Toymaker Hasbro said on Monday it would lay off about 1,100 people, or 20% of its workforce, as the downturn in the toy industry stretches into another holiday shopping season.

 

The nearly century-old Rhode Island-based company disclosed the layoffs in an employee memo released in a regulatory filing. The company owns Monopoly, Play-Doh and My Little Pony toys. The Wall Street Journal first reported the news. The company said the layoffs come on top of 800 job cuts in 2023 as part of a move announced last year to save $300 million annually by 2025. As of the end of 2022, the company said it had 6,490 employees. The entertainment and toy company had revealed plans to cut 15% of its global workforce after preliminary earnings for the fourth quarter of last year and for all of 2022 fell short of expectations.

Over the past five years, Hasbro has gone on a hiring spree, doubling its headcount. Hasbro once reported an 8% drop in net income in 2020 due to the epidemic, and announced 10% layoffs in February 2021. In October 2021, its CEO Brian Goldner died after two days on medical leave. Rich Stoddart, who serves as the lead independent director on Hasbro's board of directors, was appointed interim CEO while Goldner was on medical leave. After that, a series of executive changes occurred. At that time, there was also a big turmoil in China, and a large number of employees in the Hong Kong office and mainland China were also dismissed. Redundancies accordingly.

 

Like many toy companies, Hasbro is grappling with slowing sales. Sales have surged as parents spend more on toys to keep their children busy during the lockdown. Challenges continued last holiday season when many toy companies had to drastically mark down their merchandise due to weak demand. According to the latest data from Circana, U.S. toy sales fell 8% from January to August.

Hasbro plans to reduce annual costs by $250 million to $300 million by 2025.