On Thursday 20 February, the same day as it announced its Q4 and full year 2024 results, Hasbro unveiled a new strategic plan, ‘Playing to Win’, to take the company through 2027. At the heart of Playing to Win is Hasbro’s mission to create joy and community through the magic of play. Through play-fuelled engagement and partner-scaled co-investment, Hasbro will seek to expand its reach from over 500 million kids, families, and fans today to over 750 million by 2027. Through 2027, it expects an average of mid-single digit revenue growth and 50-100 basis points of annual operating profit margin improvement. By 2026 Hasbro’s gross debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio is projected to stand at 2.5x. And by 2027 Hasbro’s operational excellence program is expected to deliver $1bn of gross cost savings, with approximately half dropping to the bottom line.
Chris Cocks, Hasbro’s CEO, said: “Play is a universal human need and a strong basis for a business that has the purpose to endure, as Hasbro has proved over the last 164 years. Playing to Win unlocks Hasbro’s strengths: a broad and deep brand portfolio rooted in play, an unmatched licensing business, and a profitable games business anchored by world-renowned franchises fans love like Magic: The Gathering, Monopoly, and Dungeons & Dragons. Our new strategy is grounded in the key insights which will drive Hasbro’s evolution into a modern play company: serving fans of all ages around the world at every price point, and meeting fans where they are playing, which is increasingly online.”
Gina Goetter, Hasbro’s CFO and COO, said: “Playing to Win focuses our teams on Hasbro’s core strengths while continuing to transform the organization and drive operational excellence. With this strategy, we expect to emerge as one of the most profitable toy and game companies globally, powered by a phenomenal set of diverse and multi-generational franchises.”
Playing to Win marks an important pivot for Hasbro: a return to growth. The strategy focuses Hasbro on what has always made the company great – Play and Partners. Play is the foundation for an incredible portfolio of brands, a library of thousands of marks spanning Hasbro’s 164-year history across ages, geographies and play patterns. Through partners, Hasbro has scaled to become the third largest entertainment licensor on the planet and the biggest in digital games, by far the fastest growing entertainment category of the last decade.
A focus on Play and Partnership has allowed Hasbro to exit non-core businesses like eOne film and TV and take out $600M of costs. Hasbro has merged with a stronger balance sheet and a stellar line-up of partners. This focus has allowed the company to lean into high profit, high growth areas like digital games where Hasbro’s brands have proven resonance and diversified digital revenue streams allow for self-funding. And upcoming partner collaborations span blockbuster movies, themed hotels, cruise ships, quick service restaurants, category expanding toy partnerships and AAA videogames.
Playing to Win includes five strategic building blocks:
- Profitable Franchises – Asserting the fundamentals of profitable, play-focused brands.
- Aging Up – Increasing the play and collectible appeal for fans aged 13 and above across Hasbro’s brands.
- Everyone Plays – Expanding reach in opportunity areas including girls and emerging markets.
- Digital & Direct – Building video games, services, and e-commerce capabilities.
- Partner Scaled – Driving profitable reach through outstanding retail and licensing partnerships.
Hasbro is introducing a new prioritisation matrix to assess brands, markets and channels that will drive internal clarity and resource allocation. Growth brands and channels with the highest growth and margin potential will receive higher incremental investment, including Magic and Play-Doh, emerging markets, and Hasbro’s self-published video game efforts. Opportunities with a lower growth or margin profile will see more targeted investments to grow share and optimize profitability.
Underlying these product and brand-focused strategies are a series of transformation initiatives to upgrade the company’s operations, systems, and talent. These initiatives include systems modernization, supply chain excellence, design acceleration, and AI and digital advancement. To deliver the future of play, Hasbro will build on t he culture of innovation and collaboration fostered over the past 164 years while creating a positive impact on the community and the environment.
