The toy industry continues to take a beating with word that changes are in store for Hasbro. While they aren’t using the term “layoff” just yet, in a new statement, Hasbro has confirmed that some “difficult” changes are coming that will affect “a single digit percentage” of their global workforce. Local news agencies, such as the Providence Journal, have been pressing Hasbro for further clarification on the looming layoffs, but they have refused to give further explanation on what’s to come. Hasbro provided their local news outlets with the following statement:
“As part of Hasbro’s ongoing transformation we continue to make meaningful organizational changes. While some of these changes are difficult, we must ensure we have the right teams in place with the right capabilities to lead the company into the future. We continue to add new capabilities based on our understanding of the consumer and how our retailers are going to market, while evolving the way we organize our business across our Brand Blueprint.”
According to a Providence Journal report, the layoffs will not require Hasbro to file a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification. Companies would typically file a WARN notice if mass layoffs of 500 or more employees, or 50 to 499 workers if they make up 33% of the workforce at a single location. Federal law requires a WARN notice to be filed 60-days ahead of scheduled mass layoffs.
This news comes on the heels of a potential lawsuit. Investors have retained the services of Pomerantz LLP, and they are investigating claims that “Hasbro and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.” Check out that press release in full Here. Hasbro stated that the changes mentioned above have no relation to these claims and that “The claims have no merit and we intend to vigorously defend against them.”
One thing is for certain, rough waters are ahead for the maker of Marvel Legends, Transformers, and My Little Pony. With the loss of Toys R Us this year, the race to claim retail space for toys is more difficult than its ever been. More information may come to light on Monday, October 22, when Hasbro is scheduled to release their Third Quarter financial results.
Layoffs And A Potential Lawsuit May Be On The Horizon For Hasbro
Curious what the exact claims are. But really don't see this impacting Hasbro long term.
The layoffs are worrisome but they seem to be a low enough number that it's likely development areas that are no longer attached to anything.
The layoffs are worrisome but they seem to be a low enough number that it's likely development areas that are no longer attached to anything.
We are not bringing politics into this thread. Anyone else who does so will be immediately removed from the thread.
This thread got cleaned up quick, lol.
Anyway, sucks for Hasbro and the employees who may be getting the boot (I love the way their PR department sidestepped/phrased it..."difficult changes"..."single digits"). The sting of TRU's passing is still being felt. Hopefully this won't effect Marvel Legends stuff.
Anyway, sucks for Hasbro and the employees who may be getting the boot (I love the way their PR department sidestepped/phrased it..."difficult changes"..."single digits"). The sting of TRU's passing is still being felt. Hopefully this won't effect Marvel Legends stuff.
I'm just concerned about Power Rangers...
Though I think Hasbro and Playmates will do fine. It's more Mattel I'm a little worried about in that regard. Hasbro has entertainment licenses. Outside of He-Man/She-Ra, Barbie, and Hot Wheels, Mattel doesn't have much in the way of entertainment licenses, and She-Ra won't be a big push on side licensing until next year. Leaving it mostly in the Hot Wheels and Barbie area to sustain Mattel again. DC toys do okay, but they don't get the side licensing revenues from that.
Whereas Hasbro has the side licensing for Transformers, MLP, and other internally owned properties, even if they don't get the side licensing from Marvel or Star Wars. Currently both Transformers and MLP are still extremely popular though, and with the Bumblebee movie, we should see a boost in side licensing revenues because of it being a movie year alongside the new toon they've been prepping material for.
Though by retail volume, the lack of a dedicated toy store like TRU is still going to be a hit, because they are down one nationwide chain that orders product from them, but hopefully because of the lack of a retail chain outlet nationwide, we'll see a growth of material at other retail spaces needing to order more to fill the gap for increased consumers not having that outlet as an option.
That's one of the other "dips" we're seeing from Hasbro. The big purchase of that without returns yet is a minor impact even if they have mostly already recouped the losses from the purchase and will be making product gains starting next year. That one's more a long term investment, with likely high gains later. In 5 years, I expect it to have stronger market dominance.
marvel legends is over, it was a good run thou
...I'm not sure you're even thinking when you type any more.
Wait hasbro after killing the g.i. joe cartoons & toy line. Making every thing transformers then making transformers cartoons & toy lines that have been a joke. Hasbro has had this coming.
......
Man, some of these comments and the leaps of logic are just a goddamn trip.
EDIT: I take it back. This is tame compared to the absolute balls-out insane reasoning over on TFW.
Some herculean leaps in logic we've got going here, lol.
No Joes, no MU, people aren't really buying 3.75" Star Wars toys anymore (not like during the Clone Wars era anyway where everybody was buying every Clone Trooper they made). I wonder if their decision to move away from the 3.75" scale action figure helped or hurt them. Have no idea about Transformers though... if they are still popular or not.
The smell of desperation is in the air -- and the debt load keeps spiraling...
Man, some of these comments and the leaps of logic are just a goddamn trip.
EDIT: I take it back. This is tame compared to the absolute balls-out insane reasoning over on TFW.
How people make up the randomest crap and take it as fact or try to argue in the face of all logic and literal real statistics and data is mind-numbingly annoying. Stoners make more sense. Some days, I actively feel like my IQ is dropping from reading some of the nonsensical things people come up with, and it's seemingly getting worse each passing week.
Like this points out, without filing a WARN, this sounds like it's merely a reshuffling of employees, with potentially new branches and figuring who goes where or what, and what redundancies need to be removed.
The lawsuit I'm not worried about, as it seems completely panic driven and has no factual basis. More business ambulance chaser than anything trying to convince people of negative things than anything that actually is.
And the potential layoffs seem more like a restructuring because of how Hasbro has a lot of side subsidiaries right now and increased employee loads for the entertainment arms. Adding in some department redundancies and figuring out the new licenses and brand futures, and it's really nothing that different than any other business having growing pains and evolving in a new market climate.
