Shop Talk
Retailers, consumers and prices
Check Out Line: Cost cuts in toy land
Check out the quarterly profit from Mattel.
The world’s top toymaker posted a higher-than-expected quarterly profit but it wasn’t driven by consumers clamoring for its toys.
Instead, it cut costs to make up for a dearth of toys based on summer movies and the impact of foreign exchange.
Profit for Mattel, the owner of Hot Wheels and Barbie, rose to $21.5 million, or 6 cents a share, in the second quarter from $11.8 million, or 3 cents a share, a year earlier.
But sales fell 19 percent to $898.2 million. The impact of currency exchange rates accounted for 5 percentage points of the decline.
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