Developing and marketing board games is no trivial pursuit for Victoria entrepreneur David Manga.

His company, Outset Media, was recently ranked No. 112 in Profit Magazine’s 2003 list of Canada’s fastest-growing companies, clocking 495-per-cent growth in sales – to nearly $1.5 million – since inception seven years ago.

Sales have burgeoned since, passing the $1.5-million mark in the first four months of this fiscal year.

Manga, 31, expects to finish the year with sales topping $2.7 million. He credits great customer service for continued growth, but great product – Outset games garnered a dozen best product awards in 2003 – and continued product development also play a big part in the company’s success.

Manga started the business in his spare bedroom with about $220,000 in startup investment garnered from friends and family after major banks refused financing.

“In retrospect, it was the right decision on the banks’ part,” said Manga. “There are lots of guys with garages full of games they can’t sell.”

The first year he sold 9,840 copies of The All Canadian Trivia Game. At the time, a best-seller sold 5,000 copies. The next year, 32,000 games sold; this year, about 100,000 copies.

In 1999 he brought out a hockey trivia game and cracked the U.S. market.

Now more than half Outset’s sales are south of the border, served from a warehouse in Plattsburgh, N.Y. Canadian customers are served from a warehouse in Montreal.

“We’re been profitable every year but one,” he says. The exceptional year was 2002, when his main distributor went bankrupt, sinking a third of Outset’s annual revenue.

But sales were burgeoning, and Outset expanded its line and now produces more than 40 different games. “We have great games,” says Manga, “but we’re not the only people with high-end games.

“Sales are consistently up year over year because of our great service.”

He cites same- or next-day shipping, breaks on shipping costs, no minimum purchase requirement and 100-per-cent returns as reasons retailers keep Outset games on their shelves.

But quality of product and a developing list of new products is what spurs retailers to keep restocking those shelves. In 2003, Outset won a dozen awards for both quality of product and business practice, including:

* Similarus and Telepaths won Canadian Toy Testing Council (CTTC) Best Bet awards.

8 Conjecture for Kids won a CTTC three-star award and made Dr. Toy’s Best Vacation Products list.

* Professor Noggin’s card game series titles won a CTTC three-star award, a Children’s Media Award from Parent’s Guide; a Gold Award from National Parenting Publications; a Parenting for High Potential Magazine Award from the National Association for Gifted Children; and made Dr. Toy’s Best Vacation Products list.

* The All American Trivia Junior Board Game won a Teacher’s Choice Award from Learning Magazine.

* The Great North American Bird Watching Trivia Game won Product of the Year Award from Informal Education Products.

* David Manga received the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce Young Entrepreneur Award;

* Outset Media received Manufacturer of the Year award from the Vancouver Island Business Excellence Awards.

And with Telepaths making GAMES Magazine’s 100 list for 2004, the honours are likely to continue.

So, too, the number of new games titles. Now that Outset’s staff has grown to nine (and counting), Manga is no longer solely responsible for research and development.

Even as the company was shipping out orders for its largest Christmas retail season, a new game in which players are required to find missing antiquities and return them to their home countries was in the final phases of development, ready to launch.

Manga doesn’t see an end to growth. “The board game market is growing fast,” he says.

Board games are filling social needs spawned by economics and technology.

Television audiences are shrinking and must-see family shows on weekend nights are disappearing. Families that used to unwind together in front of the TV are now turning to board games to fill the void.

Family entertainment is costly. A one-evening treat such as a movie, a concert or the club scene can eat through the family’s entire entertainment budget.

A similar amount spent on a game promises many evenings of fun.

Parents, grandparents and teachers are buying board and card games to lure kids away from computer games – and kids are taking the bait, finding family contact preferable to virtual reality.

Such demographic shifts help Outset to keep playing – and coming up a winner.