Deep pockets but no plan: the Horst Brandstätter Holding in 2021

[StJohn]

manager magazin is at it again! Thanks to JLMatterer for bringing up the reference in his column:

We learned at the beginning of the year that a new top manager had been recruited in 2020:

Wagner's job was taken over by Wolfgang Höger (55), a man who above all knows how to cut costs: Höger previous job was toys Procurement Officer at Kaufhof.

and now read that Höger is again leaving. Let me add a quick translation of the article in manager magazin:

Playmobil once again replaces key manager
Toy manufacturer Playmobil must once again replace a board member. Even six years after the death of the owner, employee turnover remains high, while returns have more than halved.
Toy manufacturer Playmobil is parting ways with board member Wolfgang Höger (56). The former toys Procurement Officer for the Kaufhof department stores' group had only taken over responsibility for brand and product management in March last year. Now Höger is leaving Playmobil at the turn of the year.
According to an internal memo obtained by manager magazin, fellow board member Roger Balser (58) will take over Höger's duties and thus at the same time assume overall responsibility for by far the most important business unit of the Horst Brandstätter Group, which in addition to Playmobil manufactures pots for plants under the Lechuza brand.
According to the letter, Höger is leaving for health reasons and will be available to the company in an advisory capacity in the future. Since the death of owner Horst Brandstätter more than six years ago, the company has been in a state of upheaval, with a high turnover on the management floors.
The outcome: the once highly profitable company is earning less and less money. According to the latest available balance sheet, turnover in the 2019/2020 financial year (to 31 March 2020) has fallen by 4.5 per cent to 687 million euros, while earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) have slumped by 30.3 per cent to 65.6 million euros. This means that the return on sales is now only 9 per cent; under Brandstätter, Playmobil still generated 22 per cent.

So, the profit trend hasn't changed since earlier this year, certainly not upward. It is interesting to contrast this gloomy report with the much more upbeat feel that has taken hold of the adult collector community over the same period. I imagine that the flood of new releases (Asterix!) and re-releases (Victorian!) that has captivated us can be accredited to Wolfgang Höger amongst others, and hope that they will translate in better results from 2021.

[Tiermann]

One of the things to always keep in mind with Playmobil is development lag. It typically takes them 2 to 3 years to bring a set from concept to release I believe. So changes this last guy may have started may not show up for another year or two.

[collectobart]

One of the things to always keep in mind with Playmobil is development lag. It typically takes them 2 to 3 years to bring a set from concept to release I believe. So changes this last guy may have started may not show up for another year or two.

That was so, but these days development times have been cut ridiculously short. In january 2021 many of the 2022 fall novelties were not even IN development. This guy was behind Ayuma and Dino Rise, it were the two things he pushed through right when the corona pandemic kicked in in April 2020. And also Duck on Call came in even later under his supervision.

Thats also the reason i did not want to stay, for Novelmore we really needed these 2-3 years to really work it up conceptually and develop it so it could spin off as a series or comic books consistently, you just can't build a franchise worthy project in 6-8 months development time.

[collectobart]

So, the profit trend hasn't changed since earlier this year, certainly not upward. It is interesting to contrast this gloomy report with the much more upbeat feel that has taken hold of the adult collector community over the same period. I imagine that the flood of new releases (Asterix!) and re-releases (Victorian!) that has captivated us can be accredited to Wolfgang Höger amongst others, and hope that they will translate in better results from 2021.

Asterix was already in motion before Höger as far as i know, it just took a long time to get negotiated on the licensing end.

The thing is, this guy lead a corporate restructuring and assortment overhaul at the same time, of which the effects are already visible:

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=playmobil

That is the current interest in PLAYMOBIL, compared over the last 5 years.

In his defence, he also was only executing goals set by the oversight board and the CEO.

[StJohn]

I was curious for your take on things, collectobart. Many thanks (and merry Christmas).

That's a really interesting graphic with four massive Xmas peaks:



"Interest" [what is that? Google queries?] seems quite steady until now. I hope the results for this festive month are provisional and will improve upward - this year's season isn't over yet. If not, the trend isn't promising.

[collectobart]

"Interest" in this case is indeed google query's and responses to ads perhaps too, not sure about that last bit.

But normally the highpoint of searches is around last week of November, this google query is till today, so "the season peak" is already over.

it's a dramatic downfall.

[playmofire]

In Thursday's copy of the i newspaper, it was reported that a Royal Mail analysis of letters sent to Father Christmas, the top three toys in order were

Playmobil.

Mattel's Barbie Dream House

and Lego

[ZooKeeper]

"Interest" in this case is indeed google query's and responses to ads perhaps too, not sure about that last bit.

But normally the highpoint of searches is around last week of November, this google query is till today, so "the season peak" is already over.

it's a dramatic downfall.

Without questioning that geobra is struggling in a complex downward spiral for various reasons, google trends don't seem to be the most trustworthy indicator these days as the graph for "lego", "barbie" or "nintendo" shows a similar picture with a noticeable low for christmas 21. Maybe some pandemic-related change of behavior or consequence of the latest core update for the search algorithm this november.

[collectobart]

Without questioning that geobra is struggling in a complex downward spiral for various reasons, google trends don't seem to be the most trustworthy indicator these days as the graph for "lego", "barbie" or "nintendo" shows a similar picture with a noticeable low for christmas 21. Maybe some pandemic-related change of behavior or consequence of the latest core update for the search algorithm this november.

Yes, i noticed this too, the diminished Christmas spike seem to occur for all toy brands, yet there is no clear "algorithm" drop to be noticed that could declare this, as all year over year baselines have stayed the same. I bet it's mostly pandemic and economy related.

But still very bad news for PLAYMOBIL: With Legos baseline at 50% in relation to their peaking point, and PLAYMOBIL having its baseline only at a marginal 25% of its last seasonal peak, PLAYMOBIL needs the holiday season much much more, as its baseline sales ratio is much less than Lego during the rest of the year.