Mattel’s Sanjay Luthra told Toy World he was delighted with the results which were significantly ahead of Wall Street analysts’ expectations.
Mattel has released an exceptionally strong set of results, which cover both the fourth quarter and full year 2021. For the fourth quarter, Mattel’s Net Sales were up 10% as reported, while for the full year, Net Sales were up 19% as reported.
Strong sales came right across the globe, not just in the burgeoning domestic market: for the fourth quarter, Net Sales in North America increased 14% as reported, while Net Sales in the international market increased 9% as reported. For the full year, Net Sales in North America increased 22% as reported, while Net Sales in the International market increased 17% as reported.
In the International market, EMEA was the fastest growing region for Mattel. For the fourth quarter, Gross Billings increased 18%, with POS up Mid-Single Digits. For the full year, Gross Billings gained 20% with POS up Low Double Digits. In the NPD rankings, Mattel EMEA was the fastest growing manufacturer among the Top 5 for 2021. The company also attained strong recognition in the UK Toy Industry Awards for ’21, winning Supplier of the Year, while its ’21 flagship line, the Barbie Day to Night Dreamhouse, picked up the Toy of the Year award.
Ynon Kreiz, chairman and CEO of Mattel commented: “Mattel’s results for the quarter and full year came in well ahead of expectations, capping another exceptional performance for the company. We have made significant progress on our transformation strategy over the last few years, and our turnaround is now complete. We are in growth mode and believe we are well-positioned to continue our momentum, with 2022 guidance exceeding prior goals and an even stronger outlook for 2023.”
Talking exclusively to Toy World, Mattel managing director EMEA Sanjay Luthra admitted that he was delighted with both the results and the wider reception Mattel had in the EMEA market last year: “The ’21 results are testament to the hard work the whole Mattel team has put in over the past 18 months. The two prestigious Toy Industry Awards we won last year were very close to my heart, as were the NPD awards for Barbie (which was crowned top property of the year) and Hot Wheels.
“According to NPD, eight out of the top twenty top selling items in the UK last year were from Mattel. Product is king – we believe that if we innovate and deliver great product, everything else will follow. We’ve also invested heavily in demand creation, using a digital-first strategy. All of this is underpinned by building strong relationships with our retail partners; we put an immense amount of effort and investment into the supply chain last year, to make sure our retailers had all the stock they needed to have a good festive season – and that is reflected in our fourth quarter results. I’d like to thank all of our retail partners for supporting us by helping to make joint forecasting decisions ahead of time, which allowed us to take the important calls on stock. The work is already underway for this year, to make sure we continue with the momentum we’ve built up in recent years.”
