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Harry Potter License Bankrupts RTL Games

15 Jun

Posted by shadejon as Modern Board Games

destination_hogwarts Last October, Rachel Lowe of RTL Games was over the moon having secured a license from Warner Bros to produce a Harry Potter version of her hit game Destination. The company was turning over a million pounds a year.

Times have changed.

The sixth Harry Potter movie was supposed to come out the following month, but it got delayed until July, 2009. Orders were canceled or delayed and Lowe was left holding the bag, unable to pay her creditors without a cash flow. She lost her home and car, and her business is in administration.

(Seeing as the movie is now, in fact, about to come out, I would think that this would reverse her fortunes, but I don’t see a mention of that in the source.)

(source)

Update, Sept 22: BBC Panorama on Rachel and the bank’s behavior.

5 Responses

Ian Arnold

June 19th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
1

Problem is the game was always bad, I dont believe the company ever traded in profit. It was used as a PR excersize by Lowe and the creditors and investors have lost an awful lot. Anyone close to this company knows it was never viable…
Marcus Arnold

June 26th, 2009 at 8:41 am
2

The game came out before Christmas last year, it should have stood up on its own as everyone knows there are a lot of Harry Potter fans out there despite the film release date.

There was a clear over estimation of the market place coupled with a poor product to play. All failed businesses can lay the blame on something or someone else. fact is poor management is usually to blame.

I expect “Destination Bankrupt” will be the next game to flop!
Dlamini

July 12th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
3

This MBE is a laugh.

Rachel and RTL took tens of thousands of pounds from advertisers that were promised advertising on board games she had no intention of creating or distributing, but made all the promises (in South African alone she took in excess of 1/2 million rand in advertising / sponsorship money for tourist companies to appear on her so called Destination South Africa and no one saw one penny back).

She come across all nice and shiny but spun a web …

MBE – ha what a laugh, there goes the moral of UK business and makes this award pretty useless.
Mark Humphries

August 1st, 2009 at 12:40 pm
4

This has NEVER been a proper business go onto companies house and download the administration stuff dated 27th July. She went down owing £854,000!

She just kept running off chasing butterflies when the product was never profitable. In typical style blame Harry Potter! but the whole thing has been in trouble for a long long time. I would be ashamed to accept an MBE for running a business so badly. Just been living off lies and investment for years… shocking. Should have stayed driving a cab. However I have heard that someone will be doing destination Bankrupt real soon. Basically you go around conning money of people pretending that you run a successfull company. Then you have to see how long you can continue until you are found out.
Susan Best

October 28th, 2009 at 9:10 am
5

As I see it, the founder concentrated more on raising her own profile (getting an agent, selling her services as a motivational speaker etc) rather than knuckling down to establish the business. Another product of the “get famous quick” mentality besieging this country. Unfortunately, programmes like Dragons Den, on which she appeared, may have had the result of encouraging some to develop great products, but those are few and far between. Most people are there for a moment of glory. I am not sure why having a PR profile and milking it for a few years warrants an MBE more commonly given to those who have worked hard for years for charities, communities and the like.

If the business head had been on properly, she would have made sure her lawyers covered delayed timing of the Harry Potter film in the licence agreement. Probably too busy telling everyone about it ….