Hasbro to lay off more employees amid weak toy sales

(Reuters) -Hasbro said on Monday it would be cutting more jobs, as the toymaker struggles with weaker sales amid the holiday season.

The company said that as part of its additional headcount reduction, it would be laying off about 1,100 employees globally in addition to 800 reductions already taken.

Consumers worldwide have struggled to cope with persistently high inflation, forcing them to cut back on discretionary spending such as toys, home goods, electronics and apparel.

“We anticipated the first three quarters to be challenging, particularly in toys, where the market is coming off historic, pandemic-driven highs,” CEO Chris Cocks said in an email to employees.

“While we have made some important progress across our organization, the headwinds we saw through the first nine months of the year have continued into holiday and are likely to persist into 2024,” he added.

The maker of “Transformers” action figures, the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy game and Monopoly said it expected layoffs to be substantially completed over the next 18 to 24 months.

This follows a similar action where the company had cut about 15% of its global workforce in January.

Shares of the company were down 4% at $46.90 in extended trading, while rival Mattel (NASDAQ:) also slipped more than 3%.

At the end of 2022, Hasbro (NASDAQ:) had employed about 6,490 people worldwide, according to a regulatory filing.

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