Low Q4 Hasbro Sales

[juxtapose519]

Just finished reading this article:

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-...17-714041.html

I'm not sure why Hasbro posted low numbers last quarter, but I do know that I intended to buy lots of Transformers this holiday season only to find TRU and Walmart shelves barren. I'm not sure if the US was in a similar situation, but I can't imagine it looked too different.

So who's to blame? Normally when retailers show less interest in stocking products, it means that consumers aren't buying them. Except this time it seems like the reason people weren't buying them is because they weren't on the shelves to begin with.

So who is the chicken here and who is the egg? Is it Hasbro not creating enough supply to fill the demand, or are the retailers not buying because they're getting shelf warmers? Whose fault is it that lines like Prime and Generations were snapped up off shelves before people knew they were there, and the movie stuff sat there for months taking up space? Is it just bad market research? WHY HASBRO?

Sorry for the TL;DR. This just confounds me.

[Goaliebot]

Indeed. Here in Canada, I've never seen such poor stock at so many retailers. Are Wally and all not ordering, or is Hasbro not fulfilling orders? That's the Q. But something was definitely "off" this year. I can't help but think that full shelves of TF Prime toys at WalMart would have sold very well.

[joshimus]

Lets not forget Hasbro never shipped their orders for TRU when that big boxing day sale came around. No new Prime toys and not even new DOTM toys. It really was bare this past holiday season.

[Oreobuilder]

I'm not a WSJ subscriber, so I couldn't see the whole article, but CBC also has a piece out about Hasbro: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505245_1...k-disappoints/

It seems that revenues were up from $1.28 billion to $1.33 billion, but that was lower than market analysts were hoping for ($1.39 billion). I wouldn't call those ''low numbers'' and it's not like revenue went down.

OB

[Alexander Quinn]

For blame, I'm eying the surplus of DOTM retail exclusives. There are so many repainted Exclusives out there that nearly every store I go to is packed with them. They might as well be a separate toy line at this point. While certain figures might be selling well, the glut of these figures just sitting on shelves is blocking up new incoming shipments. They're like bad cholesterol in plastic form. I would assume that companies like Wal-Mart have some BS ordering system that tracks product as a whole, and when they see that most stores still have cases upon cases of race-car themed Bumblebee and Sideswipe, and cases upon cases of Deluxe Class Primes they don't bother ordering in poor DOTM Deluxe wave 5. Doesn't matter to them that this is new product that they might be able to sell, cause they just see that their shelves are packed with old crap that they ordered way too much of and that Hasbro produced way too much of. Maybe it's just my area, but I think that this was a huge problem this passed year. TRU can't order more Prime figures in cause they have six pegs of Scan Series Ironhide that didn't sell at $6. Zellers can't get the last few waves of generations figure in cause they have pegs full of weird semi-transparent BBs, Arcees and Jazzes. Much as I use to like the idea of Store Exclusives, I sort of hope that Hasbro severely cuts back on them for 2012.

[joshimus]

If Hasbro wants to do exclusives, they should stick to ONE figure exclusive per store. Walmart having so many different shelfwarmers then TRU having their multiple shelf warmers and Zellers doing the same, doesn't do any good. Now having it down to ONE solid figure per store means 6 pointless repaints dont have to exist.
I do like the Walmart Deluxe prime but they didn't need it twice. The other repaints TRU and Zellers had I cared nothing for.

[CyberMnky]

Pretty much my thinking - no new stuff = fewer sales = lower profit.

[Transbot90210]

In defence of TF Prime. Walmart never carried Prime figures and did you try getting a Prime figure in Canada durin gthe holidays? Unless you were a fierce hunter you would most likley only find BB and SS.

I blame it all on the DOTM toys. I saw the same figures of the shelf since September and the stock really didn't drop. Generation and Prime toys pretty much sold out. The only ones that stayed on the shelf are the Walmart restock from a few waves back.

[Hylo]

Dark of the Moon is to blame, like every other TF movie toy since 2007 all these flunkies do is clog the shelves and NOT sell.

You would think Hasbro would have clued into that after the first two movies and their massive failing products that look like BUGFORMERS.

Their TF sales will pick up when they start making REAL TFs again.

[sikkbones]

costco's exclusive was the best way to have done an exclusive with DOTM, it was in a place not everyone had access too.. with something that didnt ruin the original figure... and it was packed in with a shelfwarmer that had how many variant and alternate figures in the regular line?

ultimate?
fire axe whatever it was?
exclusive walmart deluxe?

have I missed any of the other DOTM primes? i'm sure there's about 7.