Mattel Inc. has reshuffled the duties of several top executives,
including naming a new head of its struggling Fisher-Price
division, as the toy maker seeks to end six quarters of slumping
sales.
Jean McKenzie, who leads Mattel's high-end American Girl doll
business, will add running Fisher-Price and the Thomas the Tank
Engine brand to her current role, according to a company memo.
Fisher-Price has badly underperformed in recent years, after
aggressive price increases and lackluster new offerings led to a
13% sales decline last year.
Tim Kilpin, recently president and chief commercial officer,
will run Mattel's Toy Box division, a unit created last year to
infuse an entrepreneurial approach into dozens of smaller
brands.
The appointments flesh out the management team under new Chief
Executive Christopher Sinclair and his top lieutenant, Richard
Dickson, as they try to fix the world's largest toy maker that lost
its way under former CEO Bryan Stockton, who was fired in
January.
The maker of Barbie dolls and Hot Wheels cars is working quickly
to recover from a three year stretch where top executives
acknowledged that a stifling corporate bureaucracy and excessive
meetings badly bogged down the company's creative drive. Toy
designers felt the pressure to focus on profits crimped their
ability to generate innovative toys, causing them to lose ground to
smaller toy brands.
Mattel's flailing performance was punctuated last holiday
season, when sales fell 5.6%, because of a weak lineup of toys and
a misplaced bet to stack marketing around the holidays instead of
spreading it throughout the year to build demand. Mr. Stockton was
let go soon after the poor results.
Mr. Sinclair, a longtime Mattel board member, took over as CEO
in April after serving in an interim capacity for several months.
He and Mr. Dickson are trying to move faster to develop new toys,
establishing partnerships with technology companies such as Google
Inc. and trying to improve execution at retail.
"I want to underscore that these new roles and leaders represent
the structure and management team that will execute our new
strategic priorities and guide Mattel's transformation going
forward," Mr. Dickson said in a recent memo announcing the
appointments.
Ms. McKenzie will implement Mr. Dickson's plan to reposition
Fisher-Price as child-development company, focusing more on helping
babies and toddlers develop skills rather than just
entertainment.
Mr. Kilpin is stepping out of his short-lived role overseeing
sales and marketing operations globally, a position he took up in
January. Those responsibilities will be split by Geoff Walker, the
previous head of Fisher-Price who will now lead sales and marketing
in the U.S. and Canada, and Gabriel Zalzman, who will be Mr.
Walker's counterpart in other international markets.
Several analysts had viewed Mr. Kilpin as a top candidate to
eventually inherit the top job until Mattel named Mr. Dickson
president and chief operating officer in April, giving him the
inside track to one day become CEO.
Write to Paul Ziobro at Paul.Ziobro@wsj.com
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