The board has identified opportunities to scale the Hasbro business, enhance operational excellence and drive accelerated growth and profit.
Hasbro hosted its first investor day under the leadership of new chief executive officer, Chris Cocks. Senior leaders from across the business unveiled the company’s new go-forward plan – the result of a nine-month strategic review that is expected to deliver positive financial impact as early as the fourth quarter of this year. The company has sought to identify opportunities to focus and scale the business, enhance operational excellence and drive accelerated growth and profit.
Hasbro’s outlook includes growing operating profit by 50% over the next three years, with plans to further expand operating profit margin to 20% by 2027
Guided by a new Blueprint, the company will focus investment on its most valuable franchises across toys, games, entertainment and licensing. The company is implementing an Operational Excellence programme designed to deliver $250-$300m in run rate cost savings over the next three years, with $150m expected in run rate savings by year end 2023.
“Hasbro has many strengths: amazing brands that span generations, a gaming portfolio second to none, a history of play and entertainment innovation led by some of the best teams in the business, and unwavering corporate citizenship,” said CEO, Chris Cocks.
“Building on these strengths, today we announced a new day for Hasbro with the introduction of Blueprint 2.0. This strategic approach is core to how we’ll continue to bring our strong brands to life for consumers of all ages, and how we’ll manage the business to monetise our intellectual property, drive investments, deliver profitable growth and create shareholder value.”
Licensing is set for a major expansion with new and recent partnerships announced with Basic Fun on Littlest Pet Shop and Lego on Transformers, and an expanded portfolio of content across Hasbro’s 100-year IP vault. Peppa Pig, Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering, Transfomers, Play-Doh, Nerf, and iconic gaming brands such as Monopoly were highlighted as key focus brands.
The company is investing in a Brand Insights Platform to enable data-based decisions, deliver superior consumer insights and speed innovation.
Hasbro also announced that Magic: The Gathering, which is on track to become its first billion-dollar brand, has new collaborations with Final Fantasy and Assassin’s Creed and a new blockbuster 30th Anniversary Edition collectible series, inspired by Limited Edition Beta.
Dungeons & Dragons will be a major growth priority with a blockbuster feature film, D&D: Honor Among Thieves, a new AAA videogame, Baldur’s Gate III, and a host of new collectibles, toys and games paired with the movie event in 2023.
Hasbro’s Action Figure portfolio is on pace for a banner year in 2023 behind six blockbuster movie releases including Marvel Studios’ Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 3, Sony’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Lucasfilm’s Indiana Jones.
The company expanded on its entertainment line-up for Transformers, including a new animated kids show, Transformers: EarthSpark, a new blockbuster film coming in June 2023, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, and an upcoming CGI feature film in summer 2024.
Peppa Pig, Play-Doh and key collaborations including Marvel’s Spidey and His Amazing Friends and Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures will anchor planned pre-school growth.
Expanding the Nerf franchise into new categories, the company also unveiled a first-of-its-kind sports league, Nerfball, with the first Nerfball tournament coming in summer 2023.
The company’s direct platform, anchored by Hasbro Pulse and D&D Beyond, is poised to become a $1b digital and eCommerce direct business and will host new exclusives including the recently launched Hasbro Selfie Series, Has-Lab crowdfunded products, the return of the iconic sports collectible, Starting Lineup, and the relaunch of Avalon Hill’s HeroScape gaming system.
