Mattel has announced its fourth quarter and full year results, which saw the company produce its best numbers since 2017.
Ynon Kreiz
Ynon Kreiz, chairman and CEO, hailed Q4, 2020 as a ‘banner quarter’ for the company, and said he could not be more proud of the Mattel global team.
Mattel has posted its results covering the fourth quarter and full year 2020, and both periods saw the company grow, despite the global trading challenges presented by Covid-19. Sales increased by 2% last year to exceed $4.5b, while the last three months of the year saw an increase of 10%. Profits increased too; a $200m loss from 2019 was reversed, as profits in 2020 reached $126.6m.
Here in EMEA, the year-on-year growth rate was 12% in constant currency, while there were also double-digit gains for Mattel in North America, representing a particularly strong performance in the company’s two largest markets.
Mattel also managed to outpace the industry in Q4 2020, while it grew approximately five times faster than the industry for the full year, according to NPD’s Group Retail Tracking Service.
The stellar performance of Barbie – which rose by 16% to $1.35b last year, the brand’s strongest performance since 2014 – will naturally be the focus of many of the headlines, but numerous other ranges also had a strong year, including Hot Wheels and Games.
Ynon Kreiz, chairman and CEO of Mattel, commented: “This was a banner quarter for the company with our best performance in years. In the midst of a pandemic and very challenging market conditions, our results exceeded expectations, with another major upswing in topline and a significant increase in profitability, as we gained global market share and continued to transform Mattel into an IP-driven, high performing toy company. The fourth quarter and full year demonstrated the resilience of the toy industry and the priority that parents place on quality toys, trusted brands and purposeful play.
Barbie will be the focus of many headlines, but Hot Wheels and Mattel’s Games range also put in strong performances.
“Our momentum was driven by the quality and breadth of our product offering, enduring strength of our brands, highly efficient supply chain, world-class commercial capabilities and very effective demand creation, in close collaboration with our retail partners,” he continued. “The continuous improvement in our performance puts us in a strong position from which we believe we can accelerate our growth. I could not be more proud of the entire Mattel global team for having stepped up in an extremely tumultuous year to support our consumers, customers, business partners and communities where we live and work.”
It has also been announced that Mattel will be implementing a new ‘Optimising for Growth’ programme to optimise operations and drive greater productivity to accelerate growth, while further reducing its cost base. This new programme is expected to deliver $250m of incremental cost savings by 2023. Mattel estimates the costs and investments to implement the programme to be between $100-$125m.
