Hasbro to lay off 1,100 employees as toy sales slump

Hasbro, the toymaker behind games such as Monopoly and the Transformers action figures, will lay off about 1,100 employees globally due to stronger-than-expected “market headwinds,” chief executive Chris Cocks told staff Monday in a memo.

The move comes on the back of five consecutive quarters of declining revenue for Hasbro, the most recent of which it reported in October.

For many toymakers, sales are slowing down after a boom during the coronavirus pandemic, when Hasbro and rivals such as Mattel and Lego reported strong sales as consumers sought old-school toys and games.

“We anticipated the first three quarters to be challenging, particularly in [the division of] Toys, where the market is coming off historic, pandemic-driven highs,” Cocks said.

But “the headwinds we saw through the first nine months of the year … are likely to persist into 2024,” he added.

The majority of employees whose roles will be affected will be notified over the next six months, he said.

The new job cuts are in addition to the 800 employees Hasbro has already laid off this year, according to the memo.

The company announced in January that it would slash 15% of its workforce in a bid to yield up to $300 million in savings by the end of 2025.

At the end of 2022, Hasbro had 6,490 employees worldwide, according to a regulatory filing.

To further cut costs, Hasbro is also exiting its office in Providence, R.I., which “is currently not being used to its full capacity,” once the lease ends in January, Cocks said in the memo.

From the July-September 2022 quarter, Hasbro has reported consecutive year-on-year revenue declines of between 10 and 17%.

Cocks, who began his tenure as chief executive in February 2022, receives an annual base salary of $1.5 million, according to a regulatory filing.

Last year, he received $9.4 million in total compensation.