interest, as people stuck in lockdown took to painting miniatures. The phenomenally successful release of Warhammer 40k 10th edition in 2023 drove demand yet higher.
We reported in January that Games Workshop was planning a fourth factory to meet this ever-growing customer interest. On June 4 the firm submitted a formal planning request to Nottingham City Council, requesting permission to proceed with the development.
According to the planning application, “the proposed Factory 4 (F4) will contain the packing operation which is currently split across existing Factory 1 (F1) and existing Factory 2 (F2)”.
This will free up an equivalent amount of space in the old factories that can be devoted to making miniatures. Separating the miniature production and miniature packing workflows into specialised factories is also likely to improve productivity.
As well as the factory space, Games Workshop is planning an extension to an existing tool store of 1980 square feet, doubling its storage capacity. In plastic miniature manufacturing, ‘tools’ are the steel molds used to cast miniatures. A single tool has a very long lifespan, so keeping tools in storage lets GW produce miniatures from its back catalogue whenever it needs to – Space Marines never go out of fashion.
Perhaps the new storage space will store duplicate molds, letting GW can produce the same miniature on multiple casting machines at once, pumping out popular kits at maximum speed.
That may be part of the picture. But demand is always highest for the newest, shiniest models in any Warhammer 40k factions and Age of Sigmar armies, and storage will be needed to accommodate new molds as the Warhammer ranges continue to grow.
If you’re interested in how miniatures actually get made, check out our behind-the-scenes tour with fellow Nottingham-based miniature maker Mantic Games. It’ll help you understand why Warhammer molds cost Games Workshop over $8 million in financial year 2022-23 alone.
Source: Wargamer
