Hasbro said it would cut 1,000 jobs and announced the departure of its chief executive officer, as the US toymaker posted worse-than-forecast preliminary results for the fourth quarter.
The job cuts, which represent 15 percent of its global workforce, are “necessary to return our business to a competitive, industry-leading position,” Chief Executive Chris Cox said in a statement Thursday afternoon.
As part of the plan announced last October, Hasbro said annual cost savings of $250mn to $300mn by the end of 2025 would help the company meet its target.
The maker of Monopoly board games and Transformers toys said Chief Operating Officer Eric Nyman will step down as a result of organizational and business changes. The company said in its most recent annual report that it employed 6,640 people worldwide.
In preliminary results released Thursday, Hasbro had revenue of $5.86 billion in 2022, down 9 percent from a year ago, or 6 percent on a constant currency basis. That was worse than the October forecast It cut its full-year outlookand analysts’ expectations of $6.1bn.
The company also had a weak holiday season, which is typically a critical selling time for toy makers and retailers. Hasbro’s revenue for the three months ended December 26 was $1.68bn, down 17 per cent from a year earlier and below Wall Street’s average estimate of $1.92bn.
Hasbro shares fell more than 7 percent in after-hours trading in New York on Thursday. At the end of the regular session, its shares were up 4.5 percent since the start of 2023, but had fallen about 29 percent over the past 12 months.
