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Consumer demand for our brands has remained very strong throughout 2015 with many emerging and developed markets including the US, UK and Germany posting double-digit point-of-sale gains this quarter. This demand was evident across categories. In the US and UK, point-of-sale increased double digits in the boys, games, girls and preschool categories. In several countries, point-of-sale also grew in all four categories. Retail inventories are well-positioned to support demand for the holiday season with increases in inventory focused on new initiatives and growing brands. We continued to see strong demand for Hasbro brands. Absent foreign exchange, Hasbro franchise brands increased 4% in the third quarter with Nerf, Play-Doh and Monopoly posting the largest revenue increases. Over the first nine months of the year, franchise brands were up 8% absent FX. Transformers was down given the difficult comparison and Littlest Pet Shop was flat despite growth in the US. The other five franchise brands each reported growth in constant currency in the nine-month period.
Nerf is having another outstanding year with strong innovation driving the core as well as new initiatives including Nerf Modulus and Rival, both off to a strong start. Play-Doh's creative play continues to appeal to global consumers. We celebrated the first-ever world Play-Doh Day on September 16 and we are supporting new fall initiatives including Crazy Cuts and Cupcake Celebration. The growth in these brands helped offset the decline in Transformers. Last year the brand benefited from the Transformers Age of Extinction film. We continue to plan the future of Transformers franchise in all forms of entertainment including movies, television and digital expressions. Transformers Robots in Disguise is airing on Cartoon Network in the US and many international markets and Transformers Rescue Bots is also airing on networks around the world.
[...]
Finally, revenues in the entertainment and licensing segment were down 2% versus 2014. The decline in revenue was primarily driven by lower Transformers revenues in the segment the year after the movie. Operating profit increased to $16.2 million . Intangible amortization was lower as certain digital gaming rights were fully amortized in the second quarter of 2015. In addition, last year operating profit was negatively impacted by the acceleration of certain programming amortization costs. Turning to overall expenses for Hasbro , as anticipated, cost of sales in the third quarter was favorably impacted by product mix. In particular, higher-margin royalty bearing product revenues.
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So first, let's talk about Transformers. Year to date Transformers is actually bucking the trend of a typical boys action property the year following the movie. In fact it is down by just over one-third which as you know is far better than one would expect in a non-movie year and that is because of the amount of entertainment. We are also seeing in our preschool Transformers growth year to date in preschool Transformers, our Transformers Rescue Bots product line and being supported again by content. Our licensing year to date for Transformers is up. So I think maybe we would need to take a broader perspective on the performance of Transformers and look more globally because it is performing quite well in a non-movie year, certainly was down in the quarter and down more typical in the more typical range in the quarter. But again I think the team has done a great job, great innovation, an expanded product line and again down below those trends one would expect.
Deathsaurus1 wrote:You know, I liked the idea of combiner wars at first. So I completed Menasor and superion but after hearing that the rest of the line is nothing but retools. With the exception of hot spot and sky lynx (any other new molds) I can't stand just buying retools. I lost interest in the line. No interest in devastator after hearing that scrapper doesn't have elbows.
Toysrus seems to be the only store carrying devastator, but they rose his price up to $179.99. Way outta question for me.
AutobotAlvaron wrote:One problem Hasbro faces is the poor distribution of their products. That has to factor somewhere in their lower revenue lately. Surely it would help their profits if the big-box stores actually stocked their shelves with figures, even between Bay features. For months, local Walmart & Target stores have had only pathetic 18inch vertical strips of shelf space for Transformers, which have been full of empty pegs and lonely shelf-warming RID figures (non-Deluxe). I have yet to even see a CW Ultra Magnus or more than a couple of isolated CW deluxes. Shouldn't Hasbro address that?
Optimizzy wrote:Prices change. Things are getting more expensive. They price isnt the problem for me. MY problem is not seeing any of this stuff in stores. The toy shelves are empty and seemingly nothing to replace them. I'd spend the money if I could actually find the item. Maybe sales would be higher if people could get them in the store?
