Nintendo: "Huge Room for Improvement" in UK

Speaking to UK industry magazine, MCV, General Manager of Nintendo UK, David Yarnton, had some corporate lines to remain between. He has, however, admitted that Nintendo's British operation needs "huge" amounts of work in order to serve its customers.

Said Yarnton, "I personally still believe there’s huge room for improvement and we still have the opportunity to work much more closely with our customers and business partners to further expand the market and create further efficiencies". He prefixed this harsh statement with a more politic line, "The UK has always been a key market for Nintendo in Europe and that focus remains for 2008 and beyond. As far as Nintendo UK has been concerned we are continually looking to try and improve on how we do business here", but the message is clear: Nintendo UK "must do better".

This note could simply be a motivational tool for 'the troops' for the coming year. Or it could be in frustration at the shortages of Nintendo hardware over the recent Christmas and New Year buying seasons. Mentions of "efficiencies" can often been seen as "trimming the dead wood".

Speaking about the state of Wii and DS supply in recent weeks, Yarnton states, "We’ve done all we can to ensure that as many people as possible are able to get hold of our products in the run up to Christmas and beyond."

Have you managed to purchase a Wii at recommended retail price? Tell us in the Forum.

Not content with whipping his own team into line, however, Yarnton also went quite RoboCop in the direction of certain retailers who he appears to believe have not been supporting Nintendo or their own 'cash registers'.

"We appreciate all of our (retailer) customers, whether they are big or small, a large multiple or small independent. There is always room for improvement with our in-store proposition but we can’t manage this without retailer support. To some extent what retailers have supported is their cash register and this has meant we have in general received pretty good support. Some retailers have talked the talk, but not walked the walk, therefore in reference to that for 2008 my one request would be ‘compliance’."

For those not versed in business-speak here are some loose translations:

"...improvement with our in-store proposition..." = "...more of our stuff on sale than Microsoft's or Sony's".

"...supported their cash registers" = "...sold more of our stuff than Microsoft's or Sony's".

"..my one request would be ‘compliance’." = "...resistance is useless... you will order more of our stuff than of Microsoft or Sony's!"

All fair enough stuff from the man at the top. Yarnton, an Australian, also wanders across rugby-based questions and talk of plumbers in the interview - which you can read in full here; he even delivers the astonishing news that, "...we always look to innovate and will never rest on our laurels" before telling the world, "We’ve got no plans at the moment to release any new handheld, especially whilst demand for the current one is so strong."

So, there you go then - an outright denial of plans to release a new Nintendo handheld. But not of a new handheld itself! No, not even a New Year's first day back at work can turn that into anything other than a straight denial.