Alliance Halts Payments to Vendors; Asmodee to Leave Alliance in July 2020

As the world responds to the outbreak of COVID-19, our focus is on protecting employees, understanding the risks to our business, evaluating the risks to our industry and examining the Federal Government resources available. While the full impact of this epidemic is still unknown, one thing is certain: supply chain disruptions have cash flow implications across the extended industry that can’t be underestimated.

While we work to understand the current industry landscape, the unfortunate truth is that we are no longer receiving consistent payments from our customers. This requires that at this time, we hold payments to vendors previously scheduled to release this week. This is a difficult decision and not one we make lightly. As this situation continues to evolve, we are committed to building out a plan for payment and will have more information to share later this week.

Thank you for your patience and understanding during these difficult times.

As Asmodee USA transitions to a full-service distributor for all channels, retailers can expect an expanded Sales team capable of supporting retailers with best-in-class service.

Asmodee USA recognizes the benefit of choice and that many retailers work with multiple distribution partners. Once sales are open to all channels on July 1, 2020, ACD Distribution will act as Asmodee USA's new distribution partner. Retailers will be able to order games and supplies from ACD. Asmodee USA's industry-leading trade programs, including the Best Sellers Program, AsmoPlay, AsmoDemo, and more, will only be available directly through Asmodee USA.

"Selling directly to all channels is an exciting new step for Asmodee USA. We've been building towards this goal, implementing systems and teams that will help us achieve the high standards we hold ourselves to when it comes to servicing our retailers," said Andre Kieren, Asmodee USA's Head of United States Distribution. "Our knowledgeable and enthusiastic Sales team will be ready to service our customers as we strive to offer them best games, trade programs, and services. We are also thrilled to have ACD with us as part of this step. ACD has years of distribution experience and dedication to customer service that will offer retailers an additional option when purchasing our games."

So what now? The four non-Alliance distributors will lose some percentage of their business, and whether they survive or not will depend on what that percentage is and what they do in response to this loss of revenue. Hobby retailers who previously dealt with a non-Alliance distributor for titles that originate or are distributed by Asmodee North America must now deal with Alliance — unless they purchase directly from ANA, of course, which might be where this path leads to in the end. After all, ANA has gone from a dozen distributors to five to one in a couple of years. Why stop there?