Name: Hasbro CEO: Power Rangers Partnership Will Be a 'Game Changer'
Uploaded: 2018-02-21
Duration: 5 min 19 s
Description: Brian Goldner has successfully added another major brand to Hasbro's already impressive stable.

So, Brian here we are at a toy fair and you surprise everyone announcing that Power Rangers is switching over to Hasbro, it's breaking off its longterm partnership with Bandai the Japanese toy company. How much of a game changer is this for Hasbro? Of course it is. I think it's really a big game changer for us because it's a very young skewing brand. So that youngest consumer really loves that story, the fun kitchen, the humor that comes along with that action adventure of Power Rangers. It always has wonderful messages for kids. And then today, there are all these kids who are now adults who are fans of the brand and we think there's a great opportunity in that fan economy To talk to the ower Ranger fun and give them products they are looking for. And is this gonna be a money maker for Hasbro? Can you give us some idea of future revenues down the road? Well, it's certainly a money maker for us. That's the only reason we would invest in a property like this in partnership with [ UNKNOWN ]. But of course, we don't size specific brands, we don't give specific brands size. But what I will tell you is, we think this brand could be far bigger in our hands over time than it's been in the past. What about Solo, the next toy in the Star Wars sequence? What are you expecting from that? We love Han Solo. I mean, Han Solo is one of the best- known characters in any entertainment universe. What I'm particularly excited about there is our For Real Friends Chewbacca. So totally interactive and animatronic Chewbacca, People really love it who've played with it. It's gotten a great response from our retailers, and I think that could be one of the hot sellers. Well we know that the toys that came out from the movie The Last Jedi didn't do as well as you expected. How are you changing things up for 2018 with Solo? It was a matter of the way it was merchandised around the holidays. Probably too much time from the date we started merchandising to the film time. So as we go forward, we're shortening the windows between when the product gets merchandised, and those movie windows. So for Han Solo, we'll merchandise the product in April and the movie comes out in May. And I think that'll be more the pattern as we go forward. I know you have big deals with the Hollywood studios like with Paramount Pictures and with Disney, but I thought it was interesting that you announced That you're partnering up with Netflix to come out with toys around Super Monsters, that you're gonna launch. How important is this Netflix arrangement, given that kids and adults just aren't going to the movies the way they used to? Of course. Peoples viewing habits have substantially. We wanna be able to give people fun, engaging stories on every screen. In every way that they're consuming content. And so Netflix, and Amazon, and others represent tremendous opportunities for us. Brian, I don't have to tell you about all the changes that are going on in the toy industry. Amazon is becoming so popular. More people are shopping online. And of course the bankruptcy of Toys R Us. What impact is this having on [ UNKNOWN ]? And How are you dealing with all this differently? Well, of course, we've built a great ecommerce expertise and we have a team that we've launched that focuses on ecommerence and the growth of channels globally, so a global team for us. We've built a bigger retail network and a bigger retail footprint than we've ever had. We go to more different kinds of stores around the world than we ever have. And in fact one of our top ten retailers now is one of the big department store type retailers in Russia. So we're really looking at the business differently. Going to, of course, mass market but of food and drug In club stores, at discount stores, and dollar stores, we're doing that all around the world. So we think that there is some near term disruption that happens in the business. We clearly believe that in the first two quarters of the year that they'll be some impact from Toys" R" Us. But as we go forward in the third and fourth quarter and into the future, we belive we have the right retail strategy and we can really Sustain our business and grow it over time. Well come back a little bit more to this Toys" R" Us, I get what you're saying, maybe short term, it's not so bad. But what is your plan B, long term, because Hasbro relies on Toys" R" Us for a lot of its business. We wanna continue to work with Toys" R" Us, But we also wanna mitigate our risk and make sure that we have the right amount of inventory with them, so that we can absolutely be a very successful growing company with a shrinking [ UNKNOWN ]. Let's talk a little bit about Mattel and Hasbro have had this on again, off again relationship when it comes to merger talks reportedly. They're back on again. What can you tell us about the talks between Mattel and Hasbro? Where do things stand? We would never comment on any rumor or speculation. What I'll tell you is first and foremost, we're investing in our business. We continue to focus on investing on our brands. Our return on invested capital is Been strong, and continues to strengthen, and so that's been our focus. And, again, I couldn't comment on any rumors. Do you think that Hasbro benefit by doing some kind of significant acquisition to build on your new standing as the world's largest toy company? We take nothing for granted. We're always open to looking at new ideas, and to look at ways to evolve and transform our company. We, every day, believe our north star Is all about the building the value of our brands. And about reinventing and reigniting, and reimagining our company for the future, continuing to evolve, always about the next point of departure. Onboarding new capabilities, doing new things, and profitably experimenting everywhere we can. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

Brian Goldner has successfully added another major brand to Hasbro's already impressive stable.