"The headwinds we saw through the first nine months of the year have continued into Holiday and are likely to persist into 2024," Cocks said by way of explanation.
Hasbro has indeed been facing headwinds, with sales declines and losses in all three quarters this year, most recently in Q3, when it lost $171.1 million (see "Down Quarter for Hasbro"). The company has lost $428.2 million this year.
Notifications began before the announcement, and will continue over the next year, Cocks said in the email memo. Specific areas he mentioned included "standardizing processes within Finance, HR, IT and Consumer Care as part of our Global Business Enablement project, but it also means doing more work across the entire business to minimize management layers and create a nimbler organization."
Cocks did note that they would be "…strengthening our leading franchises." That’s good news for Wizards of the Coast employees, as Hasbro’s Wizards of the Coast and Digital segment has been contributing big sales and operating profits this year, as the rest of the company, specifically Consumer Products and Entertainment, floundered. But with cuts of this size, it’s likely that every area of the company will be affected in some way.
The new steps Hasbro is taking are expected to save roughly $100 million in annual expense reductions, at a cost of $40 million in additional severance costs, the company said in a filing.