For the second time this year, Hasbro has announced a price increase on popular toy lines citing “rising costs of production.” This is a rather lame excuse considering that at the same time they announced a 13% profit to the tune of over ¾ of a billion dollars. And eight fold increase over last year.
According to Hasbro, the so-called profit was largely due to the completion of a financial obligation to Lucasfilm having to do with the Star Wars toy line and also thanks to the success of merchandising from such film properties as “Indiana Jones” and the upcoming animated “Star Wars The Clone Wars” film distributed by Warner Brothers, while sales to such properties as “Transformers” fell.
Other properties that have added to the bottom line include girls’ toys like Littlest Pet Shop and My Little Pony which rose 24 percent, toodler toy lines like Playskool, and Nerf sports toys which have risen nearly 30 percent thanks to its recent Nerf Toy Gun line which seems to be enjoying brisk sales. Game properties like Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit and Twister have also risen to the tune of over 10 percent.
But Hasbro also cites higher royalty costs for “Star Wars” and “Iron Man” products, the higher cost of plastic and shipping, as well as investments in distribution in emerging Eastern European and Russian.
The price hike, which is expected to be “a mid single digit percentage” will go into effect in September, just in time for the holiday shopping season.
Hat Tip: Toy Bender