Geobra redundancies and outsourcing, restructuring Playmobil (Autumn 2023)

[Rasputin]

The scary thing is: This has actually been discussed. Even explored. But then the realization came that having a smaller figure that needs less material pretty much makes the precious archive of tens of thousands of molds useless too... as everything is out of scale with that figure.

My avatar is Rasputin for a reason  . Silly corporate leaders

It's the equivalent of a Naval Patrol Vessel throwing its cannons overboard as they are not a core competence of the ship, even though its mission is obviously to defend the waters.

Very good analogy, “overboard with all non essentials, including people”

Stay afloat Geobra

[Klickteryx]

They could produce more varied child figures. Smaller figure which is compatible with most things. They could even do a hobbit like range with hairy feet and facial hair but otherwise child klickys. There are ponies with saddles already which would work for horses for them.

[Oliver]

I still can't wrap my head around it. "Making moulds is not a core competence of Playmobil", geobra says. Do they think sales will drop that badly that they can 3d-print their products? Made to order? Or will all future "novelties" just be re-releases of older sets? I could live with a return of the 80s and 90s, but would the company survive it? What does this press announcement actually mean? The end of Playmobil?

I presume they will out-source it to a third party, which sounds exactly like the sort of thing a business consultant would tell them to do.

[playmofire]

I presume they will out-source it to a third party, which sounds exactly like the sort of thing a business consultant would tell them to do.

Yes, and it's the sort of thing businesses do without thinking things through.  Once you do this, you've lost control overt hat aspect of your business, especially if things go wrong you.  I remember when setting up new computer systems that was the route I followed - spec, hardware, software, installation all through one source.  It might be dearer than shopping around (but then again it might not), but if, say, the printers didn't work, then you just handed the problem to the single source so there was no toing and froing with the printer people blaming the software company and the software people blaming the printer people and so on.  Or, if there were, it wasn't me having to sort it.

[Rasputin]

Seems this is not an isolated situation
 

“Some factory owners in Germany, the EU's leading economy, have been forced to shut down due to increased operational costs. The Credit reform credit agency reported this month that it expects 18,100 German companies to file for insolvency this year, marking a 23.5% increase on 2022.”


Perhaps it’s not just bad management @ Geobra but higher up ….governmental mismanagement or even more sinister…. its  intentional

[playmofire]

Seems this is not an isolated situation
 

“Some factory owners in Germany, the EU's leading economy, have been forced to shut down due to increased operational costs. The Credit reform credit agency reported this month that it expects 18,100 German companies to file for insolvency this year, marking a 23.5% increase on 2022.”


Perhaps it’s not just bad management @ Geobra but higher up ….governmental mismanagement or even more sinister…. its  intentional

No, it's a world wide phenomenon due to inflation basically.

[Oliver]

Seems this is not an isolated situation
 

“Some factory owners in Germany, the EU's leading economy, have been forced to shut down due to increased operational costs. The Credit reform credit agency reported this month that it expects 18,100 German companies to file for insolvency this year, marking a 23.5% increase on 2022.”

I feel like there might be a bit of journalistic slight-of-hand here - I'd probably want to delve down into what classes as a 'company filing for insolvency' and how many of them are in manufacturing, and how this compares to long-term trends etc

Anyway, Spiegel are reporting they made a lose in 2023 (I don't know if they need to declare this publicly since it's a privately owned company)

https://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/unternehmen/playmobil-soll-erstmals-verluste-geschrieben-haben-a-bf7bb51a-c547-45ef-9692-1e48ce46e302?fbclid=IwAR3iY09RDYHludpCfERo_22IJJCswf34Nb1Nzw2rbQ7fr1d8MIVs7h0j

[Rasputin]

No, it's a world wide phenomenon due to inflation basically.

Maybe in “your world” but not in a global sense . Some places are doing just fine

[Basie10]

Sadly, the German economy is tanking. At the risk of getting political...losing access to Russian energy has been the killer.

[tigana123]

I just noticed that the Finish (Finland) pm site is closed (!!) and has the following message (https://cloud.email.playmobil.com/ShopUpdate-fi)

Attention PLAYMOBIL enthusiasts! We regret to inform you that the official PLAYMOBIL website and webshop are no longer available. However, we have exciting news for you! You can now find a wide range of PLAYMOBIL toys online at our trusted retailers.