Star Wars and Frozen 2 Toys Helped Boost Hasbro Revenue

Disney’s Star Wars and Frozen 2 brands delivered for Hasbro in its fourth quarter of 2019. According to the company’s earnings call on Tuesday, its net revenues increased 3% to $1.43 billion compared to $1.39 billion in the fourth quarter of 2018. The company credits that increase to the demand for toys tied to the releases of two highly-anticipated Disney sequels, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and Frozen 2. In addition, The company also credits new products based on Marvel’s Avengers and Spider-Man with helping to increase growth. Hasbro saw strong performances from some of its own brands, including Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons., and the recently-purchased Power Rangers.

“The global Hasbro team delivered a good year and achieved key objectives we set for 2019. We profitably grew revenues across regions absent foreign exchange supported by the successful execution of our channel strategy; we delivered growth in Magic: The Gathering driven by the successful launch of Arena and we executed at a high level during the holiday season,” said Brian Goldner, Hasbro’s chairman and chief executive officer. “Our acquisition of Entertainment One accelerates our Brand Blueprint strategy and significantly expands our expertise and capabilities as a global play and entertainment company. Our teams are actively engaged to unlock value across our organization – in gaming, in toys, in consumer products and in entertainment.”

“Our teams worked extremely hard and executed at a high level this holiday, driving fourth quarter and full-year revenue and profit growth while also diversifying our supply chain and preparing to close a major acquisition,” said Deborah Thomas, Hasbro’s chief financial officer. “We are strongly positioned to continue investing in long-term drivers of the business, including brand innovation, gaming and entertainment, as we also focus on returning to our stated gross Debt to EBITDA target of 2.0 to 2.5X over the next 3 to 4 years.”

Hasbro’s vice president of investor relations Debbie Hancock also commented during the call on the impact of the coronavirus outbreak in China. ‘Our thoughts are with those impacted by the outbreak,” Hancock said. “There is disruption to our supply chain and commercial operations in China as travel is limited and employees and factory workers have been delayed in getting back to work. The impact this has made is small, but it is challenging to quantify the potential magnitude at this time as it will depend on how long it takes to contain the outbreak. If it takes a significant time to control, there could be a larger impact on our business.”