Sales at “Playmobil” toy manufacturer geobra Brandstätter (Zirndorf / Germany; www.playmobil.com) increased by 8% year-on-year to EUR 496m in 2008, with international sales accounting for 68% of the total. Sales of the core Playmobil brand increased 6% to EUR 452m from EUR 427m in 2007. Thirteen Playmobil products are included in the EuroToys index of the 50 best-selling toys, including an Egyptian pyramid introduced in 2008, which ranked ninth, and an advent calendar, which ranked second.

In Germany, sales slipped slightly to EUR 144.6m because retailers started the year with high stocks. France remained the company’s strongest export market, with sales up 17% year-on-year at EUR 118m. The Iberian Peninsula moved into fourth place among international markets with sales up 25%. Sales increased 15% in dollar terms on the US market, equating to only 7% in euros due to exchange rate fluctuations.

The company is cautiously optimistic about the outlook for 2009. Managing director Andrea Schauer predicted healthy single-digit percentage growth. Playmobil will be specifically targeting the Polish, Mexican and Scandinavian markets, where it expects to generate high growth rates. In 2008, the Mexican market improved 31% in local currency and 21% after translation into euros. In Scandinavia the company switched from a distributor to its own sales subsidiary last year.

The group has earmarked EUR 32m for investment in 2009. A large proportion – EUR 19.5m – will be spent on around 700 new moulds. A further EUR 11m is earmarked for new machinery including a production facility in Malta. As announced at the beginning of 2008, Playmobil has transferred some contract manufacturing back to its facility in Dietenhofen / Germany, although not on the scale originally planned. Globally, the workforce increased to 2,973 from 2,861. The introduction of a five-shift system in Dietenhofen created 100 new jobs.

Schauer said that the “Lechuza” brand of flowerpots is close to break-even. The business unit’s sales were slightly above budget at EUR 33m in 2008 (EUR 22m in 2007). It plans to raise sales by a further 20% to EUR 40m in 2009.

The latest catalogue of new toys presented at the Toy Fair in Nuremberg / Germany (www.spielwarenmesse.de) once again showcased a number of technical highlights. These included luminescent components such as a whale skeleton made from a specially developed polycarbonate that is safe for toys and food contact uses and a 25 cm dragon whose wings are coloured red and black using two-component sandwich injection moulding technology rather than coating.