Company Profile - Mattel

Mattel - standing the test of time

It’s a big year for Mattel, which celebrates its landmark 80th anniversary throughout 2025, and the company has certainly kicked off the celebrations with a bang, unveiling respectable full-year financial results in January which have set it up for another 12 months of expansion and excitement. Toy World catches up with Michael Hick, vice president - UK & Ireland, Benelux & Nordics, and Kelly Philp, head of Marketing UK, to find out what’s in store.

Despite the year throwing a few curveballs, Mattel navigated 2024 with relative ease and emerged with a decent set of results, largely thanks to its evergreen portfolio of globally beloved brands. Its fourth quarter performance, which saw it finish +2% in Q4 Net Sales versus 2023, helped Mattel gain momentum towards the end of the year and springboard into 2025, a year which offers even more to celebrate.

“2024 was a year of operational excellence for Mattel,” Michael enthuses, detailing how the company ended 2024 with the No. 1 brand in Dolls, Vehicles and Infant & PreSchool (Barbie, Hot Wheels and Fisher Price, respectively) once again. “According to Circana, Hot Wheels was the fastest growing of the Top 15 properties, and we’ve grown share outside of our power brands with the likes of Uno. We also have top items such as the Barbie Dreamhouse and Hot Wheels singles. We had a good end to the year, and 2025 is off to a strong start. It’s not a bad way to enter our 80th anniversary year.”

The company showcased its 2025 range at Spielwarenmesse in Nuremberg at the end of January, using the international trade fair to kickstart the anniversary celebrations. The Press Tour that took place on the opening day included a special Q&A session on Mattel’s past, present and future, followed by the cutting of a magnificent red and white cake topped by a tower of red macarons. Mattel’s vast stand was overflowing with launches that left visitors in no doubt about its ability to identify product trends and consumer demands and turn them into first-class toys and games, including the new Ruby Collection created in honour of its milestone birthday.

“Mattel is a toy company that has stood the test of time,” explains Kelly. “Within our portfolio we have a number of brands that themselves have celebrated major anniversaries recently, such as Barbie, which turned 65 last year. Sometimes it’s easy to forget Barbie’s incredible heritage and history – especially given the success of the Barbie movie - but we’re celebrating her even more this year with our Limitless campaign, which will pulse throughout 2025. In addition, our recently announced Red line Collection rolls out across all Mattel IP and will be positioned front and centre. This range leans heavily on our primary brand colour and also reintroduces eclectic lines from our back-catalogue, making it perfect for our most ardent fans and collectors, alongside current favourites such as Hot Wheels and Fisher Price. It’s a clear example of how Mattel continues to leverage its heritage, to innovate and to showcase the entrepreneurial spirit that has persisted ever since the company first started out – in a garage, let’s not forget – back in 1944.”

Kelly adds: “Throughout Mattel’s long history, we’ve never taken for granted that the retail and consumer landscape is constantly evolving, but we’ve continued to evolve with it by pushing the boundaries of what’s possible and leading from the front in terms of product development. That, and some great IP, is what’s needed to achieve 80 years in business.”

Mattel has an undeniably broad, impressive portfolio. Not only does this help the company ride out the tougher periods but it also caters to all sizes of retailer, across all formats. Michael says that far from putting all its eggs in one basket, Mattel actively works towards brand representation across all retail channels while making sure each partner is able to offer a point of difference to its customers.

One of the biggest talking points of Spielwarenmesse was Mattel’s new construction brand, Brick Shop. Toy World was lucky enough to be granted access to the secret preview room on the company’s stand, and we were deeply impressed by what we saw… though, revved up as we are to tell you about it, we must keep schtum for the time being. What we can share is that Michael and Kelly are obviously very excited about what’s to come. They say Brick Shop brings a “new dimension” to the Construction category. Mattel already enjoys success in Construction thanks to its Mega brand, but clearly feels it has the scope to become a much bigger player, especially at a time when it seems that consumers –particularly Kidults – simply can’t get enough of brick and block stuff.

This year’s packed movie slate is also shaping up to be a boon for Mattel, a leading licensee for some of the biggest film and gaming studios in the world. The SAG-AFTRA strikes pushed many movie release dates back from 2024, which last year was a hindrance to many, but it does mean that there’s a veritable smorgasbord of movies and licensed consumer products to get stuck into this year. And stuck in Mattel has got, with launches coming through for Disney Snow White (March), Minecraft (Easter), Superman and Jurassic World: Rebirth (summer) and Wicked Part 2 (November) following on from those for Moana 2 and Wicked Part 1 at the end of 2024, both of which should continue to perform well this year.

