World’s largest toy maker and owner of the Barbie franchise, Mattel, is putting itself in top gear and shifting its course as the company faces its sixth straight quarter of lackluster sales.
The company’s new chief executive Christopher Sinclair has pledged a “rapid redo” of the company culture. The two-week long CEO has said that the company is working faster to develop toys, encouraging partnerships with technology companies, improving displays at retailers, and telling better stories around top brands like Barbie and Thomas the Tank Engine.
While the company’s sales has plunged due to the strong dollar, the company still reported a loss of $58.2 million, widening from a year-earlier loss of $11.2 million. When compared to its nearest competitor, Fischer, whose sales fell 3 %, the loss of 14% sales at Mattel is pointing at the need for innovation.
The company is now looking at crowdsourcing toy ideas. Mattel has partnered with Quirky, a company turning people’s ideas into real products and gadgets, to produce toys that are based on ideas from Quirky’s crowd-sourced community of amateur inventors. The company also partnered with Google Inc. and other technology companies to modernize some of its older toys, including the iconic Viewmaster. The new version of this device utilizes the company's Cardboard VR tech and will need a smartphone running a custom Mattel app to recreate the 3D effect while viewing through the toy at famous monuments and like.
The company has been affected with cultural issues with designers complaining that they have not been given enough freedom to innovate. It was after sales fell 5.6% last holiday season that the company fired CEO Bryan Stockton, replacing him with Sinclair, a longtime board member. Richard Dickson, an erstwhile executive at Mattel has also rejoined and promoted to chief operating officer earlier this month.
Though the sales at the first quarter of the year is not indicative of the company’s health in the toy industry, the company still benefited from having less inventories on the shelves post the holiday period. So far this year, Mattel shares have lost 18%, making it one of the worst performers in the S&P 500.
The company’s new chief executive Christopher Sinclair has pledged a “rapid redo” of the company culture. The two-week long CEO has said that the company is working faster to develop toys, encouraging partnerships with technology companies, improving displays at retailers, and telling better stories around top brands like Barbie and Thomas the Tank Engine.
While the company’s sales has plunged due to the strong dollar, the company still reported a loss of $58.2 million, widening from a year-earlier loss of $11.2 million. When compared to its nearest competitor, Fischer, whose sales fell 3 %, the loss of 14% sales at Mattel is pointing at the need for innovation.
The company is now looking at crowdsourcing toy ideas. Mattel has partnered with Quirky, a company turning people’s ideas into real products and gadgets, to produce toys that are based on ideas from Quirky’s crowd-sourced community of amateur inventors. The company also partnered with Google Inc. and other technology companies to modernize some of its older toys, including the iconic Viewmaster. The new version of this device utilizes the company's Cardboard VR tech and will need a smartphone running a custom Mattel app to recreate the 3D effect while viewing through the toy at famous monuments and like.
The company has been affected with cultural issues with designers complaining that they have not been given enough freedom to innovate. It was after sales fell 5.6% last holiday season that the company fired CEO Bryan Stockton, replacing him with Sinclair, a longtime board member. Richard Dickson, an erstwhile executive at Mattel has also rejoined and promoted to chief operating officer earlier this month.
Though the sales at the first quarter of the year is not indicative of the company’s health in the toy industry, the company still benefited from having less inventories on the shelves post the holiday period. So far this year, Mattel shares have lost 18%, making it one of the worst performers in the S&P 500.
