A man who presents toys with shining eyes: Back in January, Bahri Kurter tried to present Playmobil as a company with a future and enthusiasm at the toy fair in Nuremberg. “We have started a revolutionary project that questions everything that has come before,” said the Playmobil boss at the time. By this he meant “Playmobil hi!”, a combination of classic Playmobil role-playing games and interactive audio experiences. The years of crisis should finally be a thing of the past. But it doesn't look like that at the moment.
Quite the opposite: a week and a half ago, Kurter resigned from his position after three and a half years at the helm. After the end of Playmobil production in Germany in the first half of the year, the mood could hardly be worse. In the 2024/25 financial year, sales of the Playmobil Horst Brandstätter Group fell by almost nine percent to 409 million euros. The group loss was 115 million euros. Since 2011, sales have fallen by 46 percent. Now 54-year-old Lars Wagner, as the new board member for marketing, sales and development, is supposed to ensure a turnaround from October 1st. But can Playmobil still be saved?
“A change in boss is an opportunity, but not yet a restructuring concept,” says Johannes Berentzen from the BBE trading consultancy. The traditional German brand does not have a recognition problem, but rather a relevance problem. “I can’t see who Playmobil’s target group should be at the moment,” he says. New products like “Playmobil hi!” or “Sky Trails”, a modular action building system, seem promising at first glance. In this existential crisis, however, it is more important to strengthen Playmobil through existing products, stories, partnerships and digital channels. Berentzen asks himself: What should Playmobil stand for today?
Unrest since the death of the founder
The company has been looking for an answer to this for many years. There has been unrest at the headquarters in Zirndorf, Franconia, since 2015. After the death of Playmobil founder Horst Brandstätter, the company became a double foundation, consisting of a corporate foundation and a charitable foundation. According to media reports, the fact that Marianne Albert, the patriarch's former secretary, took important positions in the foundations repeatedly caused friction with the operational Playmobil bosses. At times, this gave the impression that the company was more concerned with itself than with the question of how to get children excited about Playmobil.
While other manufacturers jumped into so-called licensing deals early on, in which, for example, Disney characters become toys for a fee, Playmobil stayed away from this for a long time. The company initially hardly supplied pure online retailers either. Only later did Playmobil open up more to licenses and sales over the Internet. Until 2021, the business figures gave no reason to question this strategy. That changed in the 2021/22 financial year, when the group had to cope with a decline in sales of four percent. The group's earnings before taxes (EBT) even shrank by 46 percent.
After sales fell again in the 2022/23 financial year, the group of companies decided to take tough cost-cutting measures. In October 2023, the Swiss announced that they would cut around 700 jobs internationally, more than half of them in Germany. The Horst Brandstätter Group justified this with the difficult economic situation and the effects of the corona pandemic. But from the perspective of some experts, this seemed like an excuse, after all, the toy industry was a big winner from the Covid crisis.
Further job cuts
In March 2023, Bahri Kurter took over the helm at Playmobil. However, there was no sign of a turnaround in the balance sheet. In the 2023/24 financial year, the group's sales fell by 16 percent, and earnings before taxes even fell by 76 percent. Since the previous cost-cutting measures were probably not enough, Playmobil took the red pencil again.
In February of this year, the group announced that it would stop producing toys in Germany. Playmobil now only produces in Malta and the Czech Republic. The employee side was surprised by this and therefore angry: “The fact that the works council found out about the planned site closure around 20 minutes before the official announcement, even though positive pictures of the future for the site had previously been drawn, can hardly be surpassed in terms of audacity,” criticized union secretary Maximilian Krippner at the time. The group cited increased production costs as the most important reason for the closure of the Dietenhofen location. 350 employees were affected by this savings plan.
Externally, the company always tried to ensure optimism. Playmobil highlighted a cooperation with the German Football Association and a new series of figures about the German national football team for the 2026 World Cup. A Bundesliga figure series of all clubs followed in September. Influencer marketing was also planned. Playmobil is now working with Mattel (Barbie, Monster High) and WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) to position the brand more strongly internationally and to set additional accents in the area of pop culture.
“Not every toy has to have a touchscreen”
The signs for this are actually not that bad. Björn Dahmen is an expert in the consumer goods sector at the management consultancy Simon-Kucher. “Globally, the toy market is growing significantly again,” he says. After a lull, the German market was also able to grow again in 2025, by three percent, according to data from Circana. However, Dahmen emphasizes that international and national market leader Lego is a major growth driver. And the fastest growing categories such as manga/anime are not those of Playmobil. “The toy industry is not an absolute boom market, but in the right niche double-digit growth figures are possible,” he says.
BBE consultant Berentzen sees great potential in the purely analog toy business: In an increasingly digital world, the analog play experience could once again be an important factor for Playmobil to stand out from the competition. Dahmen only partially agrees. Numerous manufacturers combine their classic toys with AI and app functions. This resonates with many children and young people. But: “Not every toy has to have a touchscreen to be attractive,” he says. In any case, what is important for Berentzen is a clear focus: “It’s no use trying out lots of new things but hardly implementing any one thing consistently.”
With Lars Wagner, Playmobil is now relying on an old friend. He was global board member for brand and product management at Playmobil from 2018 to 2021. He gained further experience in the industry as an interim manager for the toy manufacturer Schleich and as a consultant for brands such as Tonies and NICI. He also worked as head of marketing for Walt Disney. According to Berentzen, Wagner no longer has much time to get Playmobil back on the road to success: “Playmobil is at a crossroads,” he says. “The next Christmas business will be a test.”
