After two years of weak sales, the manufacturer of the Playmobil toy brand is cutting 700 jobs worldwide, around half of them in Germany. The company is also planning layoffs.
The parent company behind the Playmobil toy brand wants to cut around 700 jobs internationally, including 370 in Germany. The Horst Brandstätter Group announced this today in Zirndorf near Nuremberg.
The job cuts affect 17 percent of the total workforce worldwide and 16 percent of the workforce in Germany, i.e. around one in six employees. “The company management decided this after completing a comprehensive investigation into all business areas and taking into account business developments and current economic challenges,” said a spokesman.
Economic Problems after Corona
The company cited a difficult economic situation as the reason for the job cuts. Both the toy brand Playmobil and the Lechuza brand for planters, which belongs to the group, continue to feel the effects of the corona pandemic.
According to the information, the Playmobil parent company had to accept losses in profits and sales in the past two financial years.
Mold making should be outsourced
Investments in the brands of the Horst Brandstätter Group are planned in the next few years in order to secure the future of the company and jobs, it said.
It was already announced on Friday that the Playmobil manufacturer wanted to outsource its mold making and cut 74 jobs. According to the company, mold making is no longer one of the company’s core competencies and has lost its importance.
Layoffs are also planned
Mold making is the technical term for the production of molds for plastic or metal parts. “In the future, molds will be required on a significantly smaller scale, so that an improved cost structure, but also more flexibility in development, will be urgently needed,” it said in a statement.
The company wants to try to keep employees in other areas. “However, it can be assumed that the workforce reduction will not be possible without layoffs.”