Mattel lays off 107 workers
Toy maker Mattel Inc. has laid off 107 employees at its El Segundo headquarters, a few months after its chief executive abruptly resigned following a disappointing holiday season.
Mattel spokesman Alex Clark said the layoffs were spread across corporation functions and were not concentrated in a single department. The company employs about 29,000 people worldwide, including about 2,000 in El Segundo.
“We determined that these reductions were necessary to ensure that our workforce is aligned with our business goals and objectives,” he wrote in an email.
Mattel has been experiencing a rough year.
In its fourth quarter, which spans the holiday season, the company suffered its fifth consecutive quarterly sales drop. Mainstays such as Barbie and the toddler and infant line Fisher-Price both reported declines.
It also lost the doll licenses to Disney’s princess brands, including the blockbuster Frozen, to rival Hasbro starting next year. Frozen has been a boon for Mattel, and losing it will be a big loss, analysts said. But a person familiar with the company said the layoffs were not directly related to the Disney licenses.
In January, shortly after Bryan Stockton quit as CEO, new Chairman Christopher Sinclair said Mattel “created” its own problems, including a failure to boost its own brands and a lack of innovation.
On Thursday, Mattel gave Sinclair, 64, the chief executive job, a role he had been filling on an interim basis.
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