Comment: Games Workshop's bizarre success proves the geeks shall inherit the earth

WHEN I was at school, the maths kids were the poor weaklings most likely to get their heads flushed down the loo.

Now they’ve turned into superhero coding millionaires with glamorous girlfriends and sexy apartments in Clerkenwell.

But it’s not only flats and Ferraris they’re spending they’re wealth on.

Old habits die hard, such as geeky youthful passions like Warhammer, the Dungeons and Dragons-style fantasy game where players move figurines around a board for days on end.

With their six figure bank balances, the nerds are now spending a fortune on this lifelong hobby, to the extent that Games Workshop, which created Warhammer, is flogging tiny figurines like Vorgaroth the Scarred for £400 a pop.

The company’s as big in Silicon Valley as in its hometown of Nottingham – a bizarre but wonderful British success story.

Margins are phenomenal. Today the company says this year’s pre-tax profit will be at least £55 million on sales of £140 million.

Little wonder Games Workshop shares are up 615% since 2017, garnering a stock market value of £1.7 billion.

And that’s before chief Kevin Rountree’s obvious next step of licensing the characters out to video gamemakers has really got underway.

As Skalok the Skull Host of Khorne might say on his teabreak: good luck to you, mate.