Quote Originally Posted by Sean_OBrien View Post
Actually - I would say early adoption of plastics. It really wasn't until plastics that GW really became a big money company. It allowed them to mass produce at very, very low costs. It also cut the weight of their product by a huge margin that allowed them to not only sell in the UK, but also ship their goods around the world for reasonable fees. Other metal companies of the period (even GW/Citadel) either licensed molds or used contract casters when they wanted to say sell in the US from the UK or vice versa.

The brick and mortar stores might have helped within the UK, however I don't think they did much in terms of making GW a global company.
Plastics likely made a big difference, that's a fair point. I don't think it can account for their success by itself, though, not by a long shot. Plenty of other companies have since offered plastic lines, and none have had anything like the success of GW.