The recently crowned Global Top Selling Toy of the Year, Hot Wheels, is on a roll. The brand is set to welcome new ranges including the Formula 1 2025 product line-up and a full range of Ferrari products, marking the first time in 10 years that the die cast brand has been adorned with the iconic prancing horse. While both kids and collectors alike love Hot Wheels, it has become an icon in both automotive and pop culture thanks to live events such as the Hot Wheels Legends Tour, Hot Wheels Superchargers action sports events, and branded amusement park attractions, as well as partnerships with the hottest automotive, fashion and lifestyle brands. Mattel will be focusing on its youngest enthusiasts this year with all-new track and play sets such as the new City T-Rex Fire Station, as well as its avid collectors with its Premium Diecast ranges. The brand’s flagship event, the Hot Wheels Legends Tour, will be getting even bigger for 2025 too.

Elsewhere in licensing, Mattel has also unveiled an all-new Fisher-Price Barney toy line comprising plush, interactive figures and creative role-play sets, launching in autumn. Kelly says the reinvigorated Barney range will inject a burst of much-needed freshness into the category.

A ‘sleeping giant’ within Mattel’s portfolio, Uno is also going from strength to strength. Gaming audiences continue to grow and diversify across Gen Z, millennials and family groups, which the company says is reflected in the Uno brand itself. Recent additions include 2024 DreamToys winner Uno Show 'em No Mercy, the most brutal edition of Uno ever, which has invited new players to discover the game and resulted in hilarious social media content. Throughout the rest of this year and into 2026, further launches will continue to attract new players from all walks of life, with retail activations in development to keep the game front-of-mind with purchasers.

“As always, our relationships with our retail and licensing partners are the bedrock of our business,” Michael tells us. “My team really does explore every way to unlock opportunities, and this year you’re going to see us invest even more heavily in retail; we want to help grow every single channel. Our 2025 strategy includes omnichannel demand creation and in-store initiatives, including investments in the toy specialists and indies that sell toys 365-days a year.”

He adds: “We’re also developing programmes across the board, for all channels and all retailers, with the ‘shopper mission’ at their heart. Much depends on the size of the shop as well as its location; there can be a big difference between an indie on a high street, an indie in a shopping centre and an indie in a retail park, and this ultimately has an effect on the shopper mission. If you’re a big-box indie with parking right outside (meaning customers don’t have to lug a Dreamhouse all the way back through town to their car) then higher price points will be more relevant to you, and we’ll work with you to provide a point of difference at that end of the market and to convey that message to shoppers. But if you’re on the high street, and maybe the nearest customer parking is the town multi-storey, then it’s more likely you’ll be strongest at the sub-£30 end of the spectrum. Throughout this year, we’ll be running a raft of retail events designed to help show Mattel retail partners of all sizes just how important they are to us – and of course, there will be a huge assortment of product for retail buyers to choose from too, across all price points.”

There’s clearly much to come from Mattel and Michael is optimistic for the year ahead, with several key business drivers, both in its own category IP and product tied to robust and toyetic theatrical film slate, still to come. The company expects continued momentum in its Vehicles and Games categories, following Hot Wheels’ seventh consecutive year of growth in 2024 and Uno’s highest year on record. In Dolls, the company looks forward to product lines tied to Disney’s Snow White live-action release and the second Wicked movie, as well as improving trends in Barbie. In addition, the global expansion of WWE, Jurassic World and Minecraft theatrical are exciting high points. The company also is looking ahead to 2026, when it will launch product lines for DC, following the announcement of a new multi-year agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery Consumer Products for the iconic superhero portfolio.

In closing, Michael was keen to emphasise the enduring strength of the toy industry. “We believe in the Toy industry's fundamentals and that it will return to growth and continue to grow over the long term,” he states. “Whatever happens in 2025, major manufacturers have a role to play in helping retailers navigate what is undoubtedly going to be a tricky period for many by pushing consumers towards its partners and, in doing so, increasing store traffic. Throughout its eight decades in business, this is something Mattel has always strived to do.”

Michael adds: “Even in the toughest of years, Mattel has never cut back on its retail and demand creation support. We owe it to our partners to be there, to back them and to invest in their success, and in this – our momentous 80th year – we’ll be honouring our heritage and our roots by delivering on that promise more than ever before.”