How people make up the randomest crap and take it as fact or try to argue in the face of all logic and literal real statistics and data is mind-numbingly annoying. Stoners make more sense. Some days, I actively feel like my IQ is dropping from reading some of the nonsensical things people come up with, and it's seemingly getting worse each passing week.
Seriously, the web is both the best and worst thing to ever happen to mankind. Lots of keen stuff and limitless information are at our fingertips, but on the flipside 99.99999% of the people utilizing it are the types that only read the headline of an article and then write a nonsense response about something that has nothing to do with said article while gushing with ill-deserved narcissism. Idiocracy is slowly becoming true.
Star Wars is at slowed point right now in the market, it happens. They go through ups and downs there quite often. Similar happened back during the prequels too, and then the slow down, then a boom again. It happens. With rising costs and people having less money to spend right now isn't helping much either.
Once costs can get under control, a lot of that can be fixed. This is one of the reasons Playmates is doing mostly okay right now. For cost to what you get, their material is pretty reasonable. How TMNT has managed to stay under 10 USD has really been a great thing for them. If Hasbro can do the same for 1:18th offerings, that'll increase sales to a large extent. Cost is what's driving consumers away though is still keeping the Legends within threshold for expectancy.
Depending on what the new price marks for transformers do, we should see some decent returns there, but until 1:18th can get back closer to that 10 USD mark, it's not consumer cost efficient. We see it in how the market is still here as Jurassic World showed, but Jurassic World also had a lower price point that really pushed it forward better.
That's the hiccup on things right now overall. Cost to quantity in a market that's getting more cautious about the money they spend. Play value has to be there, or if it's a higher marked purchase the consumer wants more from their money, which is why Legends 6" is doing okay, and other bigger lines, as well as Transformers that's essentially a 2+ in 1 toy. As people get more cautious what they spend and on what, higher prices outside of select markets is a line death sentence.
The other problem is smaller figures are prone to shoplifters. So protected packaging is a must as well, and finding a way to better prevent that. It's a whole mixed bag of issues to juggle.
The old phrase goes that a consumer walks into a store with an extra 20USD to spend. Now it's more like an extra 10USD or 5USD that's allotted for impulse purchases.
^ IMO Hasbro is also in a bad position in that if a movie tanks or is not well received... then those movie related toys suffer and pegwarm making stores not want to order the next batch of figs. Rogue One and The Last Jedi toys come to mind. And all negative press even before Solo came out did not help that toyline either.
I mean case in point... Snoke... he went from a highly desired fig to nobody even caring about him in the matter of weeks... just because of The Last Jedi.
I mean case in point... Snoke... he went from a highly desired fig to nobody even caring about him in the matter of weeks... just because of The Last Jedi.
Kids were able to bring 3.75 figures wherever they go in their tiny pockets. And they can play with 3.75 with other kids almost anywhere they go. Today kids just can't "pocket" many of these Legends figures; physically nor financially. Forget larger than life (BaF) film characters. You gotta buy a whopping $100 wave of 6 inch figures just to get it, kid.
We're losing losing losing an entire generation of kids who just can't "pocket" such figures. This scale oversight is occurring when comic movies are so popular with kids + parents alike (many of the latter raised on 3.75 figures).
Hasbro proudly showed almost 100 figures for 6 inch scale this year. Yet nothing new for 3.75 inch at Comic Con or NYCC. And yet even more 6 inch figures to be announced at Fan Expo, Italy, and Paris? Hasbro you can try churning 600 different 6 inch figures annually; and still most kids won't fit most of these in their little kid pockets.
How people make up the randomest crap and take it as fact or try to argue in the face of all logic and literal real statistics and data is mind-numbingly annoying. Stoners make more sense. Some days, I actively feel like my IQ is dropping from reading some of the nonsensical things people come up with, and it's seemingly getting worse each passing week.
Like this points out, without filing a WARN, this sounds like it's merely a reshuffling of employees, with potentially new branches and figuring who goes where or what, and what redundancies need to be removed.
The lawsuit I'm not worried about, as it seems completely panic driven and has no factual basis. More business ambulance chaser than anything trying to convince people of negative things than anything that actually is.
And the potential layoffs seem more like a restructuring because of how Hasbro has a lot of side subsidiaries right now and increased employee loads for the entertainment arms. Adding in some department redundancies and figuring out the new licenses and brand futures, and it's really nothing that different than any other business having growing pains and evolving in a new market climate.
While some fans make "jokes" others aren't. Therein is another issue entirely.
That's one of the problems to that kind of humor. It validates others that mean it even though others mean it in jest and aren't serious.
Plus, jokes are supposed to be funny. The way some areas act, it's not only not funny, it's straight up ignorant. As we've learned time and time again, don't assume areas are smart enough to get you're being satirical with remarks when they try to jump in with their own.
It's that same kind of mentality and affirmation of any line of jokes, if you aren't careful, what you're actually doing is endorsing such behaviors and validating it. Never assume with fandoms that they're smart enough to understand satire. Some are and do, but sadly more do not. And as we've seen with the fan made up 'fake narratives' there is heaps of ignorance that blind them from understanding why different factors are the way they are.
Sadly with fandoms it's like a game of telephone. One joke turns into a rumor turns into a new rumor and then way down the chain it somehow becomes fan accepted "fact" that was never true to begin with.
I mean case in point... Snoke... he went from a highly desired fig to nobody even caring about him in the matter of weeks... just because of The Last Jedi.
Was gonna make a joke about Hasbro now lowering the POA on ML but evidently anything anyone says is taken as fact and confuses people so scrap that.
Keep reading: Hasbro May Layoff Some Workers - Page 2
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