Hasbro Responds to Concerns Regarding Supply Chains Problems Coming this Holiday Season
Posted: Mon Aug 30, 2021 6:58 pmSeveral news sites have been covering their prediction of what seems to be a bleak Christmas this year for people buying toys for their kids (or themselves). For instance, this CNN article quotes people from brands such as Fisher price and Little Toy Tykes who are experiencing issues securing enough shipping crates to meet the demand this holiday season. Also, with the price of shipping crates sky rocketing, it seems toys will be more expensive but we have yet to see how retailers like Walmart will react to that. Oftentimes Walmart has chosen not to charge more to cover price increases.
But what about Hasbro? Well they and Mattel have prepared themselves for this. CEO Brian Goldner has told reporters asking about potential supply chain issues that any issue would be more in making sure they are producing enough toys and not in terms of shipping since they have already arranged to have enough shipping channels:
"Look, I think our first objective is to ensure that gamers and the people engaging in our toys and games business have the product that they're looking for and that our retailers have product to support these major initiatives that we have. I do believe that there could be some shifting between Q3 and Q 4. We're out to source product and to bring it in via any number of new carriers. The team secured more ports, and we've got more shipping lanes than we've had in the past.
And so I'm going to be a little less focused on exactly where the inventories come in, but rather that we have the inventories to meet the demand that we need for the second half of the year, recognizing we also have a number of new entertainment initiatives, including the MY LITTLE PONY film, several from our partners at Marvel, additional Star Wars content coming for the second half of the year. Princess is performing at a very high level. And then, of course, we get into the holidays, and the team has an array of new games lined up there as well.
So again, you're right, there could be some shifting around as - it's a little different than past years where direct import could play a bigger role than it has in the past. But again, working with our retailers around the world, we feel - most importantly, we want to meet the high demand."
Now he does make a distinction of using direct import more now than in previous years and we as fans know that importing something does have a higher cost to it. Does our definition line up with his? Still, this might mean higher costs, but at this point we just don't know.
What we do know is that Hasbro is making sure shelves are filled with their toys this holiday season. Let's see if that will work out as they plan.
As of now, several Walmarts and Targets have been lacking in Hasbro toys, we have seen the pictures of empty Transformers sections you shared with us. But at the same time, fans are reporting resets in their Walmarts and restocks in their Targets. Keep sharing what you see in your stores with us and let us know how it looks like once the holiday stocking comes around, if it does.
But what about Hasbro? Well they and Mattel have prepared themselves for this. CEO Brian Goldner has told reporters asking about potential supply chain issues that any issue would be more in making sure they are producing enough toys and not in terms of shipping since they have already arranged to have enough shipping channels:
"Look, I think our first objective is to ensure that gamers and the people engaging in our toys and games business have the product that they're looking for and that our retailers have product to support these major initiatives that we have. I do believe that there could be some shifting between Q3 and Q 4. We're out to source product and to bring it in via any number of new carriers. The team secured more ports, and we've got more shipping lanes than we've had in the past.
And so I'm going to be a little less focused on exactly where the inventories come in, but rather that we have the inventories to meet the demand that we need for the second half of the year, recognizing we also have a number of new entertainment initiatives, including the MY LITTLE PONY film, several from our partners at Marvel, additional Star Wars content coming for the second half of the year. Princess is performing at a very high level. And then, of course, we get into the holidays, and the team has an array of new games lined up there as well.
So again, you're right, there could be some shifting around as - it's a little different than past years where direct import could play a bigger role than it has in the past. But again, working with our retailers around the world, we feel - most importantly, we want to meet the high demand."
Now he does make a distinction of using direct import more now than in previous years and we as fans know that importing something does have a higher cost to it. Does our definition line up with his? Still, this might mean higher costs, but at this point we just don't know.
What we do know is that Hasbro is making sure shelves are filled with their toys this holiday season. Let's see if that will work out as they plan.
As of now, several Walmarts and Targets have been lacking in Hasbro toys, we have seen the pictures of empty Transformers sections you shared with us. But at the same time, fans are reporting resets in their Walmarts and restocks in their Targets. Keep sharing what you see in your stores with us and let us know how it looks like once the holiday stocking comes around, if it does.
