Like its competitor Hasbro (Pawtucket, Rhode Island / USA; www.hasbro.com), toy industry heavyweight Mattel (El Segundo, California / USA; www.mattel.com) is also suffering from the insolvency of retail company Toys"R"Us (Wayne, New Jersey / USA; www.toysrus.com).

Mattel's sales in the third quarter were USD 1.56 bn, down 13% from the prior-year quarter. The toy manufacturer recorded a loss of USD 603m, compared with a net income of USD 236m in the prior-year quarter. "Our Q3 performance was clearly disappointing, led by compression in North America driven by Toys"R"Us filing for bankruptcy, tighter retailer inventory management and challenges with certain underperforming brands," said Margo Georgiadis, CEO of Mattel. She did not reveal which brands these are.

Just a few days earlier, Hasbro had announced third quarter results. The manufacturer of "Star Wars" and other toys increased sales by 7% year-on-year to USD 1.79 bn. Net profit rose by 3% to USD 265.6m. However, with respect to Toys"R"Us, the company warned of possibly disappointing Christmas business and declining sales.

Toys"R"Us had filed for bankruptcy in the US and Canada in September 2017 as fewer customers are coming into shops, mostly because of the growing competition from online stores such as Amazon. Toys"R"Us' European business was not affected by the insolvency.

Earlier in September, Lego (Billund / Denmark; www.lego.com) said it plans to cut 1,400 jobs in view of declining sales and profits (see Plasteurope.com of 07.09.2017). Apparently, it is also becoming increasingly difficult for manufacturers of traditional toys to market products to "Generation Z", which has an affinity for online games.

Mattel was founded in 1945 and is one of the largest toy makers in the world. Its strongly plastic-oriented brands include "Barbie", "Fisher-Price" and "Matchbox".