Investors might have been spooked by the revelation that Hasbro's retailing partners haven't yet committed to fully stocking their stores as we head into the critical holiday shopping quarter. Goldner said in a conference call that orders on several brands are running lower than last year.
That's simply because of retailers' aim to "have product that hits [their inventory] more closely aligned with the holiday season," he said. The supply chain change won't be a problem as long as the shipment orders come through as expected this quarter. But it does add uncertainty to Hasbro's results heading into its most important quarter of the year.
I enjoy that the oil pricing argument can finally be put to rest for the time being as a way to complain about the price increases we see on the shelf. That one always felt a bit like a reach given the scale on which these operations are running. The labor cost increase really makes sense, and probably explains why more and more product seems to be shifting to the Vietnam manufacturing side as opposed to China.If you look at -- let's do some product input costs. The single biggest cost input to our cost of goods is labor. And we have continued to see labor inflation rates in the double-digit range. We have seen a slight decrease in the cost of certain types of resins over the period since the end of 2014 but they tend to be more nominal and they run in arrears to whatever the petroleum or gasoline cost prices are out there as you know. But I would say overall we haven't seen any significant surcharges in shifting and getting a bit of pickup there but I wouldn't say there is anything nominal.
Shockwave7 wrote:I wonder what the 'expectations' were? Because the CW line has been selling pretty well, and even though I'm not collecting them, the RID line seems to be moving pretty good too. I've bought more figures this year because of the CW line than I have for several previous years put together.
My advice to Hasbro would be to keep their expectations realistic, because you can go through your whole life disappointed and furious because things weren't what you 'expected'. I could go into a car dealership and the sales guy could say that Sedan X costs $15,000. Then I could put on a sneering face and sniff, 'Well, that's not the price I was EXPECTING....' My expectations, however, are not going to lower the price of the car. If it costs 15K, then I have to pay 15K, whether or not I was 'expecting' it to only be a nickel.
If Hasbro unrealistically sets their sales expectations, then they're going to grumbling and whining at every one of their little pressers about how sales didn't meet their 'expectations'. As if it was somehow OUR fault that we didn't buy as many toys as they wanted us to buy.
william-james88 wrote:If ever Sabrblade decides to go on vacation, I am glad to know we can rely on you.
SkyWarpt wrote:You can't sell an empty shelf
william-james88 wrote:If ever Sabrblade decides to go on vacation, I am glad to know we can rely on you.
Hellscream9999 wrote:SkyWarpt wrote:You can't sell an empty shelf
EXACTLY (if I am indeed interpreting this correctly)
Distribution problems have plagued us - and by default hasbro - for YEARS, but we keep rationalizing it, or saying it's complex, or making excuses; well, I don't see any other brand suffering empty shelf syndrome like tf's do - why? because companies want their products out there to be sold - it's high time someone got the kinks out of this supply chain.
SkyWarpt wrote:You can't sell an empty shelf
cruizerdave wrote:SkyWarpt wrote:You can't sell an empty shelf
This X 1,000,000.
Seriously, I've only ever seen the first two waves of deluxe combiner wars. The deluxe pegs have been empty in my town for months. MONTHS of no product on the pegs. I go to other places, and its the same story. Or the ones that have anything, its still the first or second wave. Forget ever finding the Protectobots. As for the Combaticons, ha! They may as well be an online exclusive limited to 1,000 pieces, because you'll never see them on the shelf.
Also, the last two really big TFs they've done have had serious problems. Devestator was hurt by going cheap on the plastic and paint application as well as articulation on the individual figures. Metroplex's central ramp wasn't engineered correctly so that it could reach the ground. I mean, if you're asking people to spend $130 to $150 on a toy, stupid stuff like that shouldn't be an issue. Especially when you do such a good job on the deluxe and voyager figures. That's like buying a brand new Corvette only to find that its starter is broken.
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