Passion for games paying off

Jake Barratt has a passion for board and card games. Photo / Stephen Parker

Jake Barratt is proof that if you're passionate enough about something, you can find a way to turn it into a business.

For him, that passion is board and card games. But if you think it's all Monopoly and Scrabble then think again.

Instead, he and brother Lee have teamed up to share their love of board games with a new audience after opening Mesa Games in conjunction with Rotorua bookshop Atlantis Books.

The arrangement has meant the brothers were able to follow their dreams of a bricks and mortar games store much sooner than they imagined.

"My ultimate dream is to open up a hobby store in Rotorua. I never thought about working in with a pre-existing business to do that."

The arrangement, which sees the boys "own" their shelves in the Eruera St store, meant they weren't facing the same outlay as opening up their own store, and could start off with smaller amounts of stock which was crucial.

"[Atlantis Books owner Fraser Newman] said he had some board games he wanted to sell, and I just happened to mention that nobody plays those games anymore."

That conversation was enough to show Mr Newman that the boys had a passion - and knowledge - he didn't.

"Let's be honest, I didn't know what I was doing. We were out of our depth. So it didn't work. But now with Jake and Lee on board we've relaunched the whole section and it looks great."

Mr Newman said Rotorua needed something like what the boys were offering.

"Some people say we are too small, that this sort of business only works in big cities, but what we're doing is proving this wrong. There are over a thousand people in Rotorua interested in board games and card games. That is no small number for a town like this."

Mr Barratt said it had worked so well they were looking to expand into the other Atlantis stores after Christmas.

"We don't believe in doing anything by half-measure. When you have an opportunity you have to seize it."

The passion around board and card games was instilled in them as children, growing up in a family that had weekly games nights.

Mr Barratt always wanted to own a "geek store" - a place where people can buy games, hobby supplies and collectibles.

It hasn't all been easy going though. The pair started work towards their dream two years ago when the opportunity to buy MTG NZ Store - a website for buying popular card games and accessories - came along.

However, they found it was very time-consuming and became more of a chore than anything so the whole idea was put on hiatus until the brothers could figure out a way to sell in a real shop, which was needed in order to get a lot of the merchandise they wanted to sell.

They now hoped to share their passion by running weekly game nights at the store, teaching people how to play games.

"There's been a huge resurgence of board games in the past 10 years."