Hasbro (NASDAQ:HAS) Inc, the firm behind Monopoly, Play-Doh and Transformers action figures is laying off 1,100 employees as poor sales dragged into the holiday trading season.
The toymaker will axe its workforce by almost a fifth, having already cut 800 jobs earlier this year, just two weeks after before Christmas, in a decision it described as “a last resort”.
Chief Executive Chris Cooks disclosed the news in an email to staff, widely reported, in which he said the move was a “lever we must pull to keep Hasbro (NASDAQ:HAS) healthy” after challenges it endured in the first three quarters of 2023 continued in the fourth.
The company is also braced for these “headwinds” to persist in 2024.
“While we’re confident in the future of Hasbro, the current environment demands that we do more, even if these choices are some of the hardest we have to make,” Cooks wrote in the email.
His message